Issue 50: We're 1! | Future fertility | $2.32m for Pelvital | FemTech Europe report | ASPIVIX & Bayer collab

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

Apr 24, 2024

Hello and welcome to issue #50 of FutureFemHealth, here to bring you your weekly news about women’s health innovation and FemTech (w/c 22 April 2024).

🌟 Coming up today we’ve got:

👶🏼 The fertility start-ups shortening the pathway to parenthood
💰 $2.32m for Pelvital’s pelvic health device ‘Flyte’
🔥 New FemTech Europe landscape report
❤️ ASPIVIX and Bayer Switzerland partner to reduce pain of gynae procedures

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

But first…we’re one-year-old this week!

person holding balloons — Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash

I’m celebrating the one-year anniversary of creating FutureFemHealth. A project I began in April 2023 has grown into a wonderful community with 900 of you joining me here each week. Thank you!

As we reach the one-year mark, I’ve turned on paid subscriptions! You can now upgrade to become a ‘supporter’ of FutureFemHealth for just £5 a month or £50 a year.

Your backing will help fund my work raising the visibility of innovation in women’s health and bringing you the latest news in this fast-moving industry. In time, I’ll add further benefits for paid subscribers too - so subscribe now to retain this early-bird price!

👶🏼 Future fertility: the startups shortening the pathway to parenthood

woman kissing baby on cheek — Photo by Praveen kumar Mathivanan on Unsplash

Last week, 90s pop culture icons Nelly and Ashanti delighted millennials like me around the world by announcing their rekindled romance and news of their first child together.

But more relevant to readers here(!) the couple also announced that they are investing in the future of fertility as co-owners of start-up Proov.

Proov’s focus is on helping people avoid the need for IVF.

It offers at-home diagnostics and affordable treatments and supplements, as well as the ‘Proov Path to Pregnancy’ program launched in February.

Founder Dr Amy Beckley’s story is symbolic of the problem being solved. She suffered miscarriage after miscarriage attempting to conceive and ultimately turned to IVF to have her son. Later, she uncovered the source of her troubles - a problem with ovulation - and was able to successfully conceive using a simple, inexpensive supplement.

And Proov isn’t the only start-up challenging IVF as the go-to fertility option.

Maven doubles down on ‘natural conception’

Last week, Maven announced they are doubling down on support for ‘natural conception’ with enhanced one-on-one coaching, educational resources, and robust support for those trying to conceive.

This shift comes as new figures show that in the US IVF-assisted pregnancies constitute 2.5% of all births in 2022, and the World Health Organisation estimates that 1 in 6 people globally are affected by infertility.

It’s clear we need more accessible and affordable fertility options.

IVF is not only a physically, emotionally, and financially demanding process, but also out of reach for many.

And not everyone needs to jump straight into such an invasive option. There’s evidence of that already from within Maven Fertility & Family Building program, where 30% of members achieve pregnancy without the need for assisted reproductive technology.

"Maven is making sure every family can access the shortest pathway to having a healthy baby," said Maven Clinic CEO and founder Kate Ryder.
"We have constructed a unique model that, for the first time, aligns incentives among the stakeholders in healthcare to support people who are trying to conceive."

Stakeholder incentive is another important point there. Because when there is VC funding in fertility start-ups it can sometimes feel like financial targets might incentivise extended and more expensive treatment options.

The UK’s non-IVF options

Here in the UK, there are also signs of traction for more non-IVF options.

Marika Skujina’s Plan your baby helps parents conceive in a holistic way with nutritional, psychological and mental support alongside, or instead of, the clinical and medical options.

And within the NHS, although IVF and IUI are currently the main treatments offered, there is an ongoing small trial for an at-home intracervical insemination (ICI) kit from Béa Fertility within the NHS in London. It’s also available privately for purchase too.

With the current postcode lottery for the NHS these sorts of options might be more affordable for the NHS to provide and also give couples on waiting lists alternatives to try in the meantime. If successful, they may free up NHS IVF for those who are most in need as well as single people and same sex couples where a donor sperm or egg is required.

So, while it’s still essential we optimise IVF and improve success rates, these innovations are a reminder of what the future of fertility is really about: shortening the path to a successful pregnancy and making parenthood accessible to more people in more ways.

💰 Funding, deals and investment news

📌 Pelvital raises additional $2.32m in seed plus funding. As taboos break down, more and more women experiencing pelvic floor issues are coming forward - a study this week found 8 in 10 women now suffer. Pelvital’s ‘Flyte’ device aims to stimulate tissue repair and create better pelvic muscle memory. After securing $2.68m in seed funding last year, Pelvital has just landed an additional round of seed plus to help speed up commercialisation. The round was led by Boomerang Ventures. (Source: Finsmes)

📌 Female founder funding: will it ever change? Many readers will know that VC funding for all-female-founded teams hovers around the 2% mark. And that’s despite many initiatives launched over the years to try and change things. So what next? In this piece, journalist Amy Lewin argues for dedicated pools of funding, more women in VC roles and quite simply, more money. And, she writes, “once all of the above is in place — and the next Spotify is being built by a woman — we won’t need the stick. All anyone will see is the carrot.” (Source: Sifted)

🌟 More news from this week

📌 New European FemTech Report. Sie Ventures has spent nine months collating a landscape review of the estimated 540 FemTech companies in Europe. It’s a really welcome focus on a market that is still ripe for growth with most European FemTech companies still at early stage. (Download the report: Sie Ventures)

📌 Switzerland: ASPIVIX partners with Bayer Switzerland to reduce pain of gynaecological procedures. The traditional ‘forceps-like’ tenaculum is a big reason for the pain, discomfort and bleeding women experience during uterine procedures such as IUD insertion. But women’s health company ASPIVIX created something better - a soft suction device called Carevix. Now pharma giant Bayer is partnering to bring the device to patients - at least in Switzerland initially for now. We love to see it! (Source: FutureFemHealth)

📌 Holland & Barrett trains 600 women’s health coaches to give in-store support. Now retail is plugging the gap in the lack of women’s health education and health support in the UK. Large wellness chain Holland & Barrett is ploughing £4m into upskilling staff in its 700 stores on the menstrual cycle, gut health, sleep and more. Commercially of course this is a huge opportunity for H&B to be ‘the’ destination for women’s wellness, having initially focused on menopause in the last few years. But I’d pose a question too of whether our taboo-filled society is ready for shopfloor conversations about periods and toilet habits? (Source: The Guardian)

📌 Daye to launch new workplace gynae health app. Two-thirds of UK women have bad work experiences due to periods. Now period and gynae health start-up Daye is bringing together all of its services to help workplaces be more period inclusive. Expect resources, access to a period pain clinic, at-home tests and instant virtual appointments. (Source: Daye)

📌 ’Flagged inappropriate.’ The FutureFemHealth-backed censHERship campaign highlights social media censorship of women’s health. In this piece in NZ-based Debate Mag we share results of our survey of 50 organisations experiencing issues. (Source: Debate Mag)

📌 UK: Maxwellia launches over-the-counter heavy period relief. Heavy periods affect as many as 30% of women of reproductive age and can take a considerable toll on wellbeing and quality of life. Finally, there’s an over-the-counter remedy available without prescription in the form of Maxwellia’s ‘Evana’ tranexamic acid. That’s a big tick for easier access to treatment without having to convince a doctor it’s not just ‘something to put up with.’ (Source: Maxwellia)

🩸 Research and women’s health news

woman in orange shirt carrying baby in white and blue floral shirt — Photo by Andrae Ricketts on Unsplash

📌 US & UK: Black Maternal Health Week shines light on disparities. Black mothers are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women - in the UK that’s four times more likely. We have to keep raising awareness of these awful statistics - not just during awareness weeks but all year round. (Source: Axios)

📌 Yes, women’s exclusion in clinical trials is still a problem. 30+ years on from the NIH mandate that women should be included in clinical trials, there are still challenges in adequately representing women in medical research. Hera Biotech founder Somer Baburek writes that her work on endometriosis faces hurdles in recruiting women into trials and navigating the rigid structure of the FDA. Ultimately though, Somer concludes strides are being made. (Source: Clinical leader)

📌 UK: 600,000 in England awaiting gynaecological treatment, figures show. In just two years waiting lists have increased by a third for gynaecological treatment. No region in England now meets the government’s target for cervical cancer screening. (Source: The Guardian)

📄 Govt & policy news

📌 UK: More investment needed to close the gender health gap. The Government’s Women’s Health Strategy was warmly welcomed when it was launched almost two years ago. But, clear holes have emerged in funding commitments since then. Journalist Sarah Graham says we now need much more from the Government. And the benefits are clear - we could add £39billion to the UK economy and give each British woman around 9.5 more days of good health a year if we can close the gender health gap by 2040. (Source: BMJ)

📌 UK: Elvie leads calls for more pelvic health funding. The Government’s own estimates show that just £18 per woman is set aside to improve support for pelvic health - that’s despite data showing 1 in 3 women experience urinary incontinence three months after pregnancy. Elvie has now brought together 70 members of the women’s health industry in an open letter to to ask MPs to increase funding, speed up frontline service delivery and provide extra training, and offer prescriptions for pelvic floor training and physio for everyone that gives birth. (Source: FutureFemHealth)