Jamaican wellness coach aims to transform PMOS care with app tailored to Caribbean women

When Jamaican entrepreneur and coach Denesha Bailey was diagnosed with Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS) – formerly known as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) – in 2025, she found herself facing the same challenge as thousands of women around the world: a lack of clear, affordable and practical guidance on how to manage the condition.

Today, her web-based app, My Healing Notes, is helping women navigate the condition through symptom tracking, education and practical wellness tools tailored to Caribbean lifestyles.

“It’s basically built on a five-step system that includes sleep, nutrition, rest, supplement, and stress. That basically sets out a step-by-step guide on how women can manage their PMOS on a day-to-day basis,” Bailey shared with Observer Online.

Launched on March 18, 2026, the app allows users to track meals, menstrual cycles, sleep patterns, moods and weight while providing educational resources and wellness tools specifically tailored to women living with the condition.

The hormonal disorder affects an estimated 10 to 13 per cent of women of reproductive age, with up to 70 per cent remaining undiagnosed worldwide, and is one of the leading causes of infertility in women.

One of the standout features of My Healing Notes is its Caribbean-focused approach. Unlike many wellness apps developed for North American audiences, the platform offers region-specific meal plans, including vegan options.

“A lot of times, we try to use different wellness apps, but they are not tailored for our region. So My Healing Notes gives you access to meal plans from six different regions so it’s very inclusive for our region and it also has vegan options,” Bailey said.

She said the app was developed to address a gap she believes exists in both awareness and treatment of the condition.

“What I find is that a lot of women struggling with PMOS, number one, they’re not properly educated on what PMOS is and how to treat it,” Bailey explained. “A lot of times, we go to medical professionals…and most professionals will say, lose the weight, or they won’t place a lot of emphasis on it if the female is not looking to have children right away.”

“But PMOS is a metabolic condition that worsens over time if left untreated and so because we’re not educated about it, and then even when you do get educated, it’s hard to find some of the resources on how to manage it. So this app basically helps with that,” she continued.

The platform also educates users on dietary strategies that can help regulate insulin resistance, a common characteristic of PMOS that increases the risk of Type 2 diabetes.

Among its most innovative features is an AI-powered coach that answers questions, analyses meals and scans food labels to determine whether products are suitable for women managing PMOS.

“So this is actually one of the most exciting features for me because I know that when I go to the supermarket sometimes, a lot of times we will see things advertised as being healthy, they may be healthy for the average person, but they are not healthy for someone managing PMOS,” Bailey said.

“The other day I was looking at mustard, because I’m looking at making my salad dressing from scratch, I wanted to know what type of mustard to use. So I pick up the regular mustard, I scanned it and it gave me a warning label that this was not PMOS-friendly,” she continued, noting that the AI coach will offer substitutes of PMOS-friendly products.

Users can also scan photos of their meals to assess whether they are nutritionally balanced for someone living with PMOS.

“Sometimes we think we put together a good plate so you can actually use the scanner on it to scan your plate to show you if your plate is organised properly.”

Currently operating under a “freemium” model during beta testing, the app will continue offering educational resources free of charge after June 15, while premium features, including the scanner, will require a subscription of US$9.99 per month.

Recalling her own experience with PMOS, Bailey said her journey to diagnosis was long and frustrating. Although officially diagnosed in 2025, she believes she had been experiencing symptoms for years, including chronic fatigue, unexplained weight gain, anxiety, brain fog and irregular menstrual cycles.

Denesha Bailey in May 2025, prior to her PMOS diagnosis.

“I remember the fatigue, the afternoon crashes and I remember telling my boss at the time, I think this was 2020, I was saying to her, ‘I don’t know what’s happening, what’s wrong with my body’ but by 10, 11 o’clock, I wanted to sleep and I didn’t understand why and I thought it was because I had caught COVID and the fatigue that came with it but I realised that it never got better,” she said.

“And then I realised that I was gaining weight and I used to exercise, I used to go to the gym, but I realised that I wasn’t losing weight.”

After undergoing surgery for what doctors diagnosed as polyps and having concerns about PMOS dismissed by a gynaecologist, Bailey sought a second opinion and finally received a diagnosis.

Determined to regain control of her health, she immersed herself in research and developed the wellness framework that now powers the app.

“I know one of the things that I really struggled with, because I’m a public figure, I do a lot of meetings, I do a lot of presentations, not just in Jamaica, but abroad. Normally, when I have to do these meetings and presentations, people want to take pictures with you. Right? And when my weight went up, like I stopped posting pictures,” she shared.

The condition also affected her energy levels and creativity.

“Like I was tired of feeling tired. And I’m gonna be honest, like one of the biggest things that affected my productivity was the fatigue and the brain fog. Sometimes I felt like I couldn’t even get a full sentence across and I just felt exhausted. I woke up every day feeling exhausted.”

Following her wellness framework, she lost 40 pounds and significantly improved her energy levels, productivity and overall wellbeing.

“I wrote three books in one month, I built the app, I’ve been able to do so many things since October of last year. It’s like my creativity came back. It’s like I’m making up for the last three years of my life. It’s like the last three years, they were just a blur and I was just surviving but working this system has really given me, I would say a new lease on life and it has definitely helped me to regain my confidence.”

Beyond wellness tracking, My Healing Notes also addresses the emotional and social challenges associated with PMOS. The app enables users to share an educational one-pager with partners to help them better understand the condition’s effects on mood, fertility, energy and sexual health.

Bailey is also developing an “Expert Hub” that will connect users directly with gynaecologists, endocrinologists, nutritionists, therapists and fitness coaches specialising in PMOS care.

Since launching in March, My Healing Notes has attracted 297 active beta users and maintains an average rating of 4.4 out of 5. According to Bailey, users report that the platform helps them stay accountable while providing answers and support that are often difficult to find elsewhere.

“Some of the recommendations would be to add some more budget-friendly food options for the Caribbean. And that’s true. So that’s something that I’m working on updating. Because we still go to the salmon, the broccoli, but mackerel is a good substitute,” she said.

My Healing Notes will be officially launched at the end of June ahead of Bailey’s appearance at the Ladies’ Expo on July 4.
Bailey’s long-term goal is to empower women with the knowledge and tools needed to manage PMOS effectively and improve their quality of life.

“My hope and my aspiration for that is to be able to help the average female struggling with PMOS to basically give them a medium where they’re able to educate themselves and help to really create a better life for themselves because the truth is managing PMOS is a struggle.”

“So that’s what the app is gonna help them to do, and just overtime being consistent, they are able to lead a different life where they are able to operate at their optimum,” she said.