Helping Women Towards Healthy Management of Menopause: Design and Development of Mobile App for Menopausal Symptoms Tracker

Experiencing menopausal phase is inevitable to most women. The earlier effect of menopause, called perimenopause, is a stage when women start to experience the symptoms of menopause. During the menopause phases, the symptoms are myriad and can be diverse for every woman. Hot flashes and sweating, heart discomfort, sleeping problems, depressive mood, impaired memory, and sexual problems are examples of the symptoms that a woman may face one, two or even more during the menopause time. Adding to the agony, these symptoms bring negative impact on a woman's family, career, and life. Unfortunately, previous studies have revealed that women are clueless and unknowledgeable about menopause and their psychological change during the phase, particularly in Malaysia. Our preliminary investigation also discovered the same findings, as the women in Malaysia were unaware of the respective symptoms. In addition, some of them even kept diaries or books to record the symptoms, which are considered ineffective. Hence, this study proposed MenoSmile, a mobile app for training, thus educating women about menopausal symptoms tracking, to help women effectively become alert, able to manage, and naturally accept their menopausal symptoms. It also functions as emotional support. There are four steps involved in the design and development which are UML diagram design, database design, interface design, and lastly, the implementation of the prototype. It is anticipated that mobile app such as MenoSmile would help women use a more practical approach in embracing phases of menopause.