Issue 41: Women's health marketing under fire | £1.5m for Juniper insurance | Perelel donates $10m to research
Issue 41: Women's health marketing under fire | £1.5m for Juniper insurance | Perelel donates $10m to research
+ lots more in your weekly round-up of women's health innovation and FemTech news
Hello! This is issue #41 of FutureFemHealth, here to bring you your weekly news about women’s health innovation and FemTech (w/c 19 February 2024).
On Friday I’m excited to co-host a small roundtable as a follow-up to our women’s health censorship survey - I’ll report back to you in the next few weeks on the results of both of these and our next steps for the censHERship campaign.
🌟 Coming up today we’ve got:
🛑 Are women’s health brands hijacking feminist narratives?
✅ £1.5m for Juniper - the ’first-ever’ reproductive insurance startup
💊 Perelel maternal vitamins donates $10m to healthcare research
🚽 The urine test that could detect ovarian cancer
Got news to share from the world of FemTech and women’s health innovation? Let me know at anna@futurefemhealth.com
💊 Women’s health marketing is hijacking feminist narratives - but are the brands to blame?
A swathe of non-evidence based tests and treatments for women’s health are co-opting feminist narratives in their marketing, according to a new study out last week.
Phrases like ‘take charge of your health’ and similar empowerment messages can risk women being overdiagnosed and overtreated, say Dr Brooke Nickel and Dr Tessa Copp from the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney.
One example highlighted is the rise of tests for the anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) - which, the researchers say, can’t reliably predict fertility and can’t be used as a standalone way to make reproductive decisions.
“The use of feminist marketing makes these companies appear socially progressive and champions of female health. But they are selling a test that has no proven benefit outside of IVF and cannot inform women about their current or future fertility,” they say.
Are the brands to blame?
The products are taking a battering here for taking advantage of vulnerable women.
And while I agree that there is a lot of opportunism happening in women’s health right now, I also want to pause to think about why these feminist narratives resonate.
Why are phrases like these so powerful? - “You deserve to know your reproductive potential”, “be proactive about your fertility” and “knowing your numbers will empower you to make the best decisions when family planning.”
Let’s be real - no-one wants to know their AMH levels. They want to know if and when they can get pregnant or how to prevent pregnancy.
Women are craving support and answers. Support and answers that are not available elsewhere right now owing to the gender health gap.
Just this week, a report from Benenden Health found 60% of women say their health issues are ‘not taken seriously’ in the UK. More than half say they’ve had a negative experience with a healthcare professional.
No wonder then that women turn to the alternatives.
A systemic issue
What I think this Australian study highlights is deeper than a marketing issue - it’s a systemic one.
The larger, more pressing, root cause we need to solve for is more investment in health research, more professional training and how to bridge the gender health gap.
Only then will women feel genuinely empowered.
💰 Funding, deals and investment news
📌 UK: Reproductive health insurer Juniper raises £1.5m. Millions of working days are lost to reproductive health concerns such as menopause and PCOS each year. But traditional insurers may not cover them. Juniper was founded in 2023 to change that. This pre-seed round by Insurtech Gateway will help Juniper get started with launched planned for 2025. Commenting on going for the insurance business model versus an employee benefit model (like fellow startups Peppy or Fertifa), cofounder and CEO Ambra Zhang said: “Companies are always more price sensitive when it comes to employee benefits.” (Source: Sifted.eu)
📌 Ireland: Coroflo breastfeeding monitor raises €2.8m funding. One of the key reasons mothers stop breastfeeding is that they’re unsure if their baby is getting enough milk. Now a world-first breastfeeding monitor from Coroflo contains a patented micro-flow that measures the milk and allows parents to find out. This latest funding round for Coroflo comes from private investors and adds to €4.2m already raised. The monitor will launch in Ireland later this year. (Source: Irish Independent)
📌 US: $28m for Oula maternity clinics. 74% of women say they want a less medicalised approach to birth - up from 45% in 2002. Oula’s ‘postpartum office hours’, preconception coaching visits and expanded miscarriage support are just some of the initiatives that set them apart from your standard maternity clinic. Oula also provides a hybrid virtual and in-person approach - with three locations so far in NY and plans to expand. Investment for this series B was co-led by Revolution Ventures and Maverick Ventures. (Source: Fierce Healthcare)
📌 US: Kindbody Fertility offering a discount for investors. What’s going on with the fertility unicorn Kindbody? It was last valued at $1.8 billion. But late last year, Bloomberg reported serious issues, high running costs and losses of $7million on average a month. Now, Business Insider reports that a goal to raise $50m has been downgraded to $30million with tweaks to the structure so investors get a discount. (Source: Business Insider (paywall on this one, sorry).
🌟 More news from this week
📌 Maternal health startup donates $10m to healthcare research. I love this example of giving back. Prenatal vitamin company Perelel even plans to scale donations more as it grows - and investors Unilever Ventures are on board with the plan too. This $10m donation will go to Magee-Womens Research Institute which focuses solely on researching women’s health and Good+Foundation for maternal healthcare. (Source: Fast Company)
📌 US: Samsung launches new ultrasound digital platform. We’re all for practical ways to improve women’s health. This new centralised hub of information will help clinicians in women’s health ultrasound to upskill, discover the latest innovations and deliver the highest standard of care. ‘theSUITE’ includes live training, forums and an education hub for obstetrics and gynaecology. (Source: Samsung)
📌 US: Flo Health calls for firmer privacy regulation of healthtech. After the overturning of Roe v Wade, women have paid more attention than ever before to how their private health information is shared. Sue Khan, who is Flo Health’s Vice President of Privacy and Data Protection Officer, explains how the leading women’s health app protects its users. She also calls for a new single federal privacy law in the US to introduce a firmer regulatory framework for how healthtech companies track, share and process their users’ information. (Source: Information Week)
📌 UK: Frozen eggs may be damaged by faulty liquid at IVF clinic. My heart goes out to more than 100 patients who may have damaged eggs and embryos after a fault in the freezing process at Guy’s Hospital in London. HFEA is investigating the delay in sharing the news with patients. (Source: BBC)
📌 UK: ‘Insulting menopause gift bags.’ Introducing support for menopause within the workplace deserves praise - but it has to be done in a meaningful way without gimmicks. On this occasion Avanti West Coast didn’t get it right and Unions have criticised its ‘demeaning gift bag’ which included such things as a paperclip ‘so you can hold it together’ (Source: The Guardian)
🩸 Research and women’s health news
📌 Ovarian cancer: how a new urine test may help detect it early. Ovarian cancer is so often diagnosed late because symptoms are vague. Researchers are now developing what would be the first urine test to screen for ovarian cancer - bringing hope for much earlier diagnosis. (Source: Medical News Today)
📌 US: Abortions by telemedicine and post are safe and effective, study finds. Not everybody can or wants to visit a clinic to access abortion. A new study by abortion care startup Hey Jane has now shown that online and postal abortion care is as safe and effective as in-person. They hope these findings can advance science, influence policy and improve access to medication for abortion. (Source: New York Times)
📌 Women benefit more from regular exercise than men. New research suggests men and women do not get the same gains from the same levels of physical activity. “Our study doesn’t suggest that women should exercise less, but rather it encourages women who may not be getting enough exercise for various reasons, that even relatively small amounts of exercise can provide significant benefits,” said Dr Hongwei Ji, co-author of the study from the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University. (Source: The Guardian)
📌 ’How we turned 451 white papers on female physiology into the most powerful algorithm turning raw data into insights and recommendations for women’. A fascinating behind the scenes from female training app Wild.ai and its meticulous work to map and validate the research it could rely upon. (Source: Hélène Guillaume on Medium)
📌 UK: Would you change jobs for reproductive benefits? More than half of UK employees have - or would consider changing jobs to gain reproductive benefits. That’s according to Maven’s third annual State of Women’s and Family Health Benefits report that looks at global market trends. Expect to see further growth in employee benefits for fertility as both awareness and expectation increases. (Source: Maven)
📄 Govt & policy news
📌 US: Alabama supreme court rules frozen embryos are ‘children’. A worrying precedent set as a Court has allowed two wrongful death suits against fertility clinics to proceed. This decision could impact people seeking IVF and increase criminalisation. (Source: The Guardian)
✅ Jobs
📌 Go-to-market expert / fractional CMO, Amira (Part-time / remote)
📌 Patient Coordinator, Create Fertility (UK, remote)
📌 Pelvic pain specialist, Daye (Temporary contract, London)
📌 Social Media and Community Manager, Hey Jane (Full time, remote US)
Thanks for reading and see you next time,
Anna