💌 Issue 65: Sunny menstrual cup FDA clearance | $3m endometriosis competition | 'MSM' in menopause

+ lots more in your weekly round-up of women's health innovation and FemTech news

Aug 14, 2024

Hi! Welcome to issue #65 of FutureFemHealth, here to bring you your weekly news about women’s health innovation and FemTech (w/c 12 August 2024).

🌟 Coming up today we’ve got:

🏆 Needed’s perinatal education academy
✅ Sunny menstrual cup and applicator secures FDA clearance
✏️ New terminology: ‘Musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause’ (MSM)
💰 $3million prize competition for endometriosis solutions

Got news to share from the world of FemTech and women’s health innovation? Let me know at anna@futurefemhealth.com

🏆 Needed launches first-of-its-kind education and influencer academy on instagram

Image: Needed co-founder and CEO Julie Sawaya

In an era of social media misinformation, brands who are responsible and evidence-based must look for ways to maintain trust and credibility with their consumers if they are using these platforms.

That’s especially true if you rely on influencers to convey your brand and product message.

Faced with this challenge, perinatal supplement brand Needed has announced all prospective partners will need to complete and pass its own perinatal health curriculum.

The free, instagram-native ‘Needed Academy’ draws on 630 research studies and a network of Needed’s expert specialists.

It aims to drive up access to nutritional information during pregnancy - at a time when prenatal appointments rarely cover nutrition and 95% of women are thought to be nutritionally depleted before, during and after pregnancy.

Julie Sawaya, co-founder and CEO of Needed said:

“Nutrition is the foundation of any healthy pregnancy journey, but is mostly ignored in our current standard of care.
“Women are left to do their own research in a category that’s crowded with misinformation and we know social media is one of the places many turn to for answers. Needed Academy strengthens our commitment to expert-backed information and is the embodiment of the radically higher standard for education and responsible sharing that we hold ourselves and our partners to.”

Beyond influencers and brand partners, the curriculum will be free and available to anyone seeking information around perinatal health, helping to democratise information around perinatal nutritional needs in one trusted easy-to-access place.

(Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

🌟 More news from this week

📌 US: Sunny menstrual cup and applicator secures FDA clearance. After months of virality on TikTok and over 20,000 pre-orders, period care brand Sunny has achieved a significant milestone for its Sunny Cup + Applicator, by becoming the only menstrual cup and applicator to receive FDA 510(k) clearance. The innovative period care product is a reusable period cup that inserts like a tampon. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

📌 Egypt: Motherbeing launches sexual and reproductive health app for women in MENA. A first-of-its-kind, the ‘Daleela’ app provides Arab women with a secure, private platform to access reliable, culturally sensitive information and personalised support. It’s already launched to 10,000 active users in its first week. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

📌 US: Hims and Hers CEO says women’s health business “will likely” eclipse men’s. Hims & Hers began as a male-focused start-up, raising $197m in its first year back in 2017. But now the female-focused arm of the business (hair loss, weight loss, mental health, sexual wellness) is rapidly overtaking it. More evidence that there’s money to be made in women’s health - although do read this excellent piece from Rachel Braun Scherl written in 2021: “What if Hims had been born Hers…?” (Continue reading: Axios)

📌 UK: Hertility launches new ‘FemTech’ collection with Sweaty Betty. Activewear tailored for menstruation, maternity and menopause is at the heart of this new partnership. It brings the word ‘FemTech’ - plus Hertility’s at-home diagnostics - to a new audience of health- and wellness-conscious women, and underscores that health is a lifestyle rather than just isolated parts of a day. (Continue reading: Red online)

📌 US: Preeclampsia ‘Cuff Kits’ distributed to pregnant and postpartum women in Florida. Preeclampsia occurs in about 5% of all pregnancies and is one of the leading causes of maternal deaths. An innovative trial in Florida is seeing if at-home blood pressure cuffs and educational materials can help to reduce that devastation. The kit comes with instructions in 12 languages to engage as many patients as possible, and an app integration to relay vital health information to healthcare providers. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

🩸 Research and women’s health news

📌 New study establishes terminology for ‘musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause’ (MSM). Dr Vonda Wright has coined a new term after observing numerous post-menopausal women suffering from orthopedic issues such as frozen shoulder, total body pain and loss of bone density. It’s hoped that the agreed nomenclature will now help with expressing understanding towards patients, encouraging holistic support and sparking new research interest in this area. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

📌 UK: NHS to offer new drug to prevent bone fractures in post-menopausal women. Bone fractures linked to osteoporosis number more than half a million a year in the UK, costing upwards of £4.5billion. Now more than 14,000 postmenopausal women in England could benefit from a new drug, Abaloparatide, which helps prevent bone fractures. The drug, made by Theramex, isn’t the first for osteoporosis post-menopause, but is a clinically and cost-effective new option for the group of women who do not respond to, or cannot tolerate the existing drugs available. (Continue reading: The Guardian)

📄 Govt & policy news

📌 US: NIH launches $3million prize competition to modernise diagnosis of endometriosis. Since endometriosis currently takes up to 10 years to diagnose, the goal of this challenge is to make a meaningful impact for the millions of women and girls who suffer from it. Apply if you’re US-based and working on innovative and non-invasive solutions. (Continue reading: NIH)