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The Lowdown: introducing the worlds first contraception review platform Credits: Social Media
By Sophie King

The Lowdown: introducing the worlds first contraception review platform

By Sophie King

The Trip Advisor for contraception 

The topic of birth control is finally veering away from being a taboo subject within the UK. However, for many people, we still dont know enough about the options in order to make the best decision for ourselves. Many females still experience being handed the contraceptive pill as if it were just paracetamol and some people who decide to go onto contraception have to act as their own guinea pig until they find the right one for them. 

Enter The Lowdown. With a mission to change the way people choose their contraception, the start-up is hoping to break that cycle by cultivating thousands of reviews written by contraception takers and putting them altogether so that people can hopefully make a decision that is right for them first time.

The Lowdowns founder Alice Pelton wanted to create something to make up for the lack of data that was already out there. She said that for many people, the only way they can find out about the potential side effects is by asking their GP who can then only relay their patients experiences or by asking their friends. While both can be useful, they are such small sample sizes and so by collecting data on a bigger scale, it might tell us new things and people will be able to make much more informed decisions. A lot of contraception is found by the person trialling and testing a few before finding the right one, but hopefully with more data and reviews out there, people wont need to. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCbrLTLFifu/

How does it work?

The Lowdown aims to be the Trip Advisor for contraception. Those interested in reading about peoples experiences can scroll through some 2,707 reviews and more than 200,000 data points on every method on the website. If that seems like a lot though, you can filter down the reviews to particular contraceptives, mood changes, effect periods, sex drive and more. The start-up hopes that by making all of these reviews accessible to people, they will feel more comfortable when choosing what contraception to go on. 

Not only that, but the platform will ask you a few short questions online and then suggest what it finds to be the most appropriate one for you. The platform then provides you with all the information you need on that product including whats in it, what it does and then an abundance of reviews. 

The site also includes informative and entertaining articles on topics such as contraceptive journeys, birth control pioneers and even (squeamish people tread lightly) period poo. Add to that a continuously growing social media platform, 2,707 reviews and counting and a high-tech app in the making, The Lowdown is on its way in changing the way we choose our contraceptive methods. To read more about the platform, please click here. 

Please note: The reviews are not to be taken as medical advice. You should always discuss your contraception with your doctor. The insights we talk about from The Lowdown is based on 1000 of anonymous reviews and are not gathered in clinical trial setting.