Entrepreneur
Belfast startup launches AI period tracking tool
A Belfast-based femtech company has launched what it claims is the world’s first AI-powered menstrual tracking system that provides clinical-grade insights into period volume, clotting and cycle trends.
Joii’s technology, unveiled in Dublin, combines a specially designed menstrual pad with a mobile app to measure blood volume and clot size in millilitres – offering users more objective data than subjective terms like “heavy” or “normal” flow.
Heavy menstrual bleeding affects one in three women, yet diagnosis is often delayed due to vague language used to describe symptoms. While other femtech apps track symptoms and cycles, they do not directly measure menstrual flow.
Founder and chief executive Justyna Strzeszynska created Joii after experiencing her own challenges navigating menstrual health.
“Doctors would ask me about my menstrual flow, but I had no benchmark, much less a reliable way to measure it,” she said.
Joii’s system uses pad-scanning volume analytics – a first in women’s health. Users wear disposable pads, then scan them using the free app. Images are analysed using computer vision technology to assess blood volume, clot size and composition. Results are available instantly in millilitres, with reports on average flow and cycle trends.
“For too long, women have been told to just ‘track their period’ without any real tools to measure what’s actually happening. With Joii, we’re changing that,” said Strzeszynska. “We’re helping people see their periods clearly, for the first time.”
The company’s AI model was trained largely on synthetic data due to the lack of available real-world images. It was then tested across a range of lighting conditions and usage scenarios to ensure reliable results.
How Joii works:
Wear Joii Pads – Specially designed for comfort and visual clarity.
Scan with the Joii App – Users scan used pads through the mobile app.
Get Insights – Immediate readings show menstrual volume (in millilitres), clot detection and flow trends.
Over time, the app builds personalised data that can support healthcare appointments and inform diagnoses. Joii is particularly aimed at people with heavy bleeding or those facing long diagnostic delays for conditions such as endometriosis, which can take up to 10 years to diagnose.
Joii is also the only product of its kind currently on the market. While some researchers have attempted to track flow manually using menstrual cups in small studies, there has been no consistent or scalable tool for widespread menstrual health monitoring – until now.
The technology is registered as a Class I medical device in the UK and protected by multiple patents.
Joii’s impact has been tested in two clinical and real-world studies, including one funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Users reported:
62 per cent improvement in communication with GPs
288 per cent increase in symptom screening efficacy
134 per cent rise in menstrual health literacy
A separate feasibility study found:
33 per cent improvement in abnormal symptom screening
52 per cent increase in period health literacy
36 per cent improvement in discussing symptoms with GPs
Among healthcare professionals:
88.6 per cent of GPs said Joii improved period-related conversations
87.6 per cent found it easier to identify abnormal or heavy bleeding
93 per cent said it supports diagnosis of heavy menstrual bleeding
88.6 per cent said they would use it in practice if NHS-approved
Dr Fatema Mustansir Dawoodbhoy, NHS doctor and clinical adviser to Joii, said: “This app will definitely offer me better insights into how the patient is feeling as I will be able to understand their symptoms variation throughout the month.”
Dr Kushal Chummun, consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology at the Rotunda and Connolly Hospital, added: “I think the app is really, really good.”
To date, Joii has raised €2.4m and is backed by EIT Digital through its equity portfolio. As part of the EIT Digital Open Innovation Factory, Joii worked with Finnish software studio Ikune to enhance user experience, integrating gamification features to improve retention and data quality.
Joii is also collaborating with research institutions to explore menstrual blood as a non-invasive diagnostic tool. Predictive AI models are being developed to support earlier detection of conditions such as endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and anaemia.
Strzeszynska said the research “helps build a crucial bridge between data and the healthcare system, offering credibility to patient healthcare monitoring apps. It generates clinically relevant insights that can support more meaningful, evidence-based conversations with healthcare providers.”
The Joii app is free to download on iOS and Android. Joii Evaluation Pads retail at €6.95 and are available online at www.joiicare.com and in selected pharmacies and health stores.
Entrepreneur
Last chance to save on Women’s Health Week and Women’s Sport Summit: Early Bird pricing ends 11 September
Early bird pricing for W Group’s two flagship October summits – Women’s Health Week Europe 2026 and Women’s Sport Summit Europe 2026 – closes on 11 September.
Both events take place at Emirates Stadium, London, bringing together founders, investors, corporates, and industry leaders shaping the future of women’s health and sport.
Women’s Health Week Europe 2026
7-8 October | Emirates Stadium, London
This year’s edition will be Women’s Health Week Europe biggest one yet: with 700+ attendees, 80+ speakers, and 20+ sponsors, it will also feature two stages – a Global Stage covering market trends and policy, and a Scale Stage focused on company-level growth and commercialisation. WHW takes place across two days of content, business matchmaking, and dealmaking.
Agenda highlights include:
- Where Capital Flows: Funding Trends in Women’s Health – with Merete Clausen (EIF), Ekaterina Gianelli (Calm/Storm), Henriette Hessen (Verdane), Jemma Day (British Business Bank), Ravit Warsha Dor (Telus Global Ventures), Tim Davis (LSEG)
- Six Feet Under-funded: Surviving the Valley of Death in Women’s Health – with Patric Stenberg (Gesynta Pharma), Valentina Milanova (Daye), Amber Vodegel (28x)
- The Women’s Health Label – Gift or Curse? · Live Debate – with Juan Camilo Arjona Ferreira (organon), Marissa Fayer (DeepLook Medical), Christian Lautner (Heal Capital), Annie Theriault (CBIV), Ida Tin (Clue)
- Passport to Scale: Taking Your Women’s Health Business Global – with Vanessa Carpenter (Femtech Across Borders), Annie Theriault (CBIV), Victorine Lançon (Daya Ventures), Dr Mridula Pore (Peppy)
Early bird pricing (ends 11 September):
| Ticket type | Early bird | Standard |
| Startups, Scaleups, Investors, Non-Profits, Government | £599 + VAT | £699 + VAT |
| Corporates, Payors & Providers | £1,799 + VAT | £1,999 + VAT |
| Service Providers & Consultants | £3,299 + VAT | £3,499 + VAT |
Register for Women’s Health Week Europe | See the full agenda for WHW
Women’s Sport Summit Europe 2026
6 October | Emirates Stadium, London
The first-ever Women’s Sport Summit expands W Group’s expertise in connecting key decision-makers to the sports industry.
WSS brings together rights holders, brands, investors, athletes, and media to accelerate commercial growth across the sector.
Agenda highlights include:
- From capital to crowd: the women’s sport cycle at scale – with Omar Shaikh (Arsenal FC), Nicole McWilliams (Google), Kerstin Lutz (Mercury13), Jo Currie (BBC Sport)
- Women’s sport through the investor lens: what gets funded – and why – Hugo Sever (APEX Capital)
- Rethinking ROI: what are we measuring that doesn’t actually matter? – Fi Watherston (Metro Bank), Silvia Keiser (Billie Jean King Cup), Gabriel Akin-Odujobi (Crux Football), Tammy Parlour (WST)
- Beyond the 90 minutes: matchday as a commercial product, not just a fixture – Maggie Murphy (Aston Villa Women FC), Sam Feasey (Diageo/Guinness), Molly Miller (OneFootball), Megan Feringa (The Athletic/The New York Times)
Early bird pricing (ends 11 September):
| Ticket type | Early bird | Standard |
| General Pass | £299 + VAT | £399 + VAT |
| Service Providers & Consultants | £1,799 + VAT | £1,999 + VAT |
Register for Women’s Sport Summit Europe | See the full agenda for WSS
Attending both events?
For group tickets or to attend both summits this October, contact Callum, W Group’s Client Success Lead, at [email protected].
KOVE Medical has raised €1.7 million to support first-in-human studies of an implantable device designed to reduce preterm birth risk after foetal surgery.
The University of Zurich spin-off is developing a device designed to close defects left by surgical instruments following fetoscopy, a minimally invasive procedure performed inside the womb.
Fetoscopies can treat life-threatening conditions before birth but require surgical instruments to pass through the uterine wall and amniotic sac.
This can weaken the protective membrane, causing fluid leakage or rupture and often leading to preterm birth.
KOVE Medical said in a statement on LinkedIn: “This is a crucial step forward for our company, and we are incredibly grateful for the strong support and trust from our syndicate of visionary angel investors.”
KOVE Medical says its device closes the defect at the end of the procedure, stabilising the membrane and preventing complications. The aim is to make in-utero interventions safe enough to become a standard method of care.
The company plans to use the seed funding to reach first-in-human studies, a key milestone for a medical device seeking regulatory approval.
The CHF1.6m round was backed by a syndicate of angel investors.
The Women’s Health Innovation Summit (WHIS), the event uniting the global women’s health ecosystem, has just announced 18 new speakers joining the agenda for its 2026 summit, taking place October 13–15 at Encore Boston Harbor.
The latest additions bring further depth across pharma, clinical research, health systems, venture, and policy, reinforcing WHIS’s role as the only platform where the full women’s health ecosystem convenes under one roof.
Newly confirmed speakers include:
- Kelle Moley, MD – VP, Women’s Health Early Phase Clinical Development, Cardiometabolic Research, Eli Lilly & Company
- Justine Levin-Allerhand – Executive Partner, Chief Corporate Development Officer & COO, Flagship Labs, Flagship Pioneering
- Sebnem Yildirimoglu, MD, PMP – Executive Director, Women’s Health Strategy, Premier Research
- Terri Stewart – Head of Global Healthcare & Government Affairs, EMD Serono
- Dr. Morag Grassie – Executive Director, Blavatnik Fund for Innovation, Yale
- Sandra Butler – Director, Design Impact, Mass General Brigham
- Zhenya Lindgardt – Chief Executive Officer, Sera Prognostics
- Sadie Morahan – Head of US Revenue, Withings Health Solutions
- Angela Drew, PhD – Vice President, Regulatory Strategy, Premier Research
- Dr. Stephanie Lahr – CMIO, Aqurio
- Michelle Andrews – Contributing Writer, KFF Health News
- Charlotte Williams – CEO, My Bump Hub
- Clint Dart, MS – Director, NIH Women’s Health Data Coordinating Center, Premier Research
- Cass Sanford – US Venture Advisor, FemTech Lab
- Megan Mukuria – Founder & CEO, ZanaAfrica
- Tiffany Inglis, MD, FACOG – Chief Medical Officer, Sera Prognostics
- Angelean Hendrix, PhD – Vice President, Pharmacometrics and MIDD, Premier Research
- Amanda Ducach – CEO & Co-founder, EmaEQ
“WHIS is where the women’s health industry comes together to take action,” said Poppy Howard-Wall, Event Director at WHIS.
“This latest wave of speakers reflects exactly the kind of cross-sector expertise our attendees expect – from global pharma and clinical research leadership to venture, health systems, and grassroots innovation.
“It’s this breadth that makes WHIS the room where things actually move forward.”
Bringing the Full Ecosystem Together
These additions join a growing 2026 agenda spanning four content tracks that reflect the full lifecycle of healthcare innovation, from early-stage research and development through to patient delivery, system transformation, and commercial scale.
Attendees can expect over 1,000 senior decision-makers, 120+ expert speakers, four dedicated stages, and more than 10 hours of curated 1:1 meetings.
Full speaker and agenda details are available at whisusa.com/speakers-2026.
About WHIS
The Women’s Health Innovation Summit is the only platform uniting the full women’s health ecosystem – providers, payers, employers, pharma leaders, investors, and innovators -to increase deal flow, expand reimbursement, improve access, and deliver better outcomes for women at every stage of life.
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