💌 Issue 68: Menopause gets personal | Hormone therapy levels at low point | OVUM expands | €1.65m for Hello Inside
💌 Issue 68: Menopause gets personal | Hormone therapy levels at low point | OVUM expands | €1.65m for Hello Inside
+ lots more in your weekly round-up of women's health and FemTech news
Welcome to issue #68 of FutureFemHealth, here to bring you your weekly news about women’s health innovation and FemTech (w/c 9 September 2024).
🌟 Coming up today we’ve got:
🏆 Nutrition brand Zoe introduces The MenoScale
📌 Hello Inside raises €1.65m for AI-powered continuous glucose monitoring tech
💊 OVUM expands fertility support range in Sainsbury’s
📉 Use of hormone therapy for menopause remains low in US - despite proven benefits
But first…
Let me introduce you to our newsletter partner for this month: Palteq Ltd, a marketing agency delivering rising ROAS for femtech founders and women’s health innovators.
I first met Monica, the founder of Palteq, last year and since then we’ve connected at various online events and in-person conferences. She really ‘gets’ the unique challenges of the FemTech and women’s health space and I was delighted when she wanted to support the newsletter so that I could introduce her to you all.
This week’s marketing tip from Monica: Struggling to connect? Examine your audience's online conversations, then use that language in your ad copy for a more impactful message.
❤️ Menopause gets personal
The menopause market is shifting from a one-size-fits-all approach to more personalised and symptom-specific solutions.
That’s a natural evolution in part, as consumers become more educated and the landscape becomes more crowded.
But it’s great to see recent product and service innovation put more focus on addressing individual menopause symptoms, rather than treating menopause itself as an ‘issue’ to solve for.
Nutrition brand ZOE’s MenoScale, launched this month, is a standout example of personalised menopause care. It’s a free online resource that assesses the burden of symptoms on daily life, not just the symptom count. It also recognises the varying impact of symptoms (i.e brittle nails versus disruptive night sweats).
And, of course as it’s ZOE, it highlights the nutrition-menopause connection. Early study participants impressively reported up to 37% lower MenoScale scores after dietary changes - helping women to not only improve their health but optimise it too.
Taking it beyond HRT with an holistic approach
We’re also seeing more recognition of the benefits of a more holistic approach to menopause.
Recent industry partnerships such as Stella (Vira Health) x Habitual, Midi Health x Hinge Health, and MyMenopauseRx x MyUTI signal a shift towards comprehensive menopause management.
And Hot Flash Inc reports that this week’s Menopause Society of North America meeting will feature 80+ sessions on diverse topics such as hypnosis, cognitive therapy and cannabis use.
As for HRT, here’s the kicker: new data from The Menopause Society shows that despite the progress in awareness and education, just 1.8% of women over 40 use HRT in the US - and that’s declined from 4.6% in 2007.
It seems then, the shift towards holistic menopause support isn’t just driven by benefits - it’s also a necessity too.
💰 Funding, deals and investment news
📌 AUSTRIA: Hello Inside raises €1.65m for its AI-powered continuous glucose monitoring tech. Hello Inside’s current app users already average 10+ app opens per day. The start-up helps women better understand their metabolism using 24/7 blood sugar tracking and then to make more informed decisions about their health and wellness. Seed funding in this round came from Verge Fund and others. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
📌 US: Bloomlife secures $12.2m Series A to advance remote maternal care platform. Bloomlife wants to improve the patient experience for expectant mothers using tech and remote care solutions, while improving maternal health outcomes too. After FDA clearance for its maternal and fetal heart rate monitor earlier this year, Bloomlife’s new funds will support commercial expansion and a second proprietary device for FDA clearance. This funding round was led by Kapor Capital and Noshaq. (Continue reading: FemTech Insider)
📌 UK: Workplace health platform HeyFlow secures £235,000 pre-seed funding. HeyFlow aims to create meaningful change for women at work globally, at a time when 31% of women experience severe reproductive health symptoms every year: 85% of women face at least four reproductive health conditions and mothers see a 60% drop in earnings following their first child, compared to fathers. This investment from Aer Venture Studios will support the build of HeyFlow’s tech platform. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
🌟 More news from this week
📌 UK: OVUM expands fertility support range in Sainsbury’s. Earlier this year OVUM introduced a UK-first fully recyclable pregnancy test to national retailer Sainsbury’s. Now the partnership grows as OVUM adds its doctor-formulated Time to Conceive supplement too. For its part, Sainsbury’s has a long-standing commitment to supporting female-founded challenger brands in retail as part of its Future Brands programme launched in 2018. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
📌 US: CooperSurgical introduces single-hand inserter for Paragard IUD. Paragard is a non-hormonal contraceptive used by nearly 8 million women and with an efficacy of over 99% over ten years. CooperSurgical’s new inserter simplifies how the contraceptive is placed and makes sure that high reliability is maintained. (Continue reading: Medical Device Network)
📌 US: Breast cancer surgeon launches protective gear for healthcare workers exposed to radiation. Founder Dr Lauren Ramsey discovered that female orthopedic surgeons have up to a three times higher rate of breast cancer. She created ‘BAT’ a protective shield garment to boost protection from occupational exposure to radiation and with female healthcare workers in mind. It can reduce radiation to the breast by over 97%. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
📌 US: Online birth control providers are booming amid restrictive care law. Women are pursuing accessibility, discretion and privacy in their healthcare choices. Since Roe v Wade was overturned, women’s telemedicine platform Pandia has seen its customer base triple, and telehealth service Nurx has seen a 1,700% increase in the number of emergency contraception requests. (Continue reading: Modern Retail)
📌 US: Birth control has become harder to get. Despite the boom in telehealth we reference above, there are still 19 million American women of reproductive age who live in a ‘contraceptive desert’. Now a medical student at a University in New York has led an initiative to install a 24-hour vending machine serving affordable emergency contraceptives, pregnancy tests and other pharmacy items. (Continue reading: Stat News)
🩸 Research and women’s health news
📌 US: Use of hormone therapy for menopause remains low in US - despite proven benefits. As we trailed in our newsletter intro, a new study from The Menopause Society shows Hormone Therapy use in women over 40 has dropped from 4.6% in 2007 to a low of just 1.8% as of 2023. That’s despite debunking of the infamous 2022 Women’s Health Initiative Study and a focus on education and awareness of HT. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
📌 US: CBD vaginal suppositories improve menstrual pain and lead to lower use of painkiller drugs. We’ve already seen FemTech start-ups such as Daye introducing CBD as part of their products for period pain relief. Now a new study in NPJ Women’s Health has found that participants who used a CBD suppository reported less period pain and better mood compared to others who used conventional treatment. (Continue reading: M Moment)
📌 US: Low-impact exercise, yoga reduces urinary incontinence in older women. Urinary incontinence affects more than half of midlife women and up to 80% of women over 80, significantly impacting quality of life. But this 12-week study found a 65% reduction in incontinence episodes with a low-impact, simple yoga program. (Continue reading: Athletechnews)
📄 Govt & policy news
📌 US: After a study found toxic metals in tampons, lawmakers are pressing the FDA to act. Four female House Democrats have sent a letter to the FDA commissioner urging the agency to address concerns about the safety and regulation of tampons. It follows a study earlier this year which found that over a dozen tampon brands contained toxic metals - although the health implications of this were not explored in the research. While tampons must meet FDA requirements for safety and effectiveness, currently the FDA does not require them to be tested for metals, and manufacturers do not need to disclose ingredients on the label either. (Continue reading: NPR)
✅ Jobs
📌 UK: National Account Executive FMCG, Here We Flo
📌 UK: National Account Manager, FMCG, Here We Flo
📌 GERMANY: Content Manager, Clue
📌 UK: Head of Growth, UK, Hims & Hers
Thanks for reading and see you next time,
Before you go: Would you like to support FutureFemHealth through sponsorship and get your brand in front of 1,500+ professionals, founders and investors in women’s health? I’m taking bookings from October onwards. For more info and a copy of our media pack drop me a line: anna@futurefemhealth.com