Hormonal health
Unleashing the power of AI to create a new era of hormone testing
How often do you talk about hormones? For a lot of women, it’s probably not enough. We might joke about pre-period chocolate cravings or hot flashes, but there’s a lot more to the conversation.
However, our hormones are responsible for a lot more than we give them credit for. They regulate our appetite, libido, sleep, heart rate, mood and stress levels and they keep us healthy and help us perform.
These chemicals are the body’s messenger system for various processes. A minor imbalance, no matter how small, can cause significant effects.
Getting better at understanding our hormones could go a long way towards helping us work with our body’s natural rhythms, yet conventional methods fail to give women the whole picture.
“Currently, hormonal testing is done through blood tests which means that you test all hormones on the day you take the blood test,” explains Jasmine Tagesson, co-founder and COO of the women’s health company Hormona.
“However, because our hormones fluctuate throughout the cycle that doesn’t tell you much.”
The other issue with current methods of hormonal testing, Tagesson says, is that the “normal” ranges are so wide that it’s unlikely to get “abnormal” results.
“The same ‘normal’ values might suggest different things for different people. Because we are so different, we need to find a way to look at our hormones in a more personalised way.”
Hormona, a data-driven start-up Tagesson has founded with her childhood best friend Karolina Lofqvist, aims to bridge this gap.
The company uses AI and a soon-to-be-released at-home test to help women track their hormone levels and better understand their bodies.
“So many women and girls suffer with period pain and menstrual problems” says Tagesson. “We want to help them understand what it is that they are struggling with and what they can do about it.”
The lateral flow urine-based tests assess three key hormones for measuring menstrual, reproductive, and menopausal health — FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone), progesterone, and oestrogen. The results are quantified through Hormona’s machine learning prediction model, enabling the platform to detect hormone levels in the sample provided.
The tests are designed to not only help women stay in tune with their bodies, but to also help them spot early signs of hormonal imbalances or gynaecological health conditions, such as PCOS.
“Depending on your cycle, the app will tell you exactly what day to take what tests. You can simply scan the test with your mobile camera and get the results within 15 minutes.”
Educating women
Hormona, however, is not solely focused on hormone testing. The London-based company and winner of this year’s Femtech World Research Project of the Year Award aims to educate women through its app, which allows users to track their symptoms and get personalised hormonal health advice.
“We don’t talk about our periods and hormones nowhere near enough,” Tagesson says.
“We have very little research on women’s health and a lot of the research that’s used today is based on studies that were done 20-30 years ago. Our lives look very different now, the environmental stressors are very different, and the way they impact our cycles is very different.
“With our app, our aim is to provide the education that has been lacking for so many women. We already track our sleep and physical activity, so why not track our hormones too?”
The app, designed alongside a team of endocrinology, gynaecology and nutrition experts, is also there to guide women after they’ve taken the tests.
“When it comes to hormone health, a lot of the changes that are required are related to lifestyle and diet. So, we offer our users holistic plans that aim to address the hormonal issues they are facing.
“For us, it’s important to provide women with a range of options and tools; it’s up to each individual to pick the one that works best for them. We’re all different and what works for me may not work for you.”
Tagesson’s dream would be for Hormona to be the global leader when it comes to hormone health.
“Educating girls and women from a young age so that they can know what is going on with their bodies is very powerful. I would love for Hormona to be the platform doing that,” she says.
On a more personal level, the London-based entrepreneur would like for the company to collaborate with scientists to bring more research into the world.
“Our aim is to use the information we’re collecting to change the way we approach women’s health. Currently, we are looking at how women feel during the ovulation phase.
“It is wildly accepted that during ovulation, you should feel your best, but many women have told us that they don’t actually feel that great.
“We’re hoping that with our internal study we can better understand why only some women feel good during ovulation and subsequently change some of the ways in which we look at this phase.”
To receive the Femtech World newsletter, sign up here.
More than 600 women’s health leaders warn social media censorship is restricting medically accurate, life-saving women’s health information.
In an open letter, as reported in the Independent, they said essential health advice was being restricted as posts about menstruation, fertility, menopause, postpartum recovery and sexual wellbeing were being systematically censored.
The posts are frequently misclassified as “adult content” and removed or restricted by automated moderation systems, even though they are educational or medically accurate.
Dr Aziza Sesay, medical doctor and broadcaster, said: “Online censorship perpetuates the narrative that women’s and gynaecological health is inappropriate and should remain taboo.
“This amplifies the embarrassment that already surrounds these topics.
“I often say that women are dying of embarrassment because they’re not coming forward about their problems due to shame, and when they present late, outcomes are poorer.
“Shame and stigma are costing lives.”
A survey by CensHERship, a campaign to tackle the social media censorship of women’s health and sexual wellbeing content, found 95 per cent of women’s health creators experienced censorship in the past year.
Respondents cited rejected advertising campaigns, removal of educational posts, reduced reach on social platforms and a lack of transparent appeals processes.
More than half said they now self-censor their language to avoid being taken down from social media platforms.
The warning comes as leading brands including Essity, Clue, Hertility, Daye and Mooncup join a newly formed coalition, the Women’s Health Visibility Alliance (WHVA), created to challenge what campaigners say is systemic bias in how digital platforms moderate women’s health content.
Clio Wood, co-founder of CensHERship, said: “Women’s and reproductive health content is not a threat to anyone’s safety.
“This is about accurate, life-saving health information being treated as obscene, and about women-led innovation being blocked at scale.
“Our members are tired of self-censoring, of replacing ‘vagina’ with euphemisms, of seeing menopause and fertility treated as taboo.
“Visibility is not a ‘nice to have’. It is fundamental to public health, innovation and gender equity.”
The open letter also called for policymakers to “help bring platforms to the table”, by ensuring “digital regulation addresses gender bias and recognises the public health and economic cost of this issue”.
Deirdre O’Neill, chief commercial and legal officer at Hertility, said: “Hertility has carried out more than 29 research trials and operates within some of the strictest regulatory frameworks in healthcare.
“If a company like Hertility, built on peer-reviewed science and clinical evidence, can be censored while misinformation spreads freely, then the system designed to protect people is clearly failing them.”
Rhiannon White, chief executive of Clue, a period tracking app, said: “Women are the world’s largest health and wellness consumers, controlling the majority of household spending in every market, yet they remain strikingly underserved relative to their economic power.
“This gap creates three systemic pain points: a profound lack of accessible female health knowledge that forces women to self-diagnose, a confusing marketplace filled with unproven products and little evidence-based guidance, and persistent barriers to accessing care.
“Yet when companies such as ourselves and the other members of the Women’s Health Visibility Alliance seek to address these pain points, providing health information that prioritises evidence-based guidance rooted in real science, we are consistently blocked for an array of baffling, unclear and frankly biased reasons.”
Oestrogen helps protect premenopausal women from hypertension by relaxing and widening blood vessels, according to new research examining why women develop high blood pressure less often before menopause.
High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, affects more than a billion people worldwide and is a leading cause of heart disease and stroke.
Premenopausal women are less likely to develop the condition than men or postmenopausal women, but the biological reason has been unclear.
Researchers used a mathematical model of the cardiovascular and kidney systems to analyse how oestrogen influences blood pressure.
The analysis found that oestrogen’s strongest protective effect comes from vasodilation, the process by which blood vessels relax and widen, helping blood flow more easily and lowering pressure in the arteries.
Anita Layton, Canada 150 Research Chair Laureate in Mathematical Biology and Medicine and professor of applied mathematics, said: “Oestrogen is often thought of only in terms of reproductive health, but it plays a much broader role in how the body functions.
“It affects how blood vessels respond, how the kidneys regulate fluids and how different systems communicate with one another.
“What we found is that its impact on blood vessels is especially important for regulating blood pressure.”
The findings may also have implications for treating women after menopause, when oestrogen levels naturally decline.
The model predicted that angiotensin receptor blockers, a common class of blood pressure drugs, could be more effective than another widely used treatment group known as angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors in treating women with hypertension, even after oestrogen levels decline after menopause.
Layton said her team has spent years developing a mathematical model of women’s kidneys and the cardiovascular system, designed to explore how different biological mechanisms affect blood pressure.
The model allows researchers to test individual effects separately and examine how each influences the body.
“We can turn on one effect, then another, and see exactly how each one affects the body,” Layton said.
She added: “For too long, women’s health, especially older women’s health, has been overlooked by medicine.
“Understanding how age and sex affect the body and, therefore, treatment, is an equity issue.”
A South Korean femtech firm has launched plant-based period pads in the US, replacing synthetic superabsorbent polymers used in most pads with a plant-derived alternative.
Most period pads, including those marketed as organic, use synthetic superabsorbent polymers, or SAPs.
These plastic-based materials sit in the pad’s core and absorb menstrual fluid.
Inertia says its Prism Pads instead use LABOCELL, a patented cellulose-based absorbent matrix derived from plants.
The company says the material manages menstrual flow while remaining lightweight and breathable.
Co-founder and chief executive Hyoyi Kim said: “In a category that has relied on the same internal materials for decades, we believed innovation had to begin at the core.”
The startup was founded by female scientists from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
It says many pads sold as organic use organic cotton only on the surface layer but still rely on synthetic SAPs in the absorbent core, the part of the pad that does the actual absorbing.
Each Prism Pad combines an OCS-certified organic cotton topsheet, the bio-based LABOCELL core and a sugarcane-derived backsheet.
The company says the pads contain no plastic-based SAPs, chlorine, fragrance or dyes.
The product carries USDA Certified Biobased Product status with 82 per cent biobased content and Dermatest five-star certification for skin compatibility.
Inertia says it has sold more than 10m pads in South Korea since launch and claims the number one feminine care product ranking at Olive Young, the country’s largest health and beauty retailer.
The US launch marks the company’s first international market entry.
Fertility4 weeks agoFrance urges 29-year-olds to start families now
Menopause4 weeks agoWomen with ADHD almost twice as likely to experience perimenopause symptoms, study finds
Fertility4 weeks agoKindbody unveils next-gen fertility platform
Entrepreneur2 weeks agoOura launches women’s health AI model
Menopause4 weeks agoMenopause specialist Haver joins Midi Health
Opinion4 weeks agoThe $128b paradox: Corporate wellness vs women’s burnout
Entrepreneur4 weeks agoKate Ryder headlines Women’s Health Week USA 2026 as full agenda goes live
Insight2 weeks agoWomen’s HealthX launches in Boston this December to transform women’s health through data and science
1 Comment