20 Years. 35+ Symptoms. Where's the tech?

There are 35+ symptoms of menopause, which range from concentration issues, to hair loss or gain, to sleep disorders, to depression. It’s physiological and psychological and can impact people in a minor way, or a major way. Menopause is not just a month, or a year. Perimenopause is the time leading up to menopause. Menopause is technically just the date when one’s period has been absent for 12 consecutive months. Post-menopause is the time afterwards. This entire period can last up to 20 years. 

And yet, very few technologies address this. We are grateful to those first pioneers who are aiming to address menopause and we know, as hardware and design experts, that so much more can be done. 

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Menopause tech is technology aimed to help people with one or more of the symptoms of menopause. 

Technologies on the market today aim to solve the most discussed symptom: hot flashes. And this is a worthy cause. Hot flashes are not only uncomfortable, but severely impact sleep, mood, and general wellbeing. It’s also one of the only clear telltale signs of menopause that is openly discussed. Menopause has a huge associated stigma - we do not discuss it in polite society. Many people experiencing menopause don’t even realise that much of what they might be going through is associated with menopause and lower levels of Estrogen. It’s vital to change that conversation, to be more open about menopause and to offer solutions which benefit people suffering in all the stages of menopause. 

From a market share standpoint, this is a gold mine. Half the population will at some point experience some range of menopausal symptoms and many will expect that there are technologies to help them. If one is trying to lose weight, there’s plenty of fitness trackers, smart workout gear, and biometric feedback devices we can turn to. If one is trying to conceive or raise a baby, FemTech steps in, and everything from ovulation tracking to wireless breast pumps are increasingly the norm - so where is the menopause tech?

Some notable current tech includes:

Grace - a wrist worn wearable which is designed to cool a person experiencing a hot flash. Grace measures the body temperature and begins to cool the user before the hot flash starts. This is done from a cooling patch placed on the skin. https://www.gracecooling.com/ 

Menopod is a small pod-like transportable cooling which can cool almost immediately to 5 ° C providing relief during a hot flash. https://menopod.com/pages/how-it-works

Thermaband is “wearble cooling or heating on demand”. https://www.thermaband.com/ 

Embr Wave is a wrist worn device which uses “temperature sensations” to cool you down or warm you up. ​​https://embrlabs.com/products/embr-wave 

These four are notable because they are, or almost are, out on the market. In our database, we cover many emerging devices, technologies, and concept work which aim to address menopause. 

Given the prevalence of sensors and available technologies, it’s shocking that more devices are not available in the menopause tech space. This is what we’re hoping this community will develop, so that just as easily as investing in a device to help you be more healthy, people can invest in a device to help with menopause. 

Note: There are some absolutely amazing communities and apps out there for people experiencing menopause including and definitely not limited to:

• Gennev: Products, consultations and community: https://www.gennev.com/ 
• Lisa Health: A community and learning app to help to navigate symptoms of menopause https://lisahealth.com/ 
• Elektra Health: Online menopause care and community https://www.elektrahealth.com/
• With Alva: A robust community and online consultations https://withalva.com/ 
• NOBODYTOLDME: An educational platform about what to expect from a sleep, mood and libido perspective. https://nobodytoldme.com/ 
  

These communities are aimed at people experiencing menopause. 

Our community is aimed at developers, investors and people interested in the future menopause devices which will help them to navigate and cope with their symptoms. If you’re interested in the technologies available to develop solutions within Menopause Tech,