GynContraception — Research Platform

How conditions are counted: Posts are scraped from 12 gyn-focused subreddits: r/endometriosis, r/PCOS (200 /new + 50 /hot each), plus r/Endo, r/Adenomyosis, r/Fibroids, r/Healthyhooha, r/obgyn, r/WomensHealth, r/Periods, r/PMDD (100 /new + 50 /hot each), and r/TwoXChromosomes, r/AskDocs (200 /new + 50 /hot each). Both /new and /hot sort orders are scraped per sub for broader coverage. Each post title and body text is scanned against 15 regex patterns — one per gynecologic condition (endometriosis, PCOS, dysmenorrhea, adenomyosis, fibroids, PMDD, PMS, menorrhagia, amenorrhea, ovarian cysts, pelvic pain, hormonal acne, hirsutism, irregular cycles, vulvodynia). Conditions are counted at the post level only. Cross-posted content is detected and deduplicated. Counts reflect the number of unique posts mentioning each condition. A post that discusses multiple conditions is counted once for each condition it mentions.

Keyword-based sentiment scoring: Each post and comment (across all 12 subreddits) is scored from -1.0 (very negative) to +1.0 (very positive) using curated word lists:

• ~40 positive words (love, recommend, effective, relief, helped, works, etc.)
• ~50 negative words (hate, pain, nightmare, frustrated, scared, bleeding, etc.)
• Negators (not, never, don't, etc.) flip the next word's polarity — "not painful" counts as positive
• Intensifiers (very, extremely, so) multiply the next word's weight by 1.5x

Score formula: (positive - negative) / total_sentiment_words, clamped to [-1, 1]. The chart shows the average score across all posts mentioning each condition. Posts with no sentiment words score NULL and are excluded. Use the subreddit filter to compare sentiment across communities. This is best for comparing trends between conditions, not interpreting individual posts — it cannot detect sarcasm, context, or complex phrasing.

How treatments are counted: Posts and comments are scanned against ~34 regex patterns — one per treatment type, including brand names and common abbreviations. Treatments are counted at both post and comment level. Grouped into 8 categories: Hormonal IUDs, Oral Hormonal, Long-Acting, GnRH Agonists/Antagonists, Surgical, Pain Management, Complementary, and Other Medications.

Average sentiment per treatment: Same keyword-based scoring as Sentiment by Condition, but grouped by treatment rather than condition.

Ranked symptom mentions: Counts the number of unique posts and comments (across all 12 subreddits) that match each of the ~30 symptom regex patterns. A single post mentioning "pelvic pain" and "heavy bleeding" counts once for each category. Patterns include variations (e.g., "headache" and "migraine" both map to "Headaches"). This tracks what people are talking about, not necessarily what they experienced — questions, fears, and reports all count equally.

Knowledge gap detection: Posts and comments are scanned against 13 proximity-bounded regex patterns sourced from ACOG, WHO, Endocrine Society, Cochrane, Rotterdam Criteria, and FDA, in 3 categories: Treatment role (BC only prevents pregnancy, diet cures endo/PCOS, BC masks symptoms, natural always better), Safety (hormones always bad, BC ruins fertility, continuous BC unsafe, Lupron is dangerous, BC causes endo), Disease understanding (endo goes away with pregnancy, hysterectomy cures endo, painful periods normal, PCOS is just weight). Each pattern requires co-occurrence of two concepts within a bounded character window (typically 30–80 characters) to prevent false positives from distant, unrelated mentions. Stance detection: Each match is classified by analyzing a 150-character context window and sentence boundaries around the regex match for linguistic cues: ■ asserting, ■ questioning, ■ debunking, ■ unclear. Bar chart segments are colored by stance when available. Sources: ACOG Practice Bulletins, WHO, Endocrine Society, Cochrane, FDA.

Question detection: Post titles are scanned for question indicators (contains "?" or starts with question words like "has anyone", "is it", "does", "how", "what", etc.). Detected questions are categorized into 6 types by matching the title + body against keyword patterns: Symptoms/Safety (symptoms, safety, side effects), Effectiveness (effectiveness, treatment outcomes), Usage (how to use, dosing, procedures), Access/Cost (cost, insurance, prescriptions, clinics), Experience (personal experiences, recommendations, advice), Switching (changing treatments, alternatives). A question can belong to multiple categories. Limitation: Only post titles are checked for question detection; body text is used for categorization only.

Self-reported age and gender extraction: Reddit users commonly self-report demographics in posts (e.g., "I'm 23F", "(25F)", "26 year old woman"). The system scans the first 500 characters of each post through 7 ordered regex patterns (most specific first): 1. "I'm 23F" / "I am 23F", 2. "(23F)" / "[23F]", 3. "23F here", 4. "23 year old female/woman/man", 5. "I'm a 23 year old" (age only), 6. "I'm female" / "I'm a woman" (gender only), 7. "I'm 23 years old" (age only). A third-person filter skips matches preceded by "my girlfriend", "my partner", etc. within 30 characters. Age range: 13–65. Gender maps to female/male/null. Posts only (not comments). Limitation: Non-binary genders map to null.

Grouped treatment categories: Individual treatments are grouped into 8 categories: Hormonal IUDs (Mirena, Kyleena, Liletta, Skyla), Oral Hormonal (Combined pill, Mini pill, The pill (general), Yaz, Lo Loestrin, Slynd, Norethindrone, Dienogest), Long-Acting (Nexplanon, Depo-Provera, NuvaRing, Xulane patch), GnRH Agonists/Antagonists (Lupron, Orilissa, Myfembree), Surgical (Laparoscopy, Excision surgery, Ablation, Hysterectomy, Myomectomy), Pain Management (NSAIDs, Opioids), Complementary (Pelvic floor PT, Diet/lifestyle, Supplements), Other Medications (Metformin, Spironolactone, Letrozole/Clomid). The chart sums treatment mention counts within each group.