Entrepreneur
Can a digital coach truly support menopause in the workplace?
By Gail MacLeitch, psychotherapist and VP of AI communications provider QuickBlox, and Leslie Taylor, co-founder of Half the Sky, the team behind BestYet—a digital platform which helps women take control of their menopausal journey.
Despite spending more than a third of their lives in menopause, most women face this transition with little support, personally or professionally. Instead, women tend to navigate menopause alone, often unclear on the full extent of what to expect, or when to expect it, until it arrives.
In 2024, nearly one-third of women said menopause impacted their job performance. Women reported reducing their work hours, turning down promotions, and quitting as outcomes of their symptoms. These numbers represent daily struggles playing out in the workplace.
Companies in 18 U.S. states, including Washington, California, Colorado, and New York, already offer their employees mandatory paid sick leave, but women have reported being penalized for using this time to cope with the side effects of menopause. Even in states with progressive leave policies, cultural stigma and managerial bias undermine their intended protection.
A UK study found that only a quarter of women taking sick leave felt able to tell their managers the real reason for their absence. While many wanted to protect their privacy, 34% said they were embarrassed, and another 32% said an unsupportive manager prevented them from speaking up.
Many of the symptoms women struggle with, such as self-doubt, low patience, heightened stress, and difficulty sleeping, can be helped with the right support.
Understanding Personal Symptoms
According to a survey of over 2,000 menopausal women in the UK, 84% experienced trouble sleeping, 73% experienced ‘brain fog’, and 69% experienced difficulties with anxiety or depression during menopause. However, the scale at which symptoms impact women varies and evolves over time.
What symptoms are your employees experiencing? How are these side effects influenced by controllable aspects of their lives, such as diet, exercise, and medication?
Companies can empower women with the tools to easily track and monitor their menopausal symptoms with secure and private daily logs. These tools help surface patterns in fatigue, mood, and concentration, correlated with sleep, food, and stress. Apps such as Health and Her and MENO already demonstrate similar solutions, providing individualized recommendations, such as meal guidance, mindfulness, and wellness nudges, based on symptom tracking and progress.
Gaining Confidential Guidance
Many women-centric midlife and menopause platforms are becoming available. Women who have used these report feeling more knowledgeable, confident, and in control of their menopause journey. The apps encourage self-reflection and build confidence around menopause discussions.
However, while menopause-at-work policies are becoming more common, conversations about accommodations remain deeply personal. Employers and managers should create safe pathways for private check-ins. Digital tools can help prep both parties with the right frameworks.
For example, a well-designed menopause support app might include pre-meeting reminders to ensure respectful, informed dialogue. Building guidance on how to handle disclosures and requests into the manager’s app user journey helps guarantee they see the right information when they need it. As menopause policies increasingly become mandatory, automated summaries that record what was discussed, what was agreed, and how confidentiality will be upheld provide a transparent data trail to protect both parties.
Companies can go a step further by using secure, no-code chatbot builders to provide 24/7 support. These tools, trained on medical research, HR policy, and expert guidance, can offer calm, evidence-based responses. When used responsibly, AI-enhanced chat tools become a supplemental layer of support and enable users to navigate to other pertinent workplace benefits and providers.
Building a Community
A problem shared is a problem halved, and this is especially true for menopause.
Women benefit from sharing what works and what doesn’t, from diet to hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to mindset. But often, just feeling understood can be transformative, especially in an isolating workplace context.
Features companies must consider for their female employees include:
- Community support: A private, judgment-free space to connect with other women navigating menopause, share stories, and exchange tips that actually work. Women can gain emotional and practical support by engaging in forum discussions.
- Daily prompts: Affirmations, meal suggestions, lifestyle tips, and wellness nudges that spark engagement.
- HR integration: Integrated menopause apps can give HR anonymized data on employee well-being and resource use. No or low-code tools can be embedded directly with no technical expertise, meaning HR teams can launch a wellness resource tailored to their workforce with minimal effort.
This support should extend across the organization. Menopause literacy for male employees, team leaders, and executives reduces stigma. Including resources and workshops directed at the company as a whole will help lead to a more empathetic workforce.
So, can a digital coach truly support menopause in the workplace? Yes, when it’s designed with empathy, grounded in science, and built to empower. The right digital tools don’t just track symptoms, they help women advocate for themselves, stay engaged, and thrive in their roles. The companies that design for midlife now won’t just support women. They’ll set the standard for what inclusive, intelligent, and future-ready health tech in the workplace can be.
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
W Group has opened applications for W Accelerate with Merck KGaA and M Ventures, inviting reproductive and maternal health startups, scaleups and spinouts to pitch for direct access to global pharma partnership and strategic investment.
Selected companies will pitch on 5th October, competing for the chance to accelerate their growth through commercial partnerships, investment, or both.
This is the third time Merck KGaA, a global leader in reproductive health, has partnered with W Group on the programme, which exists to close the innovation and investment gap in women’s health by connecting the sector’s most promising startups directly with the corporates and investors positioned to scale them.
What Merck KGaA and M Ventures are looking for
This year’s call is focused on breakthrough solutions in female infertility, fertility preservation, adenomyosis, endometriosis, polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS), ovarian insufficiency, preeclampsia and pregnancy comorbidities.
New for this round, applicants choose between three pathways depending on what they need from the programme:
- The Partnership Lane, for companies seeking commercial collaborations and strategic relationships
- The Investment Lane, for founders looking to connect with investors and secure funding to scale
- The Dual Lane, for innovators pursuing both partnership and investment opportunities
How the Accelerate event works
Selected companies get a 1:1 pitch practice session ahead of time, then a private 30-minute session with Merck KGaA and M Ventures leadership on the day itself, small-group sessions with regulatory and investment strategy experts, an “Ask Merck Anything” roundtable, and a VIP networking reception.
Key dates
- Open call launches: 8th July
- Open call closes: 2nd September
- Notification of successful companies: 11th September
- Pitch day: 5th October
Applications are open now at wplatform.typeform.com/to/KGzviBQM.
From AI embryo analysis in India to couples fertility care launching in the US, Korea’s women’s health startups are going global, and US investors are taking notice.
Vespexx, the femtech company behind couples preconception health platform Soonr, hosted Korea Femtech Summit 2026 on June 30 in Seoul, convening founders, clinicians, and investors from Korea, Singapore, Canada, and Japan to map the global expansion of women’s health technology.
A panel moderated by Kakao Ventures’ Jade Chung, an OB/GYN-turned-investor, captured the summit’s central theme: Korean startups taking on the world. On stage were three companies already building well beyond Korea. Vespexx, led by Co-CEO Scarlett Joowon Jung, is entering the US with Soonr; Kai Health, founded by CEO Hyejun Lee, has deployed its AI embryo-analysis software across more than 120 fertility clinics in India; and Endo Health, represented by the Head of Design Karlie Hyeonjeong Koo, has built Glow, an AI coaching app whose user base is 98% women and which is backed by US investors including a16z. Together they discussed what it takes for Korean startups to compete globally, where AI creates a real edge, and whether “K-femtech” can follow the path of K-beauty onto the world stage.
The program spanned the full arc of women’s health technology. Lindsay Davis, founder of FemTech Association Asia, opened with a look at where Asia’s femtech stands today. Dr. Juhye Lee of Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital offered a clinician’s view of how patient needs are shifting, arguing that women’s health is expanding beyond pregnancy and treatment toward care across the entire life course. Boram Bae, Head of Digital Health PM Part at Samsung Electronics spoke to how a consumer platform at global scale can connect women’s everyday health data with life-stage care. And Rimi Lee, head of the Femtech Center at KOSDAQ-listed diagnostics company Sugentech, traced the evolution of hormone testing from results read by eye to AI-assisted analysis, and pointed toward wearable continuous hormone monitoring as the next frontier.
Vespexx Co-CEO Scarlett Joowon Jung presented the company’s “dyadic health” approach on their ‘Soonr’ app, which brings both partners into fertility and preconception care rather than tracking a woman’s data alone, an approach validated by their legacy product, Signaling’s 800,000 users across Asia, as the company prepares for US launch.
The summit also featured Rachel Bartholomew, the Canadian founder of Hyivy Health and Femtech Across Borders, who built her pelvic-health company, and Megumi Kimura of the Japan Women’s Health Innovation Association, who outlined the investment and business models driving Japan’s fast-growing femtech market.
At the summit, Vespexx also announced the launch of Femtech Korea, an industry network intended to connect Korean femtech companies with global markets and partners, and to serve as a bridge for cross-border collaboration.
“Korea has world-class healthcare technology, but femtech has been one of its best-kept secrets,” said Scarlett Joowon Jung, Co-CEO of Vespexx. “The companies on this stage are proof that’s changing. We’re not just building for Korea anymore, we’re building for the world, and we want US partners and investors to be part of that.”
Korea Femtech Summit 2026 was hosted by Vespexx and co-hosted by FemTech Association Asia. The summit was sponsored by Sugentech, with additional support from Innerness and Octolabs.
About Vespexx
Vespexx is a Korean femtech startup and subsidiary of KOSDAQ-listed biotech Sugentech. The company operates Soonr Health, a couples-focused preconception health platform, and its earlier product Signaling has accumulated over 800,000 users. Vespexx is currently expanding into the North American market.
About Femtech Association Asia
FemTech Association Asia is the region’s first and largest specialist advisory and industry network for founders, investors, corporate partners, and ecosystem contributors, with a core focus on improving women’s health through technology solutions.
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