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News
Lawyers warn of discrimination risks around lack of menstrual health support in the workplace
Employers should consider proactively supporting women in managing menstruation at work, lawyers argue

Employers should consider the potential discrimination risks around menstrual health in the workplace, lawyers have warned, as research shows most women in the UK feel unsupported.
According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the majority of women in the UK do not feel a strong sense of support in their organisation in relation to their menstrual cycle.
Figures show women are more likely to feel supported by colleagues than by their employer or manager, with only one in 10 reporting that their organisation provides support for menstruation and menstrual health.
Annisa Khan, employment lawyer at Farrer & Co who has previously raised the alarm over the lack of practical measures to support women with their periods, told Femtech World that employers should be mindful of the legal risks related to managing menstruation.
“Under the Equality Act 2010, it is unlawful to discriminate against employees based on sex, age, or disability,” she said.
“Employers should therefore consider the potential discrimination risks in relation to managing mensuration in the workplace and implement measures to reduce these risks.”
A lack of workplace period policies has been estimated to cost businesses over £6bn per year, as menstrual symptoms cause women to miss an average of 8.4 days per year due to lower productivity.
Khan said organisations should consider proactively supporting employees in managing menstruation at work by reviewing existing policies, including sickness absence and health and wellbeing policies, to ensure they effectively address menstrual-related concerns.
“Creating an open and supportive environment is crucial for employees to feel comfortable discussing periods at work,” she explained.
“This involves raising awareness among all staff, including senior-level managers and male colleagues, to foster an understanding of how colleagues may be affected by menstruation, the relevant policies and how to have open and empathetic conversations.
“Implementing practical measures is also essential to create a supportive environment. Practical steps can include having accessible bathroom facilities with sanitary bins, providing free period products to employees, offering additional breaks and providing a quiet space for rest.”
In line with CIPD’s findings, Khan said workplaces should also consider implementing more flexible working practices and giving women more breaks when needed.
“Employers should be open to employees adjusting their work pattern on the days they are experiencing menstruation symptoms by, for example, offering employees the opportunity to work from home.
“Additionally, they should consider the needs of employees with disabilities or those with medical conditions, and how they may be affected by managing mensuration at work.”
Heidi Watson, employment partner at Clyde & Co, said employers should ensure they avoid breaching discrimination laws when approaching issues like menstrual health.
“As awareness of menstrual issues such as endometriosis grows and as employees are more willing to discuss their symptoms at work, employers will need to consider whether employees are disabled under the legal definition and therefore entitled to protection from less favourable treatment and subject to the duty of the employer to make reasonable adjustments for them,” she told Femtech World.
“Employees may also be able to establish sex or age discrimination claims. We can expect more claims to come before the Employment Tribunal in the not too distant future, in a similar way as we have seen with cases involving menopause in recent years.
“Adopting a flexible approach to managing those with menstrual symptoms which are impacting their work, and creating an open and supportive culture around the issue, will help to reduce the risk of such claims being brought,” she added.
Pregnancy
New reporting tool targets maternal-fetal teams as pregnancy complexity rises

A new reporting tool built specifically for obstetrics and maternal-fetal medicine has launched, aimed at teams managing increasingly complex pregnancies with limited time and resources.
Trice Imaging has released Trice Workspace Reporting, which connects imaging, reporting and longitudinal patient data in a single workflow to support faster clinical decision making.
Birth rates are falling worldwide, but pregnancies are getting more complicated. Advanced maternal age, IVF-assisted pregnancies, rising obesity rates and a higher prevalence of hypertension and diabetes mean more cases now require specialist monitoring, advanced imaging and multidisciplinary care.
At the same time, clinical teams are stretched and facing growing administrative demands.
Trice Workspace Reporting brings together customisable reporting, dynamic pregnancy dating and longitudinal patient history with an AI-ready, EHR-interoperable infrastructure, all inside the company’s Tricefy image management platform.
The company says it aims to accelerate standardised and synchronised report turnaround, support timely clinical decisions and improve operational efficiency for fetal medicine services.
“Maternal fetal medicine teams are managing increasingly complex pregnancies while being asked to do more with limited time and resources,” said Mark A. Samii, chief revenue officer at Trice Imaging.
“Trice Workspace Reporting is designed to remove unnecessary friction from reporting by creating a structured digital foundation that supports today’s need for connected clinical workflows.
“It also provides a digital foundation as practices prepare for tomorrow and the evolution of AI-enabled fetal assessment, anomaly detection and outcome prediction technologies.”
Trice Imaging describes its mission as transforming the women’s health journey by connecting physicians, patients and healthcare systems. From independent practices to large hospital ecosystems, it aims to reach the entire women’s health continuum, spanning IVF and reproductive health, maternal-fetal medicine and OB/GYN, and onwards to lifelong women’s health.
For more than 17 years the firm has worked on cloud-based storage, retrieval, display, organisation and exchange of ultrasound medical images and associated information across health environments.
Its wider platform now extends to dynamic clinical reporting, AI-driven workflow optimisation, data analytics and secure patient engagement.
Trice Imaging holds regulatory and data protection clearances in 40 countries. It has offices in Miami and Stockholm, alongside a growing network of global distributors.
News
Vespexx signs MOU with global femtech network Femtech Across Borders

Vespexx, the femtech company behind couples preconception health platform Soonr, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Femtech Across Borders, a global femtech network supporting women’s health initiatives across 80 countries.
The agreement was signed on June 30 at Korea Femtech Summit 2026, the first global femtech summit held in Korea, hosted by Vespexx.
Femtech Across Borders is a global femtech community led by founder Rachel Bartholomew, who entered the field after her own battle with cervical cancer.
The organisation connects women’s health innovators, companies, and institutions worldwide, supporting collaboration across borders.
“For Korean femtech to reach the world, connection with the global community matters more than anything,” said Scarlett Joowon Jung, co-CEO of Vespexx.
“Through our collaboration with Femtech Across Borders, we’ll continue to strengthen our role as a bridge between Korea and the global femtech community.”
Through the MOU, the two parties will work to lower the barriers between Korean and global femtech, raising awareness of women’s health, sharing networks, and exploring future opportunities to collaborate.
Vespexx, in particular, intends to serve as a bridge connecting Korean femtech companies with the global community, widening the path for domestic companies to reach international markets.
The agreement builds on Vespexx’s recent global momentum.
On June 30, the company hosted Korea Femtech Summit 2026, bringing together femtech leaders from Korea and abroad, and used the occasion to announce the launch of Femtech Korea, an industry network that brings Korean femtech companies together and connects them with the world.
The partnership with Femtech Across Borders extends that effort outward, linking Korea’s domestic network to the global community.
Learn more about Vespexx at vespexx.com
Cancer
Postpartum breast cancers may be biologically more aggressive, new study finds

Breast cancer diagnosed within three years of childbirth, especially the first year, may be biologically more aggressive, a study suggests.
The findings add to evidence that postpartum breast cancer may be a distinct form of the disease.
They also suggest the period of greatest biological risk may occur earlier than previously thought.
The study was led by investigators at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Dr Nimmi Kapoor, associate professor of surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and senior author of the study, said: “We’ve long recognised that breast cancers diagnosed after pregnancy can behave differently, but we haven’t known when that increased risk is biologically strongest.
“Our findings suggest that the first one to three years after childbirth represent an important window when some tumours may have more aggressive characteristics.”
Breast cancer rates among younger women have been rising, and scientists have been investigating whether women having their first child later may help explain some of the trend.
Pregnancy causes major changes in breast tissue. Previous studies have found that cancers diagnosed soon after childbirth are more likely to have aggressive features and worse outcomes.
Researchers have not agreed on how long the period of increased risk lasts. Some studies define postpartum breast cancer as occurring within one or two years of delivery, while others extend the period to five or even 10 years.
To better define the period of risk, the team studied whether tumour biology varied according to the time since a woman’s most recent childbirth.
The study involved 385 women aged 45 or younger with early-stage, hormone receptor-positive and HER2-negative breast cancer who were treated at UCLA between 2011 and 2024.
Hormone receptor-positive cancers grow in response to hormones such as oestrogen or progesterone. HER2-negative cancers do not have unusually high levels of a protein that can promote tumour growth.
Each tumour had been assessed using the Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score, a genomic test that measures the activity of 21 genes linked to the risk of cancer returning and the potential benefit of chemotherapy.
Researchers grouped the women according to the time between their last childbirth and breast cancer diagnosis.
They compared women who had never given birth with those diagnosed at different intervals after childbirth.
The team then examined whether recurrence scores and other tumour features differed between the groups and whether any patterns remained after accounting for factors including age and lymph node status.
Women diagnosed within the first year after childbirth had significantly higher recurrence scores than those who had never given birth.
This suggested biological features associated with a higher risk of the cancer returning.
Scores were also higher, but to a lesser extent, among women diagnosed during the second and third years after delivery.
Women diagnosed within three years of childbirth were nearly three times more likely to fall into a higher recurrence score category than women who had never given birth.
They were also more likely to have higher-grade tumours, meaning their cancer cells appeared more abnormal and potentially more aggressive under a microscope.
Women diagnosed more than three years after childbirth did not show the same consistent increase in recurrence scores.
The findings also suggest that standard clinical measures, including tumour size and whether the cancer has reached the lymph nodes, may not fully capture the differences in this group.
Gene expression testing appeared to identify biological risk that was not always reflected in routine examination of tumour tissue.
The researchers said reproductive history could therefore provide additional context when genomic test results are interpreted in younger patients.
Despite the more aggressive genetic features, women diagnosed within three years of childbirth did not have significantly worse short-term outcomes.
After about four years of follow-up, recurrence and survival rates were similar to those among other patients in the study.
Researchers said one possible explanation was that women with higher-risk tumours received more intensive treatment, including chemotherapy, ovarian function suppression and newer targeted therapies.
The findings also suggest that aggressive tumour biology does not necessarily lead to worse short-term outcomes when patients receive effective treatment.
The researchers said larger studies involving several institutions and longer follow-up periods are needed to confirm the findings.
They added that postpartum status may need greater consideration when breast cancer is assessed and treated in younger women.
Kapoor said: “Our findings suggest that the years immediately following childbirth represent a unique biological window for some breast cancers.
“Understanding why these tumours behave differently may help us better identify patients who need closer monitoring or more tailored treatment approaches.”
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