Femtech World is to celebrate game-changing menopause innovations at its global awards event.

The Femtech World Awards, now in their third year, celebrates the brightest lights in women’s health innovation.

The event celebrates some of the best examples of leadership, innovation and impact in key areas that affect women’s health and wellbeing. 

The winner of the Menopause Innovation of the Year award will have shown exceptional innovation in addressing the health, wellbeing and quality-of-life needs of people navigating perimenopause, menopause and beyond.

Consideration will be given to impact, inclusivity accessibility and the ability to break stigma while delivering meaningful solutions.

This award celebrates those leading the way in redefining how menopause is understood and supported across healthcare and society.

The award is sponsored by Cross-Border Impact Ventures (CBIV) –  an impact venture capital firm on a mission to revolutionise venture investing in health technology.

CBIV invests in early-growth stage health technology companies commercialising medical devices, diagnostics, therapeutics, and digital health innovations and leveraging cutting-edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).

All innovations CBIV finances are relevant to women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health and located in North America and Europe, with the ability to scale technologies to emerging markets.

CBIV is driven by the belief that good health should not be restricted by gender, age, race, wealth, or borders and seeks to expand access to their portfolio’s world class technologies inclusively and globally. 

Annie Thériault, managing partner, Cross-Border Impact Ventures , said: “Being part of the FemTech World Awards gives us a front-row seat to the most exciting breakthroughs in women’s health.

“It’s a powerful way to stay connected to the pulse of innovation and the future of care.”

Find out more about the awards and enter for free here.

Addressing women’s health could unlock US$100bn by 2030 in the US alone, a new report has found.

The World Economic Forum has published its Women’s Health Investment Outlook to highlight undercapitalised opportunities in women’s health.

A Boston Consulting Group analysis cited in the report estimates that treating four major conditions that disproportionately affect women could unlock this value by 2030.

The four areas are cardiovascular disease (heart and blood vessel disease), osteoporosis (bone thinning), menopause and Alzheimer’s disease.

These common, high-burden conditions remain underserved.

The report notes that, despite women making up half the global population, women’s healthcare attracts only six per cent of private healthcare investment, and companies focused exclusively on women’s health receive less than one per cent.

Around 90 per cent of current investment is concentrated in reproductive health, maternal care and women-specific cancers.

The authors say the true burden and potential of women’s healthcare have been obscured by fragmented data, historical bias, a lack of women in relevant leadership roles and misaligned incentives.

Half of private investments in women’s health-specific companies are at pre-seed or seed stage, and the sector is gaining momentum.

The report points to acquisitions in pelvic health, diagnostics and rising institutional interest in scalable platforms.

Six areas show strong potential for investment: women’s cancer therapeutics; virtual women’s healthcare and benefits management; remote maternal health monitoring; women-focused mental health platforms; women-first longevity and wellness concierge services; and wearables and platforms for women’s metabolic health.

Given the spa and wellness sector’s majority-female clientele, operators could host selected treatments if they extend their facilities.

Suppliers and innovators can also play a key role in creating and adopting women’s healthcare technologies, with devices to support pelvic health already supplied to high-end health clubs and spas to address continence and pelvic pain.

The report was published in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group, with contributions from the investment community, healthcare professionals and others.

By Professor Ama Johal, clinical lead and dental sleep expert at Aerox Health

During menopause, it’s very common for women to notice significant changes to their sleep patterns and experience things like restless nights, loud snoring, or simply waking up feeling exhausted.

What most don’t realise, however, is that these symptoms can signal something far more serious – obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), one of the most impactful and consequential sleep-related breathing disorders.

Women across the world are unknowingly fighting an uphill battle. Around 90 per cent of females with moderate to severe sleep apnoea remain undiagnosed.

This collective lack of awareness is due to a plethora of factors including archaic taboos around the subject and lack of education or omission of menopause in sexual education.

Ultimately, this combination leaves women underprepared and vulnerable to the biological, social and medical realities associated with the menopause.

Now more than ever, we must confront this silence head-on and recognise the hidden sleep crisis affecting so many women globally and the opportunity to address it.

The hidden sleep crisis

Snoring that develops or worsens during menopause can progress into OSA due to a decline in estrogen and progesterone which reduces muscle tone in the throat and in turn makes the obstruction or collapse of the airways more likely during sleep.

Yet this link between menopause and sleep disorders remains largely overlooked, leaving millions of women undiagnosed, untreated, and unaware that their sleep struggles are more than just “part of getting older”.

In my practice, I see the consequences of this misunderstanding far too often.

I hear from many female patients who have been suffering in silence, without the knowledge that they could seek help. In fact, I often encounter the common misconception that snoring is a man’s issue.

This preconceived notion perpetuates a persistent gender bias in sleep-related health research.

As ENT consultant and sleep surgeon at University College London hospitals, Ryan Chin Taw Cheong recently highlighted, the development of snoring is reason enough to consult your doctor. It’s time for this pervasive issue to emerge from the dark.

So why don’t women seek help?

When considering why many women do not seek help for their symptoms, there are two overarching reasons.

Firstly, the information and knowledge is not widely available for sufferers to realise that snoring can be a medical issue which can be assessed and subsequently readily treated.

Secondly, there is a potent stigma surrounding both the menopause and snoring which is an inhibiting factor amongst sufferers, discouraging open discussion.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, menopause is not included in traditional sex education in schools. Being unaware of what is ‘normal’ and what could require medical attention is widespread amongst my patients with sleep disorders, yet this information is not freely disseminated outside of clinics.

Unfortunately, cognitive fog and irritability – symptoms of snoring and obstructive sleep apnoea – are too often written off as stress, anxiety or ‘just the menopause’.

Avoiding sharing symptoms with medical providers, combined with online misinformation, often results in individuals suffering in silence or worse, turning to unregulated miracle menopause cures that exacerbate the risks of undiagnosed OSA.

These so-called ‘cures’ reinforce the harmful notion that the menopause is a defect which needs to be fixed rather than a natural life stage.

The health costs of ignoring snoring

A breadth of research links untreated OSA to cardiovascular disease, hypertension and cognitive decline.

However, aside from the medical risks, snoring and sleep apnoea can have profound social and emotional consequences.

For women, the shame in snoring, a symptom often mischaracterised as a ‘male issue’, can significantly affect self esteem and mental health.

Partners may also suffer if the snoring is disruptive to their sleep, in some instances causing rifts in relationships and a phenomena known as ‘sleep divorces’ (sleeping in separate beds or rooms).

In fact, according to a recent study commissioned by 32Co, 47 per cent of recently divorced Brits cite interrupted sleep linked to snoring or sleep disorders as contributing to their relationship breakdowns, with 85 per cent believing ‘sleep divorces’ contributed to ultimate separation.

Sleep specialists seek to manage and monitor the symptoms of sleep disorders and OSA to minimise disruption to an individual’s personal and public life.

Screening menopausal women for OSA is a preventative measure which leads to informed patients. It is not simply about getting better sleep but about the long-term health outcomes.

Breaking the silence: what needs to change

Drawing on the stories of those I meet in my clinic, I would like to outline five steps that we can take to address this silent epidemic.

First, the menopause and associated symptoms should be included in a comprehensive sex and health education.

This could be provided both in schools’ curricula and made readily available at health services catering to adults.

Second, throughout the course of history women’s issues have been chronically underserved.

More resources can be funnelled into conducting research to help us better understand the impact of the menopause on women’s physical and mental health.

Future research would also help to neutralise the gender bias of previous studies.

Third, launching public health campaigns and workplace initiatives to encourage employers to recognise sleep disorders as a significant element of menopause will help build awareness and reduce the impact of stigmas.

Fourth, myth-busting, shattering taboos, and normalising discussion about the menopause will be key.

We must view snoring as a gender neutral issue rather than a male stereotype and denounce harmful rhetoric and jokes that perpetuate stigma.

Fifth, we must better equip more localised healthcare providers up and down the country to both diagnose and treat OSA effectively.

Sleep disorders are not niche issues but a major public health concern with potentially severe consequences.

Quality of life amongst my patients is inextricably linked with sleep quality.

Recognising the relationship between snoring and OSA and the menopause is not simply about pathologising a natural stage of life, but providing women with the information, respect and medical care they deserve.

Only through more transparency and collaboration amongst researchers, educators and clinicians can we hope to close the gender gap in sleep medicine and bring this hidden crisis to light.