A lot of youths in Nigeria, especially young women struggle to have open conversations about their sex lives.
Research shows that many adolescents do not receive adequate sex education. Most of the time from around the age of 15, these young kids begin to express desire and engage in some sort of activities to know more about sex.
Personally, I’ve never had a conversation about my sex life with my parents. The only time it really came up was when I first had my period. I remember my mum saying “now that you’re becoming a lady, be careful around boys. If you misbehave you’ll get pregnant”. And that was the end of it.
Conversations like this drives the young mind to ask many questions.
In our society today, going to the hospital to get tested for a sexually transmitted disease or purchasing condoms at retail stores still highly attracts looks of disapproval.
The country still faces social and cultural barriers, due to deep-rooted traditional beliefs which makes these things seem like a taboo.
For many people it takes a lot of courage to go to a clinic or hospital to have a medical examination just to ensure that your private parts are healthy.
This is the issue healthcare startup and mobile app Whispa is trying to tackle.
Whispa was founded and launched in 2020 by Morenike Fajemisin, a pharmacist and sexual health Entrepreneur. Whispa has achieved over 16,000 downloads, with many young people already benefiting from it.
In an interview with Benjamin Dada Blog in April, Morenika explained that Whispa was conceived as a result of both her professional and personal experiences coupled with the challenges young people face when trying to access sexual and reproductive healthcare.
What is the Whispa Health Mobile App?
WHISPA is an innovative mobile application that allows and creates a safe space for young people to conveniently ask questions about their sexual and reproductive health and get the right medical assistance from certified and youth friendly experts, as well as sexual health products.
The app is helping young Nigerians have a more successful and comfortable experience in maintaining their sexual health.
How Does Whispa Work?
You can easily access the mobile app by downloading it on either the Google Play store or the iOS App store. Register as a user, by providing a few details like your name, email address and a strong password. You can always add a phone number later on.
After that, you can access your dashboard. There are options to chat with a doctor or buy sexual health products that are delivered privately.
There are also options to buy Whispa sessions which grants you access to the doctors but only after paying for the session of your choice.
Afterwards, you can begin chatting with the doctors and get answers to all your questions.
Is Whispa Safe?
Yes, it is. It keeps all your information and sessions private. It’s services are also non-judgmental.
On Whispa Health, users can access experts and trained healthcare professionals for just 250 naira per session.
It’s health products range from contraceptives, to lubricants, condoms, test kits for HIV, STD’s and more. The Whispa Health team has assured all users that all kits used are NAFDAC and US-FDA approved.
With Whispa, you can book appointments and get your medical tests done at very affordable prices. They can be done in the comfort of your home and afterwards get accurate results.
The Good and the Bad Reviews
From the apps Google reviews, people have said to have good user experiences with it.
One user, Gift Chiemela rated the app with 5 stars and said, “the app is cool. Doctors get to respond in time. They answer my questions so well, and give examples. They are doing a good job”.
Another user, Jesujoba Ojelabi said “Whispa is an amazing app for everyone who is concerned about their sexual health right from being a teenager to being old and grey. Highly recommended!”.
There are more like these and a few persons have laid down one complaint or the other about the app, Whispa Health has reached out to fix the problems and provide them with better customer experiences.
One of such bad reviews says “after login in, the app only takes me to the ‘get started page’. When I click on the ‘get started’ it takes me back to the login page. I can’t access the features the app is said to have”.
In response to this review, Whispa apologized for the challenge. However, they asked the user to reach out to them through their feedback email address -feedback@whispahealth.com.
Encouraging people to embrace a commitment to sexual safety can foster honest and open communication about sex. Using mobile technology to combat sexual stigmatization has received nothing but praises in the long run.
As tech startups continue to emerge in different parts of the world, they are increasingly sighted for promoting better, and more open, attitudes towards many health care problems.
