Paypals co-founder Max Levchin has launched a sexual health app with the aim of empowering women to take control of their sex lives.
Ruby, integrated with Apple’s own Health App, is designed to be an educational tool and contraception advice resource, providing information about contraceptive methods, medical and technical term definitions referred to as ‘Sexplantations’ and even an online community just for women.
We live in an ere where unplanned pregnancies and STIs still remain difficult subject matters for women to discuss, particularly for young adults.
With this in mind, Ruby aims to smash these taboos by creating a private space for women to openly discuss, share and learn, thereby enrolling women into a wider community where they can ask questions and share experiences which in turn helps women to understand both their cycles and bodies better.
Similar to other period-tracker apps, Ruby will plot future cycles and allow women to identify unusual patterns more easily.
Ruby will also take into consideration additional data the iOS is designed to. Allowing women to use the Anytime Log to include symptoms, emotions and additional information on when they last had sex and whether or not protection was used.
“We designed Ruby to offer young women a way to embrace their bodies and better understand their health.” said Jennifer Tye, Vice President of marketing at Glow.
“Ruby continues Glow’s mission to provide women with “more insight and control over their reproductive health…aiming to empower and educate women on a global scale”.
Living up to that promise, Ruby is partnering with non-profit Huru International, which helps distribute menstrual hygiene supplies and sexual education to women in underserved regions.
In many parts of the world, young girls are missing schooling as a result of poor hygiene facilities or lack of access to the sanitary materials.
One study by UNESCO found that one in ten girls across Africa miss school as a result, leading to a high drop-out rate.
As part of the Huru International partnership, Ruby is promising to donate a day’s worth of sanitary supplies to a young woman every time the hashtag #TalkRubyToMe is used – so get tweeting.