Empowering Women’s Health: Exploring Femtech Innovations for Menopause and Beyond in Real Food Stories

Did you know that women’s health has historically been sidelined in medical research, leaving many women navigating their health journeys without adequate support or information? Join host Heather Carey in this enlightening episode of Real Food Stories as she welcomes femtech attorney Bethany Corbin, founder of Femme Innovation. Together, they dive deep into the burgeoning field of femtech, which is revolutionizing women’s healthcare through digital health technologies designed specifically for women’s health.

From menstrual and fertility tracking apps to innovative solutions for menopause and chronic health conditions, Bethany sheds light on the wide-ranging applications of femtech. This discussion highlights the urgent need for better data and regulation in the femtech industry, ensuring that women receive the informed care they deserve. Heather shares her own personal experiences with menopause, revealing the challenges she faced in finding knowledgeable healthcare providers who truly understand midlife women’s health.

As the conversation unfolds, Heather and Bethany emphasize the importance of women advocating for their health and being discerning about the products they choose. With many femtech solutions operating without regulatory oversight, awareness is key. Tune in to hear how community-driven initiatives can change the landscape of women’s health services, empowering women to take charge of their health journeys.

In a world filled with diet myths, emotional eating, and food confusion, this episode also touches upon the significance of mindful eating practices and sustainable eating as part of a healthy lifestyle. Whether you’re interested in nutrition advice, cooking techniques, or personal food stories, this episode is packed with insights that resonate with women navigating midlife changes. Discover how to embrace your body positivity, understand hormonal changes, and nourish your body through every stage of life.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from two passionate advocates for women’s health and wellness. Join us for a conversation that not only informs but inspires, reminding us all that taking care of our health is a vital part of our personal food journeys. Tune in to Real Food Stories and empower your menopause journey today!

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Transcript:

Speaker #0
Well, hello, everybody, and welcome back. And if you are just tuning in with me for the very first time, it’s so nice to meet you. And I’m really glad you’re here with me today. I am your host, Heather Carey, nutritionist, chef, mom, and a woman who has been around the block with food. I want to open up about real food in relation to health, weight, and our bodies so you can make peace with what you eat. Hey everybody, today I had the privilege of talking with Bethany Corbin, who is an attorney in the femtech space. Now, if you don’t know what the word femtech is and you want to, because you should if you are a woman and going through any sort of health issue, Bethany knows all about what the future of health care for women is. going to be. Femtech is definitely booming right now. And we women need to know more about this, especially if you are going through perimenopause or menopause. And even if you are still going through your childbearing years, we need to know what femtech is because there’s a lot of misregulation and unregulation. And there’s also a lot of exciting innovations that are happening. So take a listen to my conversation with Bethany Corbin and get yourself educated on your own health. Hi, everybody. I’m here today with Bethany Corbin, who as a healthcare innovation and femtech attorney, Bethany is on a mission to help thought-leading companies revolutionize the global women’s health sector. She is the founder of Femme Innovation, which helps founders, clinicians, politicians, and advocates transform and disrupt standard care delivery for women’s health through specially tailored legal and educational programs, thought leadership, and advocacy. Bethany is a recognized leader at the intersection of women’s health, law, and technology, and was named a top 200 trailblazing leader in women’s health and femtech by Women of Wearables. Her strategic insights have been featured in top news outlets, including Forbes, Fortune, BBC, NPR, BuzzFeed, The Atlantic, Vice, Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue, and more. Hi, Bethany. Welcome to the podcast. I’m so happy to have you here today.

Speaker #1
Hi, Heather. Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Speaker #0
Sure. So let’s just jump in. Can you just explain to me and my audience? I think because… what femtech is exactly, because this word is something I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz around all of a sudden. It’s not something I am that familiar with, but definitely been hearing more about it. I’m sure you have been hearing about it for years. I am just kind of new to this. So I have a feeling it’s going to become even more of the future of healthcare for women. So can you just explain what femtech is?

Speaker #1
Absolutely. So Femtech, it can have a lot of different interpretations or meanings, but the most common one is that it refers to any type of digital health technology that’s being used to transform or support women’s health care. The most common applications that you’ve probably heard of on the market would be things like Thanks, period tracking and fertility tracking apps, Glow, Clue, Flow. Those are kind of the leading brand names whenever you think about. Femtech. And for a while, Femtech itself was actually pretty limited. It was a very new category of healthcare that’s really emerged since about 2016 when it was coined. And it’s gaining increased attention, especially now that we’re expanding beyond just reproductive healthcare. So historically, most of the innovation in Femtech really focused on reproductive health. So things like menstrual cycle tracking, ovulation, when are your fertile period windows. What does maternal health care look like? What can you track for you and your child? Those were the typical Femtech applications. And now what we’ve started to see as Femtech has grown in popularity over the last couple of years is a shift towards healthcare solutions beyond just the reproductive health years. And so we’re seeing much more interest and investment in things like menopause, longevity, chronic care conditions for women, cancer. And it’s interesting whenever we think about Femtech because we don’t have a corresponding men tech category. So it’s always interesting. And I get this question a lot, kind of, why do we even have to call it femtech? And the reason really is that women have been neglected from modern medicine for substantially long periods of time. And so we don’t have data on women’s health care. And a lot of the health solutions that we have are based on male physiology, especially when we think about the fact that clinical trials weren’t even allowed to include women until the 1990s. And even then. A lot of clinical trials didn’t take into account sex and gender as variants in their underlying research theses. So because of that, women’s health has been neglected. And now we are seeing a push by women who want to understand their bodies. They don’t want women’s health to be a taboo subject that they can’t talk about in public. And so FemTech really arose as a way to give women an understanding of their own bodies, empowerment, and autonomy for health care.

Speaker #0
Well, that’s really exciting because I totally agree with you. I mean, I’m in the throes of perimenopause and menopause right now. So I’m beyond the childbearing years and I’ve had my kids and everything. But I know for me, when I got into started, you know, having symptoms of perimenopause and I went to my gynecologist and even my primary care physician, they were just in the land of the clueless. I mean, even my gynecologist and it was. really frustrating. They just seem very misinformed. And so this feels very exciting to me to know that there’s a movement for women that really pays attention and focuses on a very neglected area of healthcare. I mean, you know, I’m going to, I’ll stick with perimenopause and menopause for a second, because every woman on the planet, I’ve said this a million times, goes through menopause. There’s not a woman who gets spared from it. And there’s just so much misinformation and so much not misinformation. And then the marketing around it and people taking advantage of women and the supplements and the testing. And so I think this sounds really exciting. So does Femtech go beyond just… apps, tracking apps, and things like that. Where else do you see femtech sort of expanding?

Speaker #1
Yeah, it’s a great question. Predominantly what we have in the market now are those things like the wearables, the tracking apps, the different types of applications that help you to monitor your symptoms. But we are, especially in the past one to one and a half years, seeing a transition to other things like telehealth platforms that are designed solely for women’s healthcare. We’ve seen new technology coming into the apparel industry as part of Femtech. For instance, you know, period underwear, you know, new innovations there, even in the cardiovascular space that would have kind of, you know, apparel that would monitor cardiovascular activity for women. And so we’re starting to see branches out into different types of tech applications, different type of tech platforms, apparel. We are obviously seeing some increase in the supplements that are coming onto the market for women’s health, especially, as you mentioned, in kind of that menopause space. We’re also starting to see different collaborations in a way that we haven’t seen before. So we’re starting to see women’s health companies partnering with established tech that’s on the market more generally. So there’s been partnerships, for instance, between women’s health companies and Oura Ring. There’s been partnerships between some women’s health companies, right, and the Fitness Watch or Fitbit, Apple’s Watch. So we’re seeing those types of partnerships as well. And we’re also starting to see things that are coming onto the market that could be even used to track and alleviate symptoms. So whenever we talked about menopause, for instance, you know, there’s new products on the market that could help deliver cold flashes. If you’re having a hot flash, you know, changing your body temperature, starting to regulate that. One of the interesting things that we’re also seeing with Femtech in this space is the need to build data sets. And so we’re starting to see more companies, whether they be an app or an actual product that women can use, they’re starting to collect more data on women’s health that can then be given and fed to researchers downstream because we don’t have the data sets that we need. And I think that’s part of the issue that we’re running into in Femtech as well. whenever we try to get these. devices approved on the market and paid for and invested in is a lot of investors and payers want to see data. They want to see how this is going to help improve the economics of the country down the line. And we don’t have that data to a full extent because there hasn’t been a lot of research on women’s health and women’s bodies. So that’s another really interesting aspect of Femtech is actually building those data sets.

Speaker #0
Yeah, that’s a really good point. I mean, I know, I mean, I love information and I love verification. And so I wanna know that what I’m getting myself into or investing my money into as a patient or a client is worth it and it’s backed up by data. I like data. Me too. But I’ve also had, I had an experience, I’m like almost embarrassed to even like say this, that when I was in the middle of like my… full-blown perimenopause that, and my gynecologist actually said to me, you know, I don’t know what to do. I really don’t know what to tell you. I mean, this is my gynecologist say this. So, and I went to, I guess you would call this, maybe you call this femtech. I went to one of these companies that said they would do all my hormone testing and they, I spent a lot of money. I, I, I did, I went in, I was, I felt desperate, you know, and I, I went in without like all the data, but you know, with the promise that they were going to like fix me and it just was a disaster. I spent a lot of money. It was a lot of testing and they wanted to put, then sell me a lot of hormones and, and supplements and hormones and like all sorts of stuff. So I have to imagine that that, and that was years ago. So I have to imagine that it’s gone from like, that kind of wonky hokey, I mean, you know, thing to maybe it’s, it sounds like there’s more right data behind it. People who probably invest in these companies want to make sure that things are regulated, right? I mean, are there regulations for some of these companies? I think that’s my point too. Like my question is that this company that I had gone to years, I don’t I don’t think there was any regulation. They wanted to. I think they could prescribe me anything they wanted. I was going to pay out of pocket.

Speaker #1
Yeah, those companies still exist just in the general wellness category. There’s, you know, there’s some that even I have seen, you know, when you kind of get desperate and you want a solution. And so you go to kind of a general wellness provider who does the comprehensive testing, right? But then their side business is they make money on selling you the supplements or the hormone replacement therapies and injections. And so those definitely do exist. To a certain extent, they are regulated by the same standards and practices of medicine if they involve licensed clinicians. But it’s an interesting point you make about regulation and kind of hoax products out there, because I will say, depending on the type of Femtech product that you’re using, there are some serious accuracy concerns that we have and some of those same kind of hoax concerns in this industry. I’ll give you an example. A lot of the period tracking apps that are available on the market for women are even apps that will track your menopause symptoms, most of them are not accurate and they’re not required to be accurate and to have any type of underlying data showing that they work. Part of that reason is because of the regulatory system that we have in place. So the Food and Drug Administration, FDA, is responsible for regulating medical applications. But if you have an application that’s just providing things like symptom tracking, or general education. or suggestions and not teetering on that boundary of medical advice or diagnosis, then you’re able to usually slip under the FDA regulatory schemes. They’ll exercise enforcement discretion. And your app doesn’t have to go through clinical trials or prove that the methodology that it’s using actually works. And there have been studies on Femtech applications, not just the period tracking apps, but Femtech apps in general. And some of these organizations have looked at 200, 300 apps on the market. And they have found that 85% of them don’t meet the quality standards and thresholds that they have and that they would expect as an organization. If we’re thinking about period tracking apps in general, there have been studies that show analyses of 100, 200 of those apps. None of them can accurately predict ovulation or your fertility windows. And even some of the best apps that are performing have a 21% accuracy rating. And so… We do live in a world right now where women’s health is becoming more and more recognized that it is a great market opportunity. Women are making 85 percent of purchasing decisions for households, especially in health care. And, you know, we used to be seen and we still to an extent are seen as a niche population, which is crazy, right? Because we’re 51 percent of the population. We’re not niche. As you mentioned, almost every woman is going to go through menopause. And yet.

Speaker #0
But every woman will go through menopause. Not almost every woman. Every woman will go through menopause.

Speaker #1
And we live in a world in which that’s now being seen as a market opportunity instead of an opportunity to improve women’s health care. And so, yeah, we are seeing companies enter this space that don’t adhere to accuracy standards and clinically accepted evidence. And that’s hard for women to navigate because if you’re a woman, how do you know that this menopause product that you’re using or this menopause app that you’re using has been accurately and adequately tested.

Speaker #0
Yeah, such a great point. I mean, because not to mention all of those products and apps and everything that just slip under the FDA radar. But, you know, in my world as a nutritionist, I mean, the diets and the supplements, I mean, none of those are regulated by the FDA. And there’s dozens and dozens of supplements out on the market for desperate women, myself included. I did the same thing. I mean, I was going through, you know, I was like, My hair was, I was losing some hair and, you know, so then I invested in some really expensive supplements that I knew better. I knew I was, but I felt like desperate, you know, to just try anything. And there’s just dozens. I mean, and the diets, I mean, anyone can, can create a menopause diet. Once you click on, you’re on Instagram and you click on one, I mean, you were just blasted with just millions of them. And it’s, it’s, it’s just crazy. how much, yeah, just it’s like a, like the wild, wild West kind of. And I think that menopause, I know I keep, I know Femtech covers all areas of women, but I’m, I’m just focused on menopause because that’s where I’m at. But it is really like a, just an unregulated, I think mess kind So how do you see the future of regulation? You’re an attorney, so I’m sure you’re very focused on that and making things more compliant and legal. So I know you can’t contend with the FDA, but what can you do or how do you see that heading?

Speaker #1
Yeah, it’s always interesting whenever you see regulation try to keep up with the changes in technology because you know it can’t. And so technology is. always a step ahead of where regulations have to come in and protect consumers. So we are seeing increased activity from regulators in the Femtech space. Right now, I will say most of it is on the data privacy aspect of Femtech, especially given the overturn of Roe versus Wade. We’re starting to see the Federal Trade Commission come in and regulate and actually enforce things like its health breach notification rule or aspects of, you know, you’re using data improperly or illegally in a way that you didn’t tell consumers. So we’re seeing kind of more of an emphasis on the privacy side for transparency. For the FDA, you know, it’s always been interesting for them because they have this whole new classification, right? You’ve got software as a medical device, as AI, right, and medical technology has evolved. And so I don’t think, you know, they’ve got to strike a balance between, okay, which apps are we regulating? Which ones can we allow to slide? because the risk to… you know, human safety and human efficacy and wellness is low. But even what I’ve heard, I was at a Femtech conference recently, the actors in the Femtech space want more regulation. You know, there’s often a perspective that, okay, if you’re a digital health founder or a tech founder, you don’t want to be regulated because it could stifle innovation. That’s not the feeling that I have from the Femtech industry. What we were even talking about this conference is we We want more regulation because we want to keep. those hoax apps, right, and those people who are just trying to capitalize and monetize on women’s health out of our industry because it can cause more harm than good. So I think there are going to be increased pushes as we’re looking to the future for more regulatory activity in the femtech space, and at least some kind of baseline standard setting for the apps before they get to the market. So I think that’s where we’re headed. We’re definitely not there yet. You know, I’m sure it’s probably not a high priority for the FDA as they’re, you know, dealing with. you know, more severe and, you know, complicated applications that they have to review. But I think that’s where we’re going. And I think that’s what the femtech industry wants, because the ultimate goal is to enhance women’s health. And with these bad accuracy stats, right, or applications of taking advantage of women, we’re undermining our own industry. And we’re not empowering women. And in fact, we’re actually disempowering them, because we’re taking and stealing their data for an application without giving them. any type of benefit in return if the app isn’t accurate. So that’s where I see it going. I’m also seeing increased privacy protections and standards being enforced on femtech apps. There’s now been kind of a movement, especially after Dobbs, to really understand that reproductive health data, whether it’s, you know, during your period, right, or during menopause, that that is all very sensitive health data. And so So… you know, if women are going to be trusting that data over to their apps, they need adequate protections. So I think we’re going to see either at the federal or the state levels, more regulatory activity in that space.

Speaker #0
That’s interesting. Yeah, I think the privacy laws are, that’s incredibly important. What about telehealth? You know, what about again, something that I don’t really know anything about, you know, and just, but just sharing information and is there an advantage to having, you know, or using a telehealth company versus in person? And yeah,

Speaker #1
it’s interesting when you think about it from a couple of different aspects. So I know you were talking earlier, right, that you’re, you know, your OBGYN kind of didn’t know what to do for you with menopause. There have been statistics that show So… that doctors on average are only receiving about four hours of menopause education throughout their entire medical training, right? And there are about 20% of residents out there who have actually never had any, you know, one single lecture on menopause. And so when you think about, you know, that’s kind of the practitioner that you’re seeing, whether it’s in person or via telehealth, that’s kind of the baseline that we as women have. And we’re so often told, right, that our pain doesn’t matter or that that’s normal. It’s normal for you to have hot flashes and be totally uncomfortable during menopause. Go and deal with it, you know, rather than saying, oh, geez, 51% of our population of the world is going to have these symptoms. We should be taking a much more, you know, enhanced vision of this and transforming health care. So we’re not at that stage yet. And I think, you know, given the current. system that we have in healthcare, right? Your doctor spends on average less than eight minutes with you. And most of that is typing at a computer. And so if they’re not keeping abreast of the changes that are happening in the digital health space or the femtech space, they’re not even going to know of the solutions to try to give you, right? And to try to improve and enhance your experience with your health and wellness journey. I’ve talked to a lot of clinicians. Most of them, even if they’re OBGYNs have not heard of femtech. They’re not involved in thumbtack They want to be, right? But they’ve never heard of it. So I think whenever we’re trying to think about, you know, whether you go in person, right, or you adopt telehealth, one thing to think about is what kind of telehealth platform are you thinking of using? Is it just going to be, you know, you’re going to either see your doctor in person or you’re going to see them online, right? Same doctor, same practice. You’re not going to probably see a lot of different benefit from going to telehealth other than just convenience of doing it at your own home. But if you’re thinking, okay, do I see my primary care physician who I’ve always seen about this, or do I use a specialized telehealth platform that might be dedicated to menopause and longevity? Okay, now I know that I’m going to be seeing experts in that field who have had way more than that four hours of menopause training and have dedicated their entire careers to that. That’s where I think we’re seeing a lot of innovation right now. We’re seeing more and more telehealth platforms come to life that are either focused exclusively on women’s healthcare. or on a specific subset of women’s health care issues. And that’s where they have an advantage because you’re dealing with experts in the field who are dedicating their entire careers to this. So I think telehealth definitely has a place there. Obviously, with telehealth, you have similar kind of data privacy concerns, as you do whenever you’re seeing your doctor. You’ll want to make sure that this is a provider that would be covered under HIPAA if you’re giving them access to your health information. You know, so there are some other kind of data privacy and security risks that you don’t have if you’re just seeing a provider in person. But a lot of providers, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, have implemented strong privacy and security controls. And the other really good thing about telehealth, too, is that it’s allowed us to be able to access providers we may not have had access to before due to distance, you know, distance limitations, right? Not being able to travel. Maybe you’re in a rural community. Now you’re able to kind of say, oh, I want to see this platform for this provider. And you have access to that. So that’s been one of the benefits that’s happened from telehealth is kind of that proliferation that’s occurring.

Speaker #0
So how would women know which company is better? I mean, is there a review of these companies? You know, I mean, somewhere because I could just probably go on Google and just Google like telehealth, femtech. I don’t know what I would menopause specialists or whatever, and maybe come up with like 10 companies. How do I know which one is better? I mean, is there any kind of regulation or review board of these, some of these companies, anything like that? Or is that kind of in the works and coming?

Speaker #1
It’s a fantastic question. It’s one that we absolutely do need some kind of agency, right? Whether it’s a voluntary agency, right, or a government agency to be setting those baseline standards to help women say, okay, well, this one’s certified, right? So I know that it has passed at least a minimum review from a regulated entity or agency. We don’t have that right now in Femtech. I think we absolutely need it to avoid women getting stuck into, you know, hoax companies, hoax supplements. So it hasn’t happened yet. What we’ve started to see are some reviews, mostly on the data privacy side, that are comparing the different types of femtech apps out there and telling you which ones are more data hungry than others, right? Which ones have better privacy and security practices than others. So those types of studies have started to evolve. We’ve started to see the accuracy studies coming into play, mostly on the application side, not necessarily on the supplement and the telehealth side. One thing that I would recommend is. definitely doing research before, you know, any, you know, accessing any type of Femtech product or service just to make sure that it’s based on underlying scientific evidence, or at least have a reputable medical advisory board to it. I can’t tell you how many Femtech companies I look at, and there’s no clinician involvement whatsoever. So you just have a tech founder, right, who is coming into this space, not using any type of, you know, vetted medical science, and putting a product out there. So that’s one of the things I always look for, you know, do you have a medical advisory board or at least a clinician who’s involved in your practice? For the founders, you know, and kind of their core team, I look at their experience. Most of them will have, you know, on their About Us page that, you know, their team members listed in their backgrounds. I look to see what their background is in this space. If I’m just seeing somebody who’s a Silicon Valley and, you know, a person who’s, you know, a serial entrepreneur, that’s going to raise some red flags for me. Not that this isn’t a good product necessarily, but okay. Why are you in this space now? How are you vetting this medically? The other thing I look at too is if I’m doing something, for instance, in menopause, right? Is this a team that has been founded by a woman? So often there are products on the market for women that are developed by men. And that’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with that or that men can’t be involved in femtech and create women’s products, but it raises the red flag of, okay. You’ve never experienced this. You’re never going to experience this. What do you know about my symptoms? Right. What do you know about what my body is going through? So I always want to make sure that they at least, you know, even if they’re founded by a male team, that they have a female in the senior leadership position who’s advising them. The other thing, you know, that we can be doing is making sure that we as consumers of these products are advocating and making our voices known to the regulatory bodies that we want something that’s going to help us. easily vet these products. We want a standard, right, or a label or something that they have to have a minimum level of compliance with. And I think if we as consumers push for that, we will eventually get it. It might obviously take some time, but that’s where we need to go. Because as you mentioned, right, it’s so hard. You’re going to, you know, you search menopause apps, right, or femtech menopause. You’re going to get hundreds of products. Some are in, you know, seed stage, raising funds. Some have been out there for a while. But you’re going to get so many products. And as consumers, we don’t have the tools available at our disposal to be able to vet them properly.

Speaker #0
Yeah, such great points. I think, number one, the medical advisory board, just looking that up and seeing if they have a doctor, because I have certainly seen some companies that are just founded by some people who have no medical background. I mean, I’ve also seen people, you know, like I’ve noticed a lot of. Hollywood actresses. And, you know, like all of a sudden they’re forming companies and that’s great. You know, they’re, they’re women, they’re, they’re midlife and everything, but I haven’t looked to see if they have medical advisory boards. So, so I, that’s not even really fair for me to say, but they’re very influential and, and they. probably know they’re going to, you know, they’re in it to make a lot of money off of some of these companies. So, but I think having, right, a solid medical advisory board is extremely important. And then I think also the women founded is vital. I see a lot of companies or I see even healthcare practitioners or nutritionists. I’ve seen some people out on like the internet, you know, I’m always like looking and older men. middle-aged men. I’m like, who are you? I have no idea what we’re experiencing. So it’s just puzzling to me sometimes that I see things like that. But so yeah, I think that the, you know, just looking and being your own advocate, right? We have to educate ourselves as women. We have, we have to spend some time knowing andresearching what are, you know, what are the most effective ways to treat your symptoms?

Speaker #1
Absolutely. You know, and I think exactly what you said, right, being your own advocate, as much as it would be great to just have providers take us seriously, right? Research has shown that so many women are gaslit by their providers, or they have their pain dismissed, right? Or the providers just, you know, that’s not an area that they’re familiar with, and they don’t know what to do. So they don’t have an ability to help you. And so that’s really led to women having to take this into their own hands and do their own research, sometimes being more informed about a condition than their provider even is. So as much as I hate to say it, we absolutely have to be our own advocates. We absolutely have to demand better from our health care system. We can continue to do that by buying kind of those women owned, women founded brands out there, right, showing we’re kind of voting with our dollars that we. we want to see more of these products out there. You know, I would also kind of see it like, for instance, if you’re doing a, you know, a telehealth platform, let’s say you want to use a telehealth platform for menopause care, see who that provider is. Do they have a strong background in women’s health, right? Even if it’s a male provider, have they spent their career as a women’s healthcare, you know, physician or clinician? If so, right, they’re going to be somebody who might be worthwhile talking to versus, oh, I see I have a telehealth platform, it does. 10 different things, you know, one of which might be menopause, but it’s just a generalized provider. That is also something that I look for.

Speaker #0
Yeah, another really great point. Because I think also, you mentioned doctors not really having a lot of training and experience with menopause, most of them. I mean, that has definitely been my experience. Most doctors that I have come across really have very little training in menopause. Even the ones that say they are gynecologists. I mean, one of my one of my gynecologists, their their company was called Menopause and like gynecological associates. Like they put the word menopause and she was the most uninformed doctor that I have ever come across. I mean, it was really fascinating to me. So, yeah, I think women need to do a lot of their own. research and education, just an understand that a lot of doctors do not have the training.

Speaker #1
Yeah. And, you know, and one of the things that we were even talking about at a recent conference was, you know, women have to start being comfortable talking about their health and public spaces with each other, because there are so many people who are going to see that exact same doctor you did, who are going to have a terrible experience, right? And they’re not going to know. And so there has to be a way for us to share that information back to women. to say, okay, don’t see this doctor, right? I had this terrible experience. Here’s what happened. They weren’t informed. Oh, I had a really good experience with XYZ doctor instead, right? That would kind of get more women into the right spaces, right? The right clinical practices that they need to be and with the right doctors who are going to take them seriously. We had a conversation about whether or not, you know, writing online reviews about physicians and, you know, one person was like, you know, I hate doing it, but you How else are women going to know not to go there? You know, we’ve tried educating the physicians. We’ve tried telling them over and over again, no, listen to me, right? These are my symptoms. This is what I’m having. And we’ve been dismissed so often that a lot of women are now turning to kind of that online public forum, not to shame doctors, right? But to say, hey, terrible experience here, but had a great experience here and really helping to kind of shift the dialogue and empower women that way as well.

Speaker #0
Well, I think also… I mean, that’s a great point. I think also it starts with women just educating themselves on what menopause and perimenopause is. There’s so much confusion around it. And there’s a lot of symptoms that most women wouldn’t even relate back to menopause.

Speaker #1
Yes. I mean, there’s like 40 plus symptoms of menopause. And so we may not have the characteristic hot flashes, but that’s really all, you know. all that physicians have been taught are kind of those maybe top five or 10 symptoms. So if you don’t have any of those, or you’ve got other symptoms, you’re likely going to be dismissed.

Speaker #0
Yeah, so I feel excited about, about what’s happening, you know, in the future, I think that the more it gets talked about women’s health and menopause and perimenopause and things, it’s going to become. less of a taboo subject, more comfort in women being able to just talk to each other about their symptoms and refer doctors and things like that. So I think, yeah, I feel, I feel encouraged about the femtech space. How do you feel about it?

Speaker #1
You know, I think that there’s a lot of positive for the femtech space. I think we have the potential to grow exponentially. I mean, women’s health in general is expected to be a $1.186 trillion opportunity in the future. Femtech has crossed over the billion dollar mark, you know, we’re anticipated to hit kind of 75 billion to 100 billion by 2030. So I think there’s a lot of potential, but I do think it has to be done consciously, purposefully, properly. when we think about empowering women. And I also think we will need increased regulatory activity in this space. We will need increased standards that are going to make it easier for women to understand which products to go to. And I do think we will start to expand into more of those chronic care conditions going forward. We’ve seen some really cool developments coming on the market for things like breast cancer detection. You know, there’s a company I was speaking to the other day that’s trying to commercialize a product that would help women do their self-care. breast exams each month and flag if it detects any type of tissue change that could be an issue to go and talk to your provider about. There are companies out there who are trying to do blood tests now for ovarian cancer. So I think we’re going to see some really interesting opportunities and companies coming onto the market as women, right, knowing that the Femtech space exists, knowing that we are here to help you understand. what’s happening in the space, right? How to advocate for yourself and your body can also be a really powerful tool. And there’s definitely communities out there. We’re building one as well that’s gonna kind of be able to provide women with at least reputable resources and reputable companies to look at going forward.

Speaker #0
That sounds very exciting. And it sounds like you are just doing some really great work and you’re on the cutting edge of this whole explosion. So how can… women find you or tell me a little bit more about what you’re doing now just in your work world and how can people get in touch with you?

Speaker #1
Absolutely. So as you know, right, I’m an attorney by background, but we launched Femme Innovation about eight, nine days ago, the public facing portion of it for phase one. That really equips us to provide kind of the legal strategic advice. to founders in this space because we want to make sure that they’re building their companies and their products properly. We’re also trying to do more clinician education to get clinicians to understand the FemTech space and to start to bridge that clinician-tech-founder gap. The thing we’re really excited about that’s coming up is kind of our phase two launch in 2024, where we’re trying to build a very cohesive community for founders, clinicians, investors, and women who want to be involved in the FemTech space for them to come and access resources, articles, advice on women’s health-related conditions, and kind of also know which companies are innovating in that space in a responsible and legally proper manner. So that’s what we’re hoping to build in 2024. If you’re listening to this and you want to be involved, please reach out to us. We want as many women to be involved and help shape this platform as well. So telling us what you’re looking for, the products that you’re envisioning, the Thank you. challenges that you’re facing? Do you want forums on which physicians to go to? Do you want kind of a rating system on products? Help us build the services that you want. You can find me at bethanycorbin.com. You can also find more about Femme Innovation at femminnovation.com. I’m also very active on LinkedIn. So if you want to stay up to date on kind of what’s going on in the Femtech community, you can find me at linkedin.com slash in slash Bethany Corbin.

Speaker #0
Okay. Fantastic. I will put all of those links in the show notes so people can just refer back to that as well. That sounds really exciting. And I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with Femme Innovation and just this Femtech space. I think it sounds great. So thank you so much, Bethany. I really appreciate you coming on today and talking. You’re very knowledgeable about all things Femtech and I learned a lot.

Speaker #1
Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker #0
And as always, if you loved this podcast, please consider gifting me with a five-star review. It is so helpful for me to get the word out on real eating, our real bodies, and real food stories. Thank you so much and have a great week. Bye for now.