Each International Women’s Day we celebrate the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women, but progress can’t be celebrated without acknowledging the road ahead. Today LunaJoy’s launch turns our focus to women’s mental health.
The good: “The silver lining of the past two years is that we have gained tremendous flexibility and insight around our previously narrow definition of work schedules, location, and environment,” LunaJoy cofounder Dr. Sipra Laddha told Forbes.
The bad: “Women are 2x as likely to experience mental health challenges and COVID has only accelerated this,” Laddha shared. Reasons may be tied to how women have disproportionally had their work/life balance impacted. For example, 42% of women in tech took on more housework versus 11% of men.
Beyond COVID's timeline, women, in general, are 3x more likely to experience sexual, physical, emotional trauma — a predictor for mental illness. Physiologically, women are also vulnerable to mental health issues during times of transition and hormonal fluctuation, such as during puberty or pregnancy.
With 15 combined years of experience as board-certified psychiatrists, Laddha and her cofounder, Dr. Shama Rathi, took notice of how mental health challenges have impacted women disproportionately. They also found that women-first therapy was hard to come by and expensive.
So they founded a digital mental health clinic for women called LunaJoy (YC W22). LunaJoy delivers affordable (in-network) counseling and therapy, medication management, and genetic testing. Women start by filling out a short form, noting anything they’re experiencing. They’ll get matched with a counselor in about 24 hours, and will meet with them 1:1 virtually.
Since LunaJoy is currently serving 14 US states, we rounded up a few more support networks for women everywhere.
- Elpha launched Talent Pool to connect you with companies that match your cultural values and skills
- leap.club is a professional network that helps women build their social-professional networks through 1:1 connections and micro-communities
- Diem is a knowledge-sharing platform and digital safe space built for women and non-binary people
Google is expanding its Project Shield service to provide government websites unlimited protection against DDoS attacks, a type of digital attack used to censor information by taking websites offline.
The Ukraine government, global embassies, and other countries are now eligible.
-
Give your plants some TLC with Plant Care, which identifies your plants from images and reminds you when and how to water them.
-
We’re looking for new ambassadors for our third cohort! Read about what it means to represent Product Hunt and apply here.
-
Mixtape lets you live your DJ fantasies. Create an event, connect your Spotify, and let your friends fill the queue.
-
A Kids Book About War helps explain what war is, why wars start, and what happens after a war.