"We're giving women time back" - Juno Technologies takes on menstrual pain with medical device
Canadian start-up building device to relieve menstrual pain
For millions of women, period pain is still treated as an inevitability — managed with heat pads, over-the-counter medication or simply endured. But menstrual pain isn’t just discomfort; it takes time away from women every month: hours lost to fatigue, disrupted routines, days missed from work or sport.
For Juno Technologies co-founders Nanette Sene and Lynn Doughane, that loss of time — and the lack of effective solutions — became impossible to ignore.
Sene, an engineer with a background in physiotherapy, had long worked in pain management but saw almost no progress in menstrual pain solutions. “It can’t be that there isn’t much innovation in the field,” she recalls thinking.
Doughane, a former professional swimmer and runner, experienced debilitating cramps despite access to “very strong medication.” It made her “super sleepy,” she says, and often didn’t help for “three to four hours.”
Neither felt the existing options were good enough for the estimated 80% of women who experience period pain — and both knew they weren’t alone.
That shared frustration became the starting point for Juno Technologies, a Montreal-based company developing a connected neuromodulation device for menstrual pain, supported by a companion app that tracks symptoms and pain patterns.
At its core is neuromodulation — already established in other pain fields — with what the team describe as their own proprietary improvements.
“The basis is neuromodulation,” Doughane says, “but with our own IP we’re able to make it more effective.”
Building with clinicians from day one
Unlike many consumer pain-tech products, Juno’s approach hasn’t been to launch first and validate later. From the outset, the founders embedded clinicians into the design and testing process — something they see as essential in a field where women’s pain is so often minimised or dismissed.
“We work closely with healthcare providers to make sure that what we are bringing to the market actually has a validation behind it,” says Sene.
Their clinical partners include gynaecologists, pelvic pain specialists and potential users — all consulted before any product development began.
Doughane emphasises that this clinical gap is part of the problem. As she puts it: if a doctor “doesn’t have any other solution, well, they cannot offer you any other solution” and this is a contributing factor to the existing experiences of women being dismissed. That’s why involving experts early — and building something that “makes sense” to them — was central to Juno’s process. Early research included interviews, focus groups and surveys with women who had struggled to manage their pain.
The companion app currently functions as a pain journal, something both clinicians and users find valuable. “It’s good for your personal pain management,” Doughane explains, “but it’s also good to help you with navigating the healthcare system.” Future versions will move toward “optimised treatment,” though the team is keeping those details under wraps for now.
Regulation and market entry
When they founded Juno in 2022, the surge of investor interest in women’s health hadn’t yet arrived.
“We didn’t know that would happen,” Doughane says. “We went into it because we said, we need this product… even though it’s not popular.” But the shift has helped validate the need. “We got lucky that now it’s making sense for the rest of the world,” she adds.
Juno is now preparing its FDA submission next year, followed by Health Canada, with North America as the first target market. CE marking is planned after that.
The regulatory pathway has been one of the toughest challenges.
“Innovation in the medtech space is extremely hard because regulatory is such a hurdle,” says Sene. Hardware adds complexity too: “We have the struggle of software and hardware,” she says, describing the process as “very, very intense in terms of challenge and also cost.”
To date, the company has been funded through a combination of non-dilutive support and a pre-seed round.
Liberating women from days lost to pain
Both founders return, repeatedly, to the idea of giving women back their time. Severe menstrual pain, they argue, isn’t only a medical issue — it disrupts work, study, sport and everyday life. Doughane hopes the device will “liberate” women from days lost to pain and missing work, school and other responsibilities. Sene puts it simply: “Reducing pain is kind of the best thing you can do. If you’re creating a solution that’s reducing people’s pain, I think there is not much better satisfaction than that.”
Their next milestone is the transition from years of research and development into real-world use: early deployment in clinical settings before wider availability. “Having it used by patients is really exciting,” Doughane says. “You can see the impact your solution is having.”
For a problem still dismissed far too often — and in a market where meaningful innovation remains rare — the team believes the need is overdue and obvious.
“What’s out there doesn’t work for everyone,” Doughane says. “We’re not alone. We’re not crazy. It’s happening.”
Juno Technologies is one of nine startups selected for the 2025 Canadian Technology Accelerator (CTA) FemTech program organised by the Government of Canada. This program is free for the selected participants, and it provides access to mentors, a peer network, masterclasses delivered by subject matter experts on topics like the market landscape, IP considerations, fund raising, regulatory issues, public relations, and more, and a dedicated visit to the UK and France to connect founders with potential partners and customers. This article is part of a partnership with the High Commission Canada in the UK.