Lubricant Ad, Fertility Analyzer, Full-Cycle Skincare… | Weekly Roundup | Issue #001
A weekly newsletter about menstrual health.
Leading the Way
The First Lady Arya Ali and Minister of Education Priya Manickchand from Guyana launched the Menstrual Hygiene Initiative. They are delivering sanitary pads, free of cost, to schools in different regions so girls don’t have to drop out of school. Read more here.
Maria Carmen Punzi and Giulia Minghetti are breaking taboos and starting conversations in Italian about menstrual health. This article covers different NGO initiatives around the world, rising investments, and Italian startups joining the menstrual movement.
Ricardo Monteiro worked with Jontex on marketing their new line of natural lubricants. Their commercial ad is in Portuguese (which I don’t speak!) but by just watching, you can understand the storyline. It talks about female sexuality, shows lubrication needs throughout the menstrual cycle, and doesn’t make assumptions about sexual relationships.
Christine Bergsma, from Journaling Through and Margaret Hayes from Nature’s Cycle UK, joined this weekend and hosted a women’s health workshop along with a screening of the menstrual health documentary “Pandora’s Box” by the makers of the Diva Cup. In the workshop, they spoke about journaling prompts to use throughout your cycle to better align yourself with your body, mind, and soul. Later, they covered the different menstrual stages, tips on what to do during each stage, and what types of food to eat during each.
Co-Founder and CEO at Mira Fertility, Sylvia Kang partnered with Amazon and hosted a live webinar about the company, its products, and its roadmap. Sylvia pointed out how growing up we are told about contraception and then suddenly when we start trying to conceive we realize we barely know about fertility. She stated, “every consumer deserves to know better and more”. In their Mira Plus Starter Kit, they offer a fertility analyzer and wands that measure Estrogen-Estradiol Metabolite (E3G) and Luteinizing hormone (LH) levels. At the live webinar, the founder announced that sometime in September they are launching a Progesterone tester. (I’m personally super excited about that!). Mira’s goal is to be able to offer tests for a panel of many different hormones. For example, their plan next year is to launch an HCG test for pregnancy. Watch the replay here.
Co-founder, Ayesha Haroon, shared that her company Wonder Women came in the top 3 in the national finals of the EWC competition. This means that soon they will be competing in the global finals. The startup makes “wall-mounted vending machines that dispense pads and other period products.” (Taken from their LinkedIn bio as of September 5th, 2021). Here is a peek at their pitch deck and designs.
Fewe, the world’s first full-cycle skincare brand is launching tomorrow, September 6th.
I can’t even think of a title for this one…
-But this article sums up “The War on Women” in Texas. This article sums up how Florida is next. At least Lyft and Uber are helping! They offered to pay driver’s legal fees for any issues with the Texas abortion law. Most importantly, here is where you can start to help alongside the Planned Parenthood Center for Choice.
Don’t lose all hope in men though! Here is a feel-good news piece to remind you that we still have male allies. We just need MORE of them to wake up and help in the menstrual movement and other women’s health matters. Male teacher from Futye Junior Secondary School in Elliotdale in the Eastern Cape, Litha Meslane started the LM foundation with which he is providing sanitary towels, textbooks, and more so kids are not disrupted from their education.
Flo Health, the menstrual cycle tracker app, gets sued…again… It’s sad at this point. I use Flo because their website is full of articles about how they keep your data super secured. However, they have been in the spotlight for data misuse for a while now. Tread carefully. Read more here.
Member Spotlight
Mai Bantog-Cruz: Women’s Wellness and FemTech Content Strategist
This week, one of our members Mai Bantog-Cruz, spoke with FemTech in their FemTalk series. She has been freelancing since 2008. In the event, she talked about her journey from freelancing to business and shared insights on how to navigate the freelance and FemTech industries. She stated, “treat your freelance work as a business” to help her listeners understand the benefits of adopting a business mindset in their freelance work. Watch the replay here. Congrats Mai!!
Events Coming Up
The Future is FemTech| September 8th @3-4:00am EST | Link here.
Mira Fertility webinar with Women’s Hormone + Fertility Expert | September 15th @4:00pm EST | Link here.
Columbia University Periods & Sports webinar | September 22nd @8:00am EST | Link here.
Carrot Fertility Sneak Peek at What’s Coming in 2022 webinar | September 23rd @2:00pm EST | Link here.
Accounts to Follow
Instagram:
Maria Carmen Punzi, menstrual health advocate @periodswithmariacarmen
Christine Bergsma, from Journaling Through @journaling_through
Margaret Hayes from Nature’s Cycle UK @natures_cycle
Until next Sunday morning!
Marisol Consuegra Prado, writer at Period Press Global
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