October 18, 2020. World Menopause Day aka a couple of *really* busy days for our colleagues innovating for women going through or approaching menopause. Lots of launches, lots of events, lots of press and lots of interest for a condition that affects every single woman on this planet and has been underserved, underresearched and underfunded for far too long. A good sign! But are things really changing? Or is World Menopause Day just a moment in time and we spend the other 364 days of the year going back to “our old ways”? We talked to a couple of founders to get their view.
This past May PitchBook led with their analysis of the space from an investment perspective acknowledging that “VCs are finally ready to talk about menopause”. Great news? But as we all know: Talk is cheap, so the next year will tell whether actions will follow and more funding will go to an ever increasing number of early stage menopause startups.
VCs, however, are not the only ones who are starting to pay attention and it is indeed refreshing to see more and more women in the public eye, who are stepping up and openly addressing the topic. “We’re living like it’s not happening”, said former First Lady Michelle Obama a few weeks ago on her podcast. And I think we all agree: This needs to change.
World Menopause Day is an opportunity to create awareness among the general public, but also for us as a community dedicated to women’s health innovation to take a step back and reflect on the past year. To see where we’ve made progress towards destigmatization and change and where more needs to be done.
Over the past couple of days we had a change to catch up with 4 femtech founders working on startups in the menopause space to get their perspective. Have we made any progress towards destigmatization? What are their thoughts about trends in the space? And how did they experience World Menopause Day? Check out the videos below and hear from those in the know!
A big thank you to Alessandra Henderson (Elektra Health), Clare Knox (See Her Thrive), Mridula Pore (Peppy), and Gervase Fay (Health & Her), who took time out of their busy schedules to share their thoughts!
