Empowering women’s health literacy

Well Informed

Challenge

Despite information being just one click away, women searching for endocrine-health guidance find the web awash in gender-biased myths.

Endocrine disorders (hypothyroidism, diabetes, PCOS, endometriosis) affect 6 – 12 % of women worldwide, yet 83 % report misdiagnosing or self-medicating after encountering bad advice, straining both wallets and doctor-patient trust.¹

A Plan International study shows 91 % of girls worry about online health misinformation,² while Frost & Sullivan notes 75–85 % already rely on digital tools for care.³ Faced with unmoderated forums, influencer posts, and ad-driven blogs, women shoulder the invisible labour of fact-checking, often blaming themselves when the “facts” fail them.

“After getting burned once, I spent two hours fact-checking a single blog post,” a research participant

Understanding how search tools amplify health misinformation and impact was the first step toward solutions that (1) give women back the power to assess claims about their bodies and (2) lift the exhausting burden of constant fact-checking.

Research

To understand a complex topic, I focused my thesis on four key themes: how women seek and trust health information online, their experiences with misinformation, and how they ultimately use what they find.

I recruited participants from online forums like Reddit, Facebook groups, and endocrine health communities, as well as physical spaces like campus boards and local parks. Building trust in these spaces required a trauma-informed, empathetic approach from outreach to interviews.

In total, I collected 114 survey responses and conducted 12 in-depth interviews with women aged 18-35 across India, Canada, Europe, Australia, and the U.S. Two-thirds had come across health misinformation online, and 36% had experienced direct harm, emotional, financial, or physical, as a result.

During interviews, many described trying supplements, influencer-recommended treatments, or expensive programs. Most searched using emotionally driven phrases rather than clinical terms, often receiving conflicting advice. Even short, rushed doctor visits left them unheard, pushing them further online.

While online communities offered comfort, they lacked expert oversight. I mapped a five-stage journey from diagnosis to outcomes, finding the “resource” stage to be most vulnerable. This insight raised a critical question: how might design help users discern, not just connect?

Ultimately, the research revealed that real impact depends not just on access to health information, but on designing tools rooted in trust, clarity, and care. There’s a pressing need to embed health professionals into community spaces to gently validate, educate, and empower. Without trusted guidance and verifiable resources, women are left to sift through noise at their most vulnerable moments. And that, in itself, is a system-level failure.

Design as a solution

I didn’t start with a product idea, just a desire to reduce harm and empower women navigating endocrine health. At first, I considered building a community platform, but research showed community already existed. What was missing was clarity and trust.

That led to Well Informed MVP, a reliability checker designed to help users assess health information with confidence. Co-designed with healthcare professionals and participants, the prototype included: curated PCOS content, AI-assisted article tagging, a “Health Expert Vote” feature, experts suggestions, and lightweight education nudges

Not to replace community but to help users discern within it.

Testing the solution

To evaluate the Well Informed prototype, I conducted two studies. In a five-day article review using Mechanical Turk, participants rated health articles as Reliable, Ambiguous, or Not Reliable, then viewed a credibility report and, if interested, received a pre-reviewed expert tip. Research papers were easiest to trust, while blogs and news caused more confusion. The “Ask a Health Expert” feature was used most when articles felt unclear, and daily health tips helped build trust.

In parallel, I ran 1:1 Zoom usability tests with five women aged 18–29. While the Health Expert Vote feature was intuitive, participants wanted more context on who the experts were and confirmation after submitting votes. These insights helped validate the concept and guided key improvements.

Evaluation & Ethics

Well Informed isn’t just a product, it’s a mindset shift. It aims to reduce overwhelm and build trust in how women engage with health information. Testing showed the prototype gave users more confidence and clarity in moments of uncertainty.

But meaningful impact requires ethical care.

  • Algorithmic Bias: The tool uses AI to assess credibility, but biased training data can skew results. Regular audits and input from diverse medical voices are essential.

  • Privacy by Design: While no personal data was collected, I built the prototype with a privacy-first approach, minimal data, anonymous by default, and clear user consent. Future versions would strengthen this with privacy engineering and local data storage.

Well Informed was never about building the next viral health app. It was about prototyping a future where women no longer feel alone or overwhelmed while seeking care.

It asked: What if we could reduce the invisible labor of constantly questioning everything you read about your body?

The concept still lives as a prototype, but the vision is very real:

 To give women tools that not only inform but also empower. To transform search from chaos into clarity. And to make trust feel possible again.