Hormonal health
“Let the activists keep beating the drum around female health inequalities”
By Nicola Finn, associate director at OggaDoon
For decades medical research has been based on data from the male body, but we now know that women’s bodies respond in different ways to drugs and disease.
The research and application gap in healthcare is starting to be recognised and thankfully, the landscape is changing. After all women account for 50 per cent of the global population.
We are going to witness a massive explosion in female health solutions over the next five years. Femtech is predicted to grow at around 15 per cent CAGR, with solutions around mental health, ovarian health, menstrual health and menopause health – to name a few.
More female founders who connect and understand the different health challenges women face are starting businesses to help fill the female health gap in different ways. However, this is not for the faint of heart as the female founders must overcome other barriers such as the bias in capital funding, access to business loans and support for childcare to help free up women’s time.
In the UK, there is a widening funding gap between male-founded and female-founded companies. In 2020, just 2.3 per cent of VC funding went to women-led start-ups. This fell to 1.7 per cent in 2021.
There is additional research conducted by Extended Ventures which also spotlighted the huge investment gap facing diverse founders over the past decade, according to race, gender and educational background, with all-ethnic teams and female entrepreneurs receiving just a fraction of available funding versus all-white teams and male founders. The finding of baked-in bias holds true across all funding stages, per the findings.
Lack of diversity across the capital landscape – angel, venture capital (VC) or private equity (PE) – is no secret. At present, it is a male-dominated space globally.
In 2019 women comprise 30 per cent of venture capital personnel – a small increase from 27 per cent in 2017. Whilst this is encouraging and implies more representation, it still lags behind the average of UK working professionals.
All groups of humans have similar biases, naturally gravitating to people and scenarios that they can personally relate to. This extends to bias around investment decisions, intentional or not. But we need more female investors to be in these positions, as they can personally understand the impact of innovations, specifically targeting female health.
After years of male investors ignoring the female health space, it is finally being recognised as a hotbed for investment due to its predicted growth.
Thankfully, more women are coming into the female health investment industry and more funds are also headed by female investors.
This is needed to drive and ensure inclusivity and unbiased access to the industry and will need historic investment for innovation and collaboration.
In order to build towards the brave new world that prioritises individual female needs in healthcare, there needs to be a movement. Not just front-line activists championing and fighting for equality in female health, but also activist angels, VCs and PEs, providing funding support to visionary founders.
Right now, it is a critical time to keep taking those meaningful steps to bridge the gender health gap. With that, here are some of the UK femtech founders bridging the gender health gap:
Sarah Bolt, founder of Forth has always been part of the movement to highlight and bridge the female gender data and health inequality gap. Forth’s mission is to empower women to become experts on their own body through scientific knowledge and understanding. Historically, women’s bodies were deemed too complicated for clinical trials due to the complexities of their hormone network. This has resulted in women reacting differently to drugs and often misdiagnosed as they do not present with the same symptoms as men.
It was only six years ago that the National Institutes of Health required medical investigators to consider sex as a biological variable. But there is still a long way to go in closing the gender data gap in health.
Forth’s contribution to closing this gap in data is their ground-breaking solution MyFORM™, an advanced female hormone blood test that addresses the lack of clinical insight from current single day hormone blood tests. The single-day tests assume every woman has an average length cycle of 28 days and offer little in the way of personalisation.
MyFORM™ uses a combination of blood analysis, advanced mathematical modelling and endocrinology expertise to scientifically map how a woman’s hormones are fluctuating across their entire menstrual cycle rather than a single day.
With two blood tests taken on day 14 and day 21, the test is able to predict the woman’s own cycle length, creating charts of her four key female hormones across her menstrual cycle, as well as providing personalised ranges for each hormone.
Forth has also developed a unique way to assess a woman’s ovarian health. The Forth Ovarian Response Metric (FORM) takes the results from the blood tests to provide a score on how well a woman’s ovaries are responding to her control hormones. A score above 75 indicates a healthy hormone network. This is particularly useful for women entering perimenopause when their ovaries begin to become less responsive.
The product is designed for women who are experiencing natural menstrual cycles and not using any hormonal treatments such as the pill, Mirena coil or hormone replacement therapy (HRT). It is particularly useful for:
- Women who want to check for hormone imbalance
- Women in their 40s who want to understand if the symptoms they are experiencing are due to perimenopause
- To identify or manage an existing hormone related condition
- Women who consider starting a family
- Exercisers, athletes and dancers who want to perform to their personal best throughout their cycle and ensure their hormones have not been compromised by their training load and fuelling strategies
- Women whose menstrual cycles have recently resumed following recovery from RED-S – relative energy deficiency in sport – discontinuation of hormonal contraception or in the postnatal period.
The highly accurate, personalised results are based on eight hormone measurements, which are translated through AI and delivered on the Forth app. This offers scientific data and actionable insights as hormones are intrinsically linked to a woman’s wellbeing and have an important role to play not only in fertility but in heart health, bone health and the nervous system.
Dr Chen Mao Davies started LatchAid after facing her own struggles with breastfeeding, pain and subsequent depression. She realised that mothers needed maternal support fit for the 21st century in an interactive way.
With the pandemic currently paralysing the predominantly face-to-face support model in place, her app is more necessary now than ever.
LatchAid supports breastfeeding mums and their families through interactive 3D technology, artificial intelligence, virtual peer support groups and live healthcare specialists to combat problems experienced with the latching technique. The app prides itself on being inherently accessible and democratic, empowering women everywhere, regardless of their economic or environmental circumstances.
As well as positive health outcomes for mothers and babies, breastfeeding offers social, economic, and environmental benefits. The UK, however, has the lowest breastfeeding rate in the world. 90 per cent of women give up breastfeeding before they want to because of pain, health issues or lack of support. Unsuccessful breastfeeding also costs society around US$1B per day globally.
LatchAid is an app that utilises 3D interactive technology to help mothers learn breastfeeding skills intuitively from 3D avatars. It offers virtual peer support groups to connect mothers to a close-knit peer-to-peer support network and an AI-powered virtual supporter chatbot to provide users with personalised expertise and companionship 24/7.
Elvie is a women’s healthcare company providing products which take women’s tech out of the dark ages. Tania Boler started the business after working on women’s health policy for global NGOs and the United Nations.
She believes that the release of health products targeting a female audience must go alongside the breaking down of societal stigmatisation of women’s health.
One such product is the sleek, innovative breast pump – the smallest and lightest wearable electric one on the market. It is a silent, wire-free, fully electric device that fits subtly into a nursing bra, ensuring new mothers can pump whilst moving around comfortably.
The pump connects to a mobile app which releases a notification when the bottles are filled. The app can also be used to adjust the suction, monitor pumping history, monitor real-time milk levels and pause and start pumping. The product also includes bra adjusters to ensure less pressure on the breast.
Another product by Elvie is the pelvic floor trainer. Now available on the NHS, this product connects to the Elvie app and encourages training with fun games for five minutes, three times a week.
The trainer is fully waterproof, rechargeable and covered with medical-grade silicone and it is safe to use with an IUD and coil. The app encourages use with four different skill levels and six different exercise types including strength and lift.
Kim Palmer founded the women’s mental health app Clementine in 2017 which uses hypnotherapy to lower stress levels and build confidence. She created Clementine after suffering herself from panic attacks during pregnancy. The app has both a free and a subscription-based version with sleep sessions, confidence and anti-anxiety courses as well as mantras.
Deborah Brock founded Nua Fertility following the challenges she had through her own fertility journey. Following her own successful pregnancy through optimising diet, she started researching the connection between the gut microbiome and reproductive health. After three years of research, Deborah developed two fertility supplements – one for men and one for women – that focus on the microbiome to optimise fertility health.
Nua fertility supplements, have a microbiome focus and are designed to support the nutritional needs of men and women when trying to conceive. The company’s NuaBiome Women supplements combine fertility-supporting vitamins and minerals with a blend of strains of good bacteria to promote healthy conception, egg health, and foetal development.
The friendly bacteria offer three significant benefits: absorption of essential fertility vitamins and nutrients, strengthening the immune system and reducing inflammation in the body.
All these female founders have fought to gain funding for their propositions and succeeded despite the obstacles due to the baked-in bias and lack of diversity across the business capital arena.
However, more female investors need to be appointed as they can personally understand the impact of female health tech innovations.
Let the activists keep beating the drum around female health inequalities. As we continue to make these meaningful steps to bridge the gender health gap we can remember that necessity is the mother of all invention.
Menstrual cycle timing may affect vaccine side effects, according to a study involving 1,474 users of period-tracking app, Clue.
People vaccinated before ovulation were more likely to report side effects than those vaccinated after ovulation.
They also appeared to go longer before a subsequent Covid-19 infection, although the researchers said this finding was exploratory.
Amanda Shea, fractional chief science officer at Clue, said: “We know that immune function fluctuates across the menstrual cycle, yet it’s still rarely considered in mainstream health research.
“To truly understand women’s health, we need to stop treating the menstrual cycle as background noise and start recognising it as a fundamental part of human biology.
“Incorporating cycle data into research is essential to building the evidence needed for more personalised and effective care.”
In the study, participants vaccinated during the follicular phase had 35 per cent higher odds of reporting any vaccine side effect than those vaccinated during the luteal phase.
The follicular phase occurs before ovulation, when oestrogen is dominant. The luteal phase follows ovulation and is dominated by progesterone.
Sensitivity analyses produced similar findings after people vaccinated around menstruation were excluded, suggesting the association was not simply explained by menstrual or premenstrual symptoms.
A sensitivity analysis checks whether findings remain consistent when researchers change parts of their analysis.
The researchers found no evidence that vaccination during the follicular phase was linked to more severe side effects or a greater number of side effects.
Those vaccinated during the follicular phase went a median of 35 days longer before reporting a subsequent Covid-19 infection.
The median was 200 days among those vaccinated during the follicular phase, compared with 164 days for those vaccinated during the luteal phase.
However, only 82 infections were recorded across the sample.
The researchers said the result was exploratory and intended to generate a hypothesis rather than provide evidence that vaccination timing improves protection.
The study was led by Poppy Cooper at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Alexandra Alvergne at the University of Montpellier.
They worked with researchers from Oregon Health & Science University and cycle-tracking company Clue.
The findings add to growing evidence that reproductive hormones may influence immune function.
Oestrogen is generally associated with heightened immune activity, while progesterone tends to have a dampening effect.
Previous studies have found that women often develop stronger antibody responses than men after vaccines for influenza, measles, mumps and rubella, and hepatitis. They also often report more side effects.
Antibodies are proteins made by the immune system that identify and help fight infections.
Clue said research has been central to its work since the company was founded.
Its users have tracked more than 250m cycles and contributed more than 30bn data points with their consent, creating what the company describes as one of the world’s largest long-term menstrual health datasets.
Clue works with researchers at institutions including MIT, Oxford, Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley.
The company said the study was possible because users chose to contribute their tracked cycle data to research.
Rhiannon White, chief executive of Clue, said: “Every time the Clue community tracks their cycle, they’re helping answer a question about their own body that medicine has too often ignored.
“This study is a small example of something bigger: when women are given the tools to understand themselves, and the research catches up to meet them, real change becomes possible.”
Researchers surveyed Clue users about when they received their first Covid-19 vaccine dose, any side effects they experienced and subsequent infections.
The responses were matched with cycle information that each participant had previously recorded in the app, rather than relying on recalled estimates.
Of the 1,474 users included, 760 were vaccinated during the follicular phase and 714 during the luteal phase.
The researchers stressed that people should not use the findings to schedule vaccinations around their menstrual cycle.
They said receiving a vaccine when it is available remains far more important than the phase of the cycle in which it is given.
As the first study to investigate the association, further evidence is needed before any recommendations can be made.
The researchers said future vaccine and immunology studies should consider menstrual cycle phase as an important variable.
Type 2 diabetes is rising among women in their 20s in England, with experts warning of a worrying increase since the Covid pandemic.
The rise has largely occurred since the pandemic and is closely linked to increasing obesity levels, according to an analysis of NHS data from 2011 to 2024.
The condition is serious and can lead to severe complications, including heart attacks and strokes.
Diabetes UK said it tends to be more aggressive when it develops at a younger age, raising the risk of serious complications and shorter lives.
The charity said early diagnosis is vital for people at risk to help prevent long-term organ damage.
The condition can sometimes be put into remission through healthy eating and maintaining a healthy weight, without relying on glucose-lowering medicines.
Researchers said newer obesity treatments, including GLP-1 injections and pills, may also help alongside healthy eating advice.
About 90 per cent of the six million people living with diabetes in the UK have type 2 rather than type 1, or insulin-dependent, diabetes.
The risk increases with age, and older adults still account for the largest proportion of new diagnoses.
However, NHS England estimates suggest that 12,000 people under 30 are now living with the condition, with women making up more of the younger cases.
Common symptoms include feeling very tired, urinating more often than usual and feeling thirsty all the time.
Researchers at Imperial College London analysed NHS data from the English National Diabetes Audit to examine trends over time.
The figures showed that cases are falling slightly among older adults, who still account for the largest share of new diagnoses.
However, diagnoses are increasing rapidly among people under 40, with some of the sharpest rises among women aged 20 to 29.
Body mass index at diagnosis has also been rising more quickly among younger adults than in older age groups, pointing to obesity as a likely factor.
Body mass index, or BMI, is a measure of obesity based on a person’s height and weight.
Separate NHS data for England shows obesity rates have worsened since the pandemic, with nearly one in three people now affected.
The largest increases over time have been among younger adults.
Between 2019 and 2025, new obesity cases rose by 16 per cent among people aged 20 to 29 and by almost 20 per cent among those aged 30 to 39.
Rates fell among adults aged 60 to 79 over the same period.
Lead researcher Dr Shivani Misra said: “We think that the earlier onset of severe obesity in young people is increasing their type 2 diabetes risk in early life and pulling down their age at diagnosis.
“This is really worrying given the poor health outcomes from early-onset type 2 diabetes.”
Misra said much of the discussion about rising rates among younger people had focused on ethnic minority groups, which have traditionally been considered at higher risk.
However, the new data suggests the trend extends well beyond those communities.
She added: “We now see that incidence is also increasing in white populations too, showing that this public health challenge is broadening across the generations.”
Diabetes UK said better follow-up care is also needed for mums-to-be diagnosed with gestational diabetes during pregnancy because it raises the risk of developing type 2 diabetes after childbirth.
Some studies have suggested that the risk of developing the condition may also increase after being ill with Covid, although the evidence remains inconclusive.
Women with PMOS may have a fourfold higher risk of heart disease, new research suggests.
PMOS, or polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, is a complex hormone condition affecting about one in eight women in the UK.
It can affect hair growth, periods, fertility and mood.
US researchers analysed health insurance data collected between 2000 and 2022 from 413,450 women with PMOS aged 18 to 50.
They compared the group with more than two million women who did not have the condition.
The study found that women with PMOS had a fourfold higher risk of heart disease than those without it.
The increased risk remained after researchers accounted for other factors linked to heart disease, including high blood pressure and diabetes.
International PMOS guidelines recommend screening all patients for heart disease risk at diagnosis and providing advice on lifestyle changes.
However, researchers said patient surveys “report delayed diagnosis and substantial dissatisfaction with counselling regarding long-term comorbidities”.
Comorbidities are additional health conditions that occur alongside a main condition.
Researchers added: “Our results emphasise the need for physician education and patient awareness of cardiovascular disease risk to improve implementation of early preventive interventions.”
The team called for further studies following women through menopause, when periods stop.
They also called for research into whether treatments such as GLP-1 drugs or hormonal contraception affect the link between PMOS and heart disease.
GLP-1 drugs are medicines used for conditions including type 2 diabetes and weight management.
The main symptoms of PMOS include irregular periods or long gaps between periods, excessive hair growth or hair loss, weight gain or difficulty losing weight, and difficulty becoming pregnant.
Other symptoms include depression or anxiety, oily skin and acne, tiredness, and thick, dark patches of skin on the neck or armpits, known as acanthosis nigricans.
Until recently, PMOS was known as polycystic ovarian syndrome, or PCOS.
Experts called for the name change after highlighting that misunderstandings about cysts and too much focus on the ovaries were delaying diagnoses.
Earlier this month, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence said women with PMOS should be seen by health professionals annually to monitor symptoms and manage long-term risks.
NICE said the condition affects between three and four million women in the UK but is “frequently underdiagnosed and inconsistently managed”.
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