I felt waves of feelings (worry, reduction, validation) prior to anger set in. My years-long mysterious situation was once a full-fledged epidemic affecting 1 in 5 American citizens, and I sought after to shout it from the rooftops so others wouldn’t have to head via this, too. 

New to TikTok, I posted a video in regards to the signs I used to be advised have been “commonplace” that became out to be indicators of autoimmune illness. To my surprise, it racked up tens of millions of perspectives in a question of hours, and 1000’s of feedback from girls achieving out with eerily an identical reviews. 

Seek #autoimmunedisease on TikTok and also you’ll get an overly actual and terrifying snapshot of this epidemic’s stronghold on girls in The us: over 1.1B video perspectives, and numerous thumbnails that includes the faces of twenty- and thirty-somethings similar to me. We’re turning to TikTok for the autoimmune fortify our scientific machine isn’t giving us. 

The autoimmune epidemic disproportionately wreaks havoc on girls – 80% of sufferers are girls1, and sure stipulations are 16 occasions extra not unusual1 in girls. They’re one of the vital most sensible 10 reasons of loss of life for girls below 64. Regardless of all of this, autoimmune illness stays in large part lost sight of and misdiagnosed by way of healthcare pros. On moderate, we need to see 5 other docs and wait just about part a decade prior to receiving the right kind prognosis. Nearly part people are advised our signs are all in our head someday alongside the best way.

It was once no accident when my sister, Claire, was once identified with autoimmune illness months later. She had an identical, hard-to-pinpoint signs, commonplace labs, and dismissals from quite a lot of docs.

Getting wholesome once more temporarily turned into a full-time task for either one of us. We threw ourselves into finding out the whole lot there was once to find out about those sicknesses, and what evidence-based interventions would carry us essentially the most reduction. As we dove into the analysis, it turned into abundantly transparent how underserved our group was once and the way desperately we wanted higher fortify and gear. So we determined to group up and left our full-time jobs to fill the key systemic gaps that exist in these days’s usual of care.

Ultimate yr, we introduced a digital care platform referred to as WellTheory to assist girls shortcut, and in the end give a boost to, the present trail to an autoimmune prognosis and receiving care. Our purpose is to extend get right of entry to to top quality autoimmune care – making it inexpensive, empathetic, empowering, efficient, and what we so desperately wanted from the start. 

However WellTheory is only one piece of the equation to reversing autoimmune illness. Extra widely, it takes arming girls with the assets to navigate the below researched and lost sight of well being problems that impact us essentially the most – from fertility and menopause to autoimmune illness and past.