THE MENOPAUSE APP BUILT FROM EXPERIENCE

Our Story

This is the story behind the TALIA menopause app — and why we built it the way we did.

I was in my mid-40s, busy, active, eating well, exercising regularly - doing all the things you’re told should keep you well. But something was off. I didn’t quite feel like myself.

Two close friends noticed it before I fully did. Telling me that I wasn't ok and suggesting it could be hormonal.  I was in denial but started to take more notice of what was happening - how I felt and what had changed. When I did, the list was longer than I expected - mood, sleep, energy, focus, patience (or total lack of) skin, libido, heart palpitations... Seeing it written down was the first moment things began to make sense and I allowed myself to acknowledge that I could be very perimenopausal.

An understanding female doctor listened, looked at the whole picture, and prescribed HRT.

It took time to get the dose right - but once we did, the difference was life-changing. For me, and for my family.

Five years on, life is good - but it's not static. Hormones continue to shift and treatment still needs adjusting. And the practical reality is this: I still needed help remembering to apply my gel and order my HRT.

I looked for an app that was a tool: private, practical, no distractions. What I found instead were apps full of advice, content, chat and coaching.  Not the functionality I wanted but I downloaded some anyway. I didn't think much about what they were doing with my data. That was naive of me - and I know that now.

Eventually I turned to my husband, Brent, and asked him to help.

Brent spent years in global app development - building large-scale loyalty programmes for some of the world's biggest brands. Loyalty programmes that exist, structurally, to collect user data. That's the model - and it's exactly what they're built for. So when I asked him to build something for me around sensitive health data, he chose to architect it differently from the start: everything on the device, nothing leaving the phone, no servers, no third parties in between.

We are not a big medtech company. We are two people - one who is perimenopausal and one who built the TALIA menopause app to help make sense of it..

As we looked more closely at the space, we were shocked about what we found. Free menopause apps are not 'free'. They are funded by the data their users generate - health data, cycle data, symptom data, the most personal information a woman logs. Most users don't know this. Most don't think to ask. I didn't. We feel very strongly about this now and it's why TALIA is built the way it is: paid software, on-device.  It is also why it mattered to find an independent verification solution to back up what we say - because a lot of people do not tell the truth in this space.  Our Gold standard Peak Privacy certification is something we are very proud of.

Today, TALIA is our contribution to something bigger. Women keeping better records of what's actually happening to them - over time, in their own hands. Not to replace doctors. Not to give advice. To support clearer conversations, better workplace outcomes and an easier transition for women through mid-life.