Menopause
“There is a huge need for both support and education about women’s health”
By Afua Basoah, Head of Health Strategy for RAPP UK
For generations, women have lived with health and care systems that are mostly designed by men, for men.
Despite representing 51 per cent of the population, women are still significantly underrepresented in clinical trials and research. This has meant that not enough is known about conditions that only affect women, or about how conditions that affect both men and women impact women in different ways.
This gender gap contributes to worse health outcomes for women, with much less known about female health conditions than those that also or only affect men. In the UK, women have a longer life expectancy than men, with life expectancy at birth being 83.1 for women and 79.4 years for men in 2017 to 2019. However, women in the UK spend a greater proportion of their lives in ill health and disability.
In summer 2021, the UK government opened a consultation process to inform the development of a national Women’s Health Strategy. The ambition is to build a health system that better understands and is, therefore, responsive to the realities and needs of women throughout their lives.
There is a huge need for both support and education about all aspects of women’s health. Personalised, accessible and delivered in a way that evolves as their lives change. As women’s healthcare becomes an increasing priority, the femtech industry is rising to meet the challenge. The industry has already demonstrated impressive early wins and with appropriate access to funding, greater disruption could be ahead.
Afua Basoah, Head of Health Strategy for RAPP UK
In 2019, the femtech industry generated $820.6m in global revenue and received $592m in venture capital investment. Femtech pioneers, many of whom are female-founded, have benefited from cultural shifts, sparked by events such as the #MeToo movement, a growing interest in diversity and inclusion and pandemic-related digital acceleration.
While the US accounts for the lion’s share of femtech startups, the UK comes second in a market predicted to be worth in excess of $75.1B (£60.7B) by 2025. The industry represents a broad range of companies that are focused on developing technology aimed at improving women’s health and wellbeing that tend to fall into four categories: healthcare and diagnostics, reproductive health, pregnancy and family care and general health and wellness.
Of these, reproductive health, pregnancy and family care currently dominate the market and according to a recent McKinsey report “there are still significant white spaces” for growth.
The disruption in this space is driven by the need to create inclusive, individualised experiences that meet the unique identities, values and personal needs of women. The one size fits all approach has been sized out.
“The ability to understand the whole woman – her genetics, aspirations, experiences as well as unmet her health needs, provides an opportunity to holistically signpost the right solutions that takes her on a journey that touches every aspect of her well-being”.
Here, Idia Elsmore Dodsworth, co-founder of the AI-based reproductive health monitoring app, Tinto, has highlighted the fact that there is a real shift towards ‘well-care’ versus ‘sick-care’ in the femtech space.
Embedding AI into their own product has helped ensure granularity of data inputs that allows for “super-tailored” content that empower users to manage their health as seamlessly and effortlessly as with other aspects of their lives, and on their terms.
Below are a selection of femtech organisations to keep an eye on:
Founders: Dr Hannah Allen and Idia Elsmore Dodsworth
Year founded: 2019
Total funding: Undisclosed seed funding
As a provider of AI-based software solutions for reproductive health monitoring, the mission of the Tinto app is to nurture women through modern motherhood, enabling mothers to understand the full picture of their wellbeing, and to build a network through meaningful connection and proactive, personalised guidance.
The company offers a mobile app that allows users to communicate with health and wellbeing providers. It provides a curated online community where members can access information and advice from like-minded women going through similar challenges. It also provides online articles regarding baby health, women’s health and topics beyond motherhood.
Founder: Tania Boler
Year founded: 2013
Total funding: £116m
Elvie is a London-headquartered firm that manufacturers technology hardware for women. The first product by the company was the Elvie Trainer, an app-connected Kegal trainer. Followed by the Elvie Pump a quiet, wireless electric pump.
Last September it closed £70m in its Series C funding round to continue diversifying its product range.
Founders: Andrea Berchowitz and Dr Rebecca Love
Year founded: 2020
Total funding: £11.2m
London-based Vira Health focuses on women’s healthcare and improving the gathering and use of female data in healthcare.
Its first product is a menopause subscription app called Stella which guides women through menopause with tailored treatments based on the users’ symptoms.
Last month Vira Health raised £9m in a funding round to add new features to its menopause app, including telehealth and prescriptions.
Founder: Kim Palmer
Year founded: 2017
Total funding: £1m
Clementine is a mental health app for women that uses hypnotherapy to lower stress levels and build confidence. In the subscription-based app there are sleep sessions, confidence courses, anti-anxiety courses and mantras.
The app was created after founder Kim Palmer suffered with panic attacks during pregnancy. Earlier in the year, Clementine partnered with singer and songwriter Becky Hill to encourage young people on a journey to self-care.
Headquartered in London, Clementine raised $1.3m (£1m) in its seed funding round in October 2020.
Because women are not just consumers but the primary healthcare decision-makers for themselves and often for their families, better health outcomes for women can lead to better outcomes for society.
In sickness and in health, at RAPP we stand up for individuality to co-create better outcomes for all. We leverage deep understanding of the realities, values and intersectional identities creates personalised and connected brand experiences that drive healthier outcomes. We believe that predictive, preventive and inclusive health is enabled by creativity, behavioural science, data and technology.
Women with primary infertility may face a higher risk of early menopause and reach it about a year earlier, a study suggests.
The findings suggest women with primary infertility may be more likely to enter menopause before the age of 45.
The increased risk appeared most notable among women with unexplained infertility or a history of endometriosis.
Dr Stephanie Faubion, medical director for The Menopause Society, said: “This study shows that women with primary infertility, specifically those with unexplained infertility or a history of endometriosis, were at risk for early menopause.
“Given that early menopause is linked to adverse long-term health consequences, these women may benefit from counselling that they are at risk of early menopause.
“This will allow them to monitor for early menopause and to seek treatment with hormone therapy, if indicated.”
Early menopause is usually defined as menopause before age 45, while premature menopause is menopause before age 40.
Women who experience menopause earlier may face symptoms for longer and have a higher risk of long-term health problems.
These can include cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and neurocognitive disorders. Osteoporosis weakens bones, while neurocognitive disorders affect memory, thinking or brain function.
The study, highlighted by The Menopause Society, involved nearly 700 people, roughly half of whom had been diagnosed with primary infertility.
It found that women with a history of primary infertility underwent natural menopause about one year earlier than those without such a history.
Researchers found no association between infertility and premature menopause.
Infertility affects around one in six people globally and can have consequences beyond family planning.
Previous research has linked infertility with higher rates of cancer and cardiovascular disease, although causes vary and may involve genetic, hormonal, in-utero or lifestyle factors.
In-utero factors are influences that occur while a baby is developing in the womb.
Earlier studies looking at links between infertility and early or premature menopause have produced mixed results, with some not accounting for different types of infertility.
The new study suggested that women with unexplained infertility or a history of endometriosis may have an increased risk of early menopause.
Endometriosis is a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows elsewhere in the body. It can cause pain, heavy periods and fertility problems.
Known risk factors for early or premature menopause include tobacco use, low body mass index, not having given birth and starting periods at a younger age.
Women who have had more childbirths and those with a history of oral contraceptive use have previously been linked to later menopause.
The researchers said women with primary infertility may benefit from additional counselling because of the systemic and long-term health effects of early menopause.
They also said women should be encouraged to seek evaluation and treatment if they experience a new loss of menstrual cycles.
Smartwatch data may help track menopause sleep changes after researchers analysed more than 94,000 nights of Apple Watch sleep records.
The study analysed more than 94,000 nights of sleep data from 338 participants in the Apple Women’s Health Study.
It found that many participants spent more time awake during the night in the 12 months before and after their final logged menstrual period.
For the past several years, Apple has used the Apple Watch to support large-scale health studies through the Apple Research app.
These include the Apple Women’s Health Study, the Apple Heart and Movement Study, and the Apple Hearing Study, which launched in 2019 with research partners including Harvard, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the American Heart Association and the University of Michigan.
In February 2025, Apple said those studies had grown to more than 350,000 participants across the US.
Recently, researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health published results on how sleep patterns change during perimenopause.
The study looked at wake after sleep onset, or WASO, which measures how much time a person spends awake after first falling asleep.
In the 18 months leading up to menopause, 60 per cent of women with sleep tracking data showed increased WASO compared with the previous six months.
The average increase was 7 per cent.
Researchers also found that, in the 12 months before and after the last logged menstrual period, participants spent about 0.8 per cent more of their sleep time awake after menopause than before.
However, the findings varied widely between participants.
Some women had much larger increases in time awake after menopause, while others had no meaningful sleep change at all.
The researchers said this reflects the fact that each person experiences perimenopause and menopause differently.
Participants who tracked sleep also logged menopause symptoms.
Hot flushes were reported by 82.3 per cent of participants, irritability by 68.1 per cent, mental exhaustion by 65.7 per cent and sexual symptoms by 65.6 per cent.
Among participants with more severe menopause symptoms, the symptoms most closely linked with worse sleep were bladder symptoms, joint symptoms, heart discomfort and depressive symptoms.
The researchers also shared recommendations that may help women sleep better during perimenopause.
These include maintaining a cool sleeping environment, keeping a consistent sleep schedule, getting regular movement, avoiding common bladder irritants and limiting fluids in the hours before bedtime, and prioritising relaxation or mindfulness techniques as part of a bedtime routine.
Women are still being failed by menopause care despite a surge in online advice, with experts saying symptoms are too often minimised or dismissed.
The researchers exposed a gap between the surge of menopause information available online and the quality of medical care women receive.
A team of anthropologists and psychologists explored the physical and emotional toll of menopause, including its impact on work and personal lives, through interviews with 60 women aged 45 to 61 between March and June 2021.
The findings were published in a new book, We Need to Talk About Menopause.
The interviews showed how women continue to “needlessly suffer” as they sort through misinformation from influencers, celebrities and so-called experts.
The authors said: “You would think in an age where humans are developing commercial space flight, self-driving cars, and AI personal assistants who can project movies onto the palm of your hand, we would understand more about menopause, something a little over half of the population is guaranteed to experience in their lives.”
The interviews revealed wide variation in women’s experiences of doctors.
Some felt they could have an open dialogue, while others said they were “shut down”, including being told they were too young for menopause.
One woman said she bled heavily for a year before she was taken seriously.
The authors said menopause is still poorly understood, with disagreement over whether it should be seen as a medical condition or a natural part of ageing.
There are more than 100 recognised symptoms, although some women experience none.
Among those interviewed, 78 per cent reported weight gain and redistribution, particularly around the belly area, which was resistant to diet and exercise.
Fifty-eight per cent experienced mood disturbances including anxiety, depression, irritability and unprecedented levels of rage.
Many women said they were blindsided by symptoms they had never known existed.
One participant said she only realised rage was a menopause symptom after seeing it mentioned in a television commercial.
Women also described severe memory problems and brain fog that colleagues mistook for incompetence, leading successful professionals to question their abilities at the peak of their careers.
Brain fog can include problems with concentration, memory and clear thinking.
According to Statistics Canada, 70 per cent of women turn to the internet as their primary source of menopause information.
The authors said this information vacuum has spawned a £14.7bn global “meno-tech” industry, with influencers, celebrities and telehealth companies offering products ranging from £98 creams to unnecessary blood tests.
They said: “The growth of interest in menopause has also been accompanied by a wave of unsubstantiated information.
“Many websites market expensive creams, supplements, and weight-loss schemes that promise to keep women youthful and attractive, with little evidence to support their claims.
“Reliable, accessible information about menopause and perimenopause is still lacking. Despite increased attention to the importance of physician training and the search for menopause specialists, the medical profession as a whole continues to provide limited support in this area.”
The authors also highlighted the effect of menopause in the workplace.
The House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee has warned that Britain is “haemorrhaging talent” because of menopause, with 14 million workdays lost each year, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Despite this, studies have shown 80 per cent of UK employers have yet to implement proper support measures for menopausal women.
Some women said simple workplace adjustments made a significant difference.
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