This is the revolution.
Written by
Arva Health Team
12-Nov-2023
For far too long, women's health has been an afterthought. We've been overlooked, spoken over, marginalised, belittled, underestimated, forgotten and even erased from history.
This time, we don't intend to be left out – starting with the accounting of the female body.
As women, we've been conditioned to downplay our discomforts and been told time after time to "just deal with it." This deep-seated issue is woven into the very fabric of our societal norms and personal identities. It's more than frustrating—it's infuriating—that 30 years later, we're still scrambling to bridge gaps that should not exist.
The urgent need for inclusive health research
Researchers, for years, assumed that male and female bodies were essentially the same. And so, the vast majority of biological literature is based on single-sex studies of males of European ancestry.
Historically, medical research has sidelined the unique needs of women, especially those with ovaries, due to a mix of underfunding and over caution. Researchers hesitated, fearing the impact of studies on fertility due to hormonal fluctuations during menstrual cycles. (Not-so-fun fact: The complete anatomy of the clitoris wasn't discovered until 1998! That's a year after Titanic was released.)
What's more, South Asian women have been absent from these studies—leaving us, as Indian women, with little to no published medical evidence about our bodies. As a result, significant details about our metabolic, sexual, and reproductive health remained a mystery well into recent times.
This gap in knowledge has real-world consequences — 86% of working women have seen someone they know leave their job due to health problems.
We're rebuilding the foundations
It's time for a change. At Arva – we are reimagining fertility care for the modern Indian women and their partners. That's why we're bringing the human back to health care – to give you the insights that are right for your body, no matter your gender, race, or sexual orientation.
We believe that "fertility" is much more than baby-making. It's about nurturing healthy eggs, regular ovulation patterns, maintaining hormonal balance, and ultimately, your peace of mind. This means taking a holistic approach to women's health by focusing on the entire reproductive cycle.
The backbone of our work is always rooted in the latest fertility research, and guided by top medical experts who are at the forefront of their field. Internally, we follow one principle – if its not 100% verified, we will not publish it.
Co-create Arva with us
We’re built by and for women and people with ovaries, so we can better advocate for ourselves at the doctor’s office, get better data about our body, and take ownership of our own decisions.
In our most recent pilot we partnered with over 150 women from all across India who are actively co-creating Arva with us—so we can bring you fertility information tailored to your needs. They tested and gave us feedback on our first-of-its-kind fertility hormone test, making sure we iterated till we got it right.
And we can't wait to share it with you.
Join us—as we shape a better kind of health company—for our next generation.
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