A patch for period pain – from the startup that makes Pee-Buddy

Photo credit: Retna Karunia

Priyanka Sharma* was writhing in pain. The 20-year-old was on the second day of her period, and the cramps were getting unbearable. But instead of handing her the usual painkiller, her mother reached for a packet, pulled out a strip that looked like tape, and stuck it across her lower abdomen.

A few minutes later, the pain eased. What was this? Magic?

Girls and women who go through the agony of severe menstrual cramps every month may find it hard to believe that such a simple, non-intrusive, non-oral, and non-chemical remedy can exist. But that’s exactly what the Sirona Feminine Pain Relief Patch is attempting.

It comes from the same bootstrapped startup that has been trying to solve “intimate hygiene issues” faced by women in India – First Step Digital.

The period pain relief patch is herbal, based on ayurvedic formulations, and was launched under the company’s Sirona product line around two months ago. “We did an exclusive launch on Purplle.com. Within a week, we’d sold 1,000 packs,” founder Deep Bajaj tells Tech in Asia.

Tech in Asia earlier wrote about Pee-Buddy, the device that lets women stand and pee when a toilet is too dirty to sit on. Even today I don’t step out for weekend trips from Delhi without Pee-Buddy (the company claims to have sold over 100,000 packs last year).

A promo image created by PeeBuddy.

“Women have a lot on their plates, they manage work, social life, and personal commitments and while they are at it, they face multiple challenges, most of which men don’t understand as it doesn’t affect them,” says Deep.

Evidently Deep and his brother Mohit – the two founders – do. The two were joined by co-founder Deepak Thareja a few months ago. “We are growing at 5 to 7 percent month-on-month across categories,” says Deep.

It happened one night

The Sirona range of the Delhi-based startup came up in mid-2016. It includes underarm sweat pads that keep clothes odor-free and stain-free (why didn’t anyone come up with that earlier in my hot and humid country?).

They also offer plastic applicator tampons. Deep says they focused on applicator tampons as digital tampons – which are inserted with fingers – were already available in India.

Biodegradable sanitary disposal bags are among the company’s top sellers. That’s because Indian women typically wrap used sanitary pads in old newspapers for disposal. What’s more, these bags are biodegradable – one would take about two years to turn into powder.

Will millennials pay the price?