“My little secret”, a website for sexual health of postmenopausal women

Introduction: Internet represents a great opportunity for health information. Recent researchshowsthatwomenare themainusers, especially if they suffer from chronic diseases. Sexual health is one of the hot topic, but menopausal well-being is of great interest in general. Vulvar and vaginal atrophy (VVA) is part of the genitourinary syndrome of menopause and its negative impact on sexuality and quality of life of women and couples is increasingly acknowledged. However, VVA signs and symptoms are underreported and undertreated. In here, we report our experience with a website specifically designed to inform about postmenopausal sexual health. Materials: “My little secret” is an Italian website dedicated to menopause with a specific focus on VVA. It comprises several sections: general information, find an expert gynecologist, useful resources, glossary and blog. A video section with an expert reporting real stories and tips to overcome barriers to discuss the topic of VVA is also present. Partnerships and social networks have been set up to disseminate the contents of this site. The blogging activity started in November 2016, the target were menopausal women with an age between 50 and 65 years and a mediumhigh level of education. Four articles per month are released on the following topics: Vaginal Atrophy; Well-being and Menopause; Menopause and Couple Life; Dryness and other intimate symptoms. Results: The website has received 1.053.314 visits between December 2017 and December 2018; the most clicked pages are vaginal atrophy (220.465 visualizations), cycle alteration (pain, bleeding) across the menopause (192.402 visualizations), breast pain (40836 visualizations), what to do when symptoms occur (19.212 visualizations), painful sexual intercourse (16.597 visualizations), etc. The search page of the gynecologist concerned 11% of the total visits (143.128). The video section the “Expert responds” has received 7.089 views over the last months (October 2018–December 2018), with 16.781 minutes of video visualization. Discussion: The number of visits on the website “My little secret” confirms the data in the literature on the needs for more information regarding sexual health and, more in general, wellbeing in menopausal women. It also confirms the accessibility and easy consultation of a specific dedicated website, which may help women to gather reliable information helping a comfortable conversation with ob/gyns and other menopause specialists without replacing them.