Do It Anyway: How Ovum AI Is Helping Women Take Charge of Their Health

As part of Women’s Health Week 2026, Menopause Friendly Australia founder Grace Molloy spoke with Dr Ariella Heffernan-Marks, medical doctor, reproductive biology specialist and founder of Ovum AI.

Their conversation explored the persistent barriers women face in healthcare, the importance of trusting and documenting personal health experiences, and how technology can help women feel more informed and empowered in medical appointments.

Closing the gender health gap

The event’s theme, “Do It Anyway”, provides a powerful framework for understanding why so many women delay seeking help or accept inadequate care.

For many women, advocating for their health can be difficult—particularly when they have previously felt dismissed, misunderstood or rushed during medical appointments. The result may be delayed diagnosis, fragmented care or a loss of confidence in the healthcare system.

Dr Heffernan-Marks described her own experience of chronic vestibular migraines during medical school. Despite being highly health literate and training to become a doctor, she was initially told that her symptoms were anxiety or stress. She struggled to access the treatment and support she needed while trying to continue her studies and clinical work.

That experience, combined with what she observed while working across regional, remote and metropolitan healthcare settings, led her to question why women were so often disempowered in their healthcare.

She identified three interconnected barriers:

• Interpersonal barriers, including dismissal, gaslighting, fear and the power imbalance between patients and clinicians.
• Systemic barriers, including fragmented health records and short appointment times.
• Research and education barriers, including the under-representation of women in clinical research and limited training in women’s health.

These barriers are not simply individual problems. They are features of a healthcare system that has historically failed to collect, connect and apply enough information about women’s bodies across the lifespan.

Women’s health is more than reproductive health

The conversation also challenged the narrow way women’s health is often understood.

Reproductive health is important, but it represents only one part of women’s health. Women also experience higher rates of conditions including migraine, autoimmune disease, thyroid disorders, musculoskeletal conditions and mental health conditions—and these may present differently from the way they do in men.

Medical education has not yet fully caught up with this reality. Menopause receives only limited attention during medical training, despite being a major life stage affecting millions of women.

A more complete approach would recognise women’s health as a lifelong, interconnected experience—from the first period through fertility, pregnancy, postpartum health, perimenopause, menopause and beyond.

Preparing for a better medical appointment

A central message from the event is that women should not ignore their symptoms or assume that they simply have to live with them.

Before an appointment, women can strengthen their position by:

• Trusting their own observations and intuition.
• Recording symptoms, patterns, triggers and changes over time.
• Identifying the five most important points they want to discuss.
• Preparing a short list of questions.
• Taking relevant reports or a concise summary rather than an overwhelming collection of information.
• Reflecting afterwards on whether the clinician listened and whether the appointment felt collaborative.

The aim is not for patients to diagnose themselves or replace professional advice. It is to support shared decision-making, where the patient and clinician can work together with a clearer picture of what is happening.

Healthcare is personal. The right clinician may be the person who takes the time to understand the whole picture and develop a plan that reflects the individual’s needs. If a healthcare professional repeatedly dismisses concerns or does not engage with the information provided, finding another clinician may be an appropriate next step.

Evidence matters in a noisy information environment

Social media has made health information more accessible, but it has also created opportunities for misinformation and commercial exploitation.

Women are encouraged to assess online health claims carefully. Useful questions include:

• Is the person providing the information a qualified and appropriately accredited health professional?
• Are their claims supported by credible research or recognised clinical guidelines?
• Are they transparent about commercial interests?
• Are they presenting information responsibly, rather than promising a quick cure?

Reputable organisations, hospitals, professional bodies and evidence-based women’s health resources are generally safer starting points than anonymous social media accounts.

From fragmented data to a longitudinal health story

Ovum AI was created in response to the fragmentation of women’s health information.

Many people use separate apps for menstrual cycles, symptoms, nutrition, exercise, medications, sleep and wearable data. Medical reports may sit in different systems, while important personal observations remain in memory—or are forgotten altogether.

Ovum AI is designed as a longitudinal digital health journal that brings these information sources together. Users can record symptoms, medications, appointments, nutrition, exercise, reproductive health information, medical reports and wearable data.

The platform then uses artificial intelligence to help identify patterns, support health literacy and produce concise summaries and questions for healthcare appointments.

The goal is not to diagnose or replace a clinician. Instead, the technology is intended to help women understand their health information, notice patterns over time, prepare for appointments, ask more informed questions, communicate their experiences more clearly and participate more confidently in decisions about their care.

Why context matters

Wearables can provide useful data about sleep, activity, heart rate and other measures. However, a number on a device does not always reflect how a person feels.

Someone may receive a strong sleep score but wake feeling exhausted. The number becomes more meaningful when it is considered alongside stress, medication changes, emotional experiences, symptoms and daily circumstances.

This is one of the opportunities identified for AI-supported health journalling: combining quantitative information with the qualitative context that only the individual can provide.

Health data should not be viewed in isolation. A sleep score, symptom or heart-rate change may mean something different depending on what else is happening in a person’s life.

Supporting women at work

The discussion also connected women’s health with workplace participation and economic outcomes.

Women spend a significant proportion of their working lives managing health conditions, yet workplace support is often focused on a narrow set of issues or introduced only after a problem becomes visible.

Menopause Friendly Australia’s research with 1,000 working women in Australia found that:

• 45% felt they were not performing at their best at work.
• One in six had taken time away from work in the previous month to manage symptoms.
• 26% wanted to take time off but could not afford it or did not have enough leave.
• 46% reported reduced confidence.
• 44% reported lower self-esteem.

These experiences can affect more than immediate productivity. They may influence whether women apply for promotion, step into leadership or remain in the workforce.

Workplace support should reflect the whole person. Menopause support, menstrual health support, chronic health support and broader wellbeing initiatives should not operate in isolation.

Technology such as Ovum AI may provide a private way for employees to understand and manage their health without requiring them to disclose personal information at work. At the same time, employers have a role to play in making health support accessible, flexible and responsive.

From individual action to system change

The event’s message is not that women should carry responsibility for fixing a broken system. Rather, individual empowerment and system reform need to happen together.

Women can “do it anyway” by seeking another opinion when necessary, asking questions, recording symptoms, requesting explanations, looking for evidence-based information, finding clinicians who listen and sharing experiences with policymakers and decision-makers.

But healthcare providers, researchers, technology developers, educators, employers and governments must also address the structural barriers that make this advocacy necessary.

Collecting better longitudinal data, beginning earlier in life, is essential. Information gathered from the first period onwards could help researchers understand women’s health trajectories and identify patterns that are currently missed.

Women can also contribute to broader change by sharing their experiences through public consultations and government inquiries. Anonymous submissions can help demonstrate the scale and impact of women’s health concerns.

The next step: informed advocacy

The conversation between Menopause Friendly Australia and Ovum AI offers a practical and hopeful message.

Women should not have to become medical experts to receive appropriate care. They do, however, deserve access to information, respectful conversations and tools that help them communicate what is happening in their bodies.

Ovum AI represents one example of how technology may help bridge the gap between lived experience and clinical care. Its value lies not only in tracking symptoms, but in helping women turn scattered information into a coherent health story.

The broader challenge is to create a healthcare and workplace environment in which women are heard earlier, supported more effectively and able to participate fully in their lives and work.

The invitation from Women’s Health Week is simple but powerful: get the information, use the tools, ask the questions—and do it anyway.

This article summarises a discussion between Menopause Friendly Australia founder Grace Molloy and Dr Ariella Heffernan-Marks, founder of Ovum AI, held during Women’s Health Week 2026. It is for general information only and does not constitute medical advice.