I tried an app that lets you video chat with a doctor, and it was the best healthcare experience I've ever had

If you've ever suddenly come down with a deeply uncomfortable ailment like strep throat or a urinary-tract infection, you likely have two immediate thoughts: "I know exactly what this is and how I need to treat it," and, "How am I going to get in to see a doctor right away?"

Enter Maven, a women's health app that connects you with doctors via video chat, allowing you to ask questions, get advice, and receive prescriptions.

It costs $35 a session, but first-time users can get a discount code which brings that cost down to $10.

Maven was founded by Kate Ryder, who came up with the idea for the app when she was working at a venture-capital fund in London. Ryder noticed that all of her friends were starting to get pregnant and were receiving a lot of misinformation or having trouble finding the right doctor.

"Healthcare is such a female-dominated market, but there are so few products that actually help women through a lot of these issues," Ryder told Business Insider.

Ryder said she thinks there's a lot of gray area in women's health and a lot of issues that are female-specific, like side effects from birth control or options for those who have trouble getting pregnant.

"As a result, I think healthcare is a very different experience for a woman than a man," Ryder said. "It requires trust with the healthcare provider and more of a relationship-based model than a commodified model."

I tried Maven myself a few days ago, simply because I needed it: I just moved to a new city, and I haven't had time to find a doctor (better yet make an appointment), and a prescription I take every day had just run out. I was desperate.

I have to admit, I was skeptical of the service up until the moment a doctor appeared on my screen. It seemed too good to be true and I was worried that the doctors wouldn't be legitimate, despite having researched mine to death. How could I only be paying $10 for an appointment? How could she legally prescribe me medication?

But in the end, it was one of the best healthcare experiences I've had in a while.

Here's how it went: