Pharmacist launches women's health service to cut stigma

Julie Boora's experience of perimenopause didn't just affect her personally — it changed her career. She and co-founder Sahithi Amaravadi built Tribelle, a women's health pharmacy operating both online and with a community presence, around the idea that women deserve better access to care without the embarrassment that often comes with it.

What happened

Boora and Amaravadi founded Tribelle with a focus on women's health, aiming to reduce the stigma that stops many women from seeking help or asking questions about their bodies. Boora's own perimenopause journey shaped that vision directly — she experienced first-hand the gaps in support that women frequently encounter. The pharmacy model they've built tries to bridge those gaps, combining digital access with something closer to traditional community pharmacy.

Why it matters

Women's health has long been under-served in pharmacy settings. Conditions like perimenopause, menopause, endometriosis, and polycystic ovary syndrome carry social stigma that can discourage women from walking up to a counter and asking for advice. That silence has real consequences — delayed treatment, worsening symptoms, and patients managing conditions alone when they don't have to.

What Tribelle represents is a shift in how pharmacy services can be designed. Rather than expecting patients to fit into a general service model, Boora and Amaravadi built one around a specific population's needs. That's not a radical idea in theory, but it's still rare in practice.

For anyone working in or entering pharmacy, this is worth paying attention to. The profession is moving steadily toward more specialised, patient-centred models. Understanding how a pharmacist identifies a gap, builds a service around it, and makes it accessible — that kind of thinking shows up in how pharmacy practice is evolving, and it's relevant whether you end up in a community setting, a clinical role, or something else entirely.

The stigma angle also matters professionally. Pharmacists are often the first point of contact for sensitive health questions. How you communicate — whether you make a patient feel judged or at ease — affects whether they come back, whether they take your advice, and whether they get the help they need. Boora's experience as a patient before becoming a founder gives her approach a grounding that's hard to replicate from theory alone.

GPhC exam relevance

The GPhC's standards for pharmacy professionals place patient-centred care and person-appropriate communication at the centre of what good practice looks like. Scenarios involving sensitive consultations — whether about contraception, sexual health, menopause, or mental health — test whether candidates understand how to create an environment where patients feel able to speak honestly.

Women's health topics appear across several areas of the assessment blueprint. Menopause and hormone replacement therapy are clinically testable areas; so is recognising when a patient's symptoms need further investigation versus when reassurance and self-care advice are appropriate. But beyond the clinical content, the exam also tests professional attitudes — and that includes understanding how stigma shapes health-seeking behaviour and what a pharmacist's responsibility is in response to it.

Boora's story illustrates something worth holding onto: lived experience and clinical training together produce better practitioners. Pre-reg candidates don't need to have a personal connection to every condition they'll encounter, but they do need to understand what it feels like to be on the other side of the counter.

What's next

Women's health is growing as a distinct area of pharmacy practice. If you're thinking about where your career might head, services like Tribelle show that there's space to build something specific and meaningful within the profession.

For now, make sure your knowledge of menopause management — including HRT options, contraindications, and when to refer — is solid. Review how you'd approach a consultation on a sensitive topic: the language you'd use, how you'd structure the conversation, and what resources you'd point someone toward. Practice that as deliberately as you'd practice clinical calculations.

Source: Chemist+Druggist — https://www.chemistanddruggist.co.uk/analysis/we-want-women-to-thrive-taking-the-stigma-out-of-womens-health-M4D7HKR4GJDNZJ4FKYM5B5AAZA/