Key Takeaways:
The Hormone–Mental Connection
The data linking hormonal transitions with depression and anxiety is undeniable, yet healthcare still treats them in silos. For example, four in 10 women experience mood-related symptoms during perimenopause, while 80% develop neuropsychiatric symptoms, most commonly hot flashes, cognitive dysfunction, and sleep disturbances.
This gap isn’t just clinical; it’s systemic, extending from research to therapy. Samphire Neuroscience is a London-based neurotech start-up developing the first approved medical device for drug-free and hormone-free treatment of menstrual symptoms. Its co-founder and CEO, Dr. Emilė Radytė, explained to BeautyMatter that for a long time, women’s health was studied in fragments—reproduction over here, mental health over there—and the two rarely spoke to each other. “Hormonal cycles were often treated as background noise rather than central to how women feel, think, and function,” she said.
Even though 76% of US therapists are women, few private practices are structured to protect their well-being—a symptom of a system that continues to externalize women’s care while undervaluing their health.
But the femtech industry has the opportunity to reframe the conversation by building adaptive, data-driven care. From FDA-approved digital therapeutics to AI-powered hormone–mood trackers, a new generation of start-ups is reframing mental health as part of the hormonal lifecycle.
A Documented Overlap
The overlap between hormonal transitions and mental health is no longer up for debate.
In women with PCOS, around 35% experience depression and 17% live with anxiety disorders, rates far higher than in the general population. During perimenopause, over half of women experience anxiety, and a third suffer from depression. Meanwhile, one in five women experiences perinatal mental health disorders, yet half go undiagnosed.
For neurodivergent women, the picture can be even more complex: two-thirds of those with ADHD report PMS or PMDD, with symptoms often peaking in midlife, while autism spectrum conditions have been found to worsen dramatically during menopause, leading to extreme meltdowns, depression, anxiety, suicidal feelings, and difficulty masking struggles.
Together, these figures paint a clear picture: hormonal transitions are key to women’s health. They are central to emotional, cognitive, and social well-being. Yet the care remains fragmented.
Dr. Sarah Oreck, a Columbia-trained reproductive psychiatrist and founder of perinatal mental health platform Mavida Health, said the most glaring gap is accessibility. “Quality reproductive psychiatry care is incredibly hard to find and, oftentimes, even harder to afford. Most specialists don't take insurance, leaving women with an impossible choice: pay $400+ per session out of pocket or see a general provider who isn't trained in this specialty,” she told BeautyMatter. Oreck added that many women see an average of three to five professionals before receiving a diagnosis.
And beyond cost, there's medical gaslighting at every level. Dr. Andrea Colon, a naturopathic doctor specializing in hormonal health, told BeautyMatter that she often sees women struggling with anxiety, depression, or irritability, especially during transitional phases like postpartum, perimenopause, or after stopping birth control. “What breaks my heart is how often women are told it’s in their head, and how many actually start to think they’re crazy, when in reality, these changes are directly linked to hormonal fluctuations,” Colon said.
But now, there’s a rise in research reframing these experiences as biological realities rather than simply emotional exaggerations. Science is finally catching up with lived experience, validating the link between hormones and mood, and unlocking new pathways for women’s health innovation.
Tech-Driven Therapies
After decades of underdiagnosis and fragmented care, a new generation of digital therapeutics and AI-driven platforms is redefining how women understand and manage the link between hormones and mood. From FDA-approved mental health apps to digital health ecosystems that combine hormonal testing with CBT-based therapy, the next wave of femtech is building the infrastructure for holistic care.
In the last year or so, prescription digital therapeutics for mental health disorders have been on the rise, representing a transformative shift in the care of psychiatric disorders. Case in point: FDA-cleared Rejoyn for major depressive disorder, DaylightRx for generalized anxiety disorder, and MamaLift Plus for maternal mental health.
Dr. Colon believes there’s big potential for technology to make hormonal literacy mainstream: “One of the most valuable ways femtech can support women is by helping them track symptoms throughout the month and correlate changes in mood, energy, and sleep with cycle phases. This can help women recognize hormonal patterns and prompt timely professional support.”
For example, Moody Month utilizes AI-powered hormone-mood tracking with machine-learning models trained on hundreds of millions of data points, while Belle Health offers digital therapy for PMDD, PMS, and PME, incorporating cognitive-behavioral therapy exercises.
“We need more hormone-informed care, yes—but it needs to be led by actual clinical expertise, not coaches or ‘bio-hacking,’ and certainly not snake oils with buzzwords on the packaging,” Dr. Oreck warned.
Dr. Colon’s approach is always to work with the whole person. Similarly, at Mavida Health, they provide comprehensive evaluations that encompass psychiatric and reproductive history, current symptoms, and how they pattern with hormonal changes, before creating personalized treatment plans consisting of therapy, medication, lifestyle interventions, or all three.
While digital platforms like Mavida Health aim to unify mental and hormonal care, neurotech innovators like Samphire Neuroscience are making that connection tangible through brain-based tools.
“We wanted to bring neuroscience into women’s hands for the first time, and build brain-based tools that help women understand—and then manage—their hormonal well-being from a brain perspective,” Dr. Radytė added.
Together, these platforms signal a new phase for femtech; one where data, diagnostics, and digital therapy merge to form adaptive, hormone-aware mental healthcare.
The Business Case
The integration of mood tracking, hormone monitoring, and digital health platforms represents a growing recognition of the connection between hormones and mental health in clinical guidelines, creating scalable solutions for previously underserved conditions.
Dr. Radytė explained that traditional treatments, whether hormonal or pharmaceutical, have their place, but they don’t work for everyone. Many women experience side effects or have comorbid conditions, making certain drugs or hormones unsuitable or difficult to tolerate. “For a lot of women, it’s about regaining a sense of agency: understanding their own rhythms, supporting their brains naturally, and feeling they have more than one route to feeling well,” she noted.
According to Euromonitor International, over half of consumers now define beauty as “looking healthy,” while 44% equate it with taking care of both mind and body. This redefinition of beauty as well-being signals a major opportunity for brands to position hormone- and mood-focused products within everyday self-care.
McKinsey reports similar shifts: 44% of consumers see beauty as caring for the mind and body, and more than half now consider skincare part of their wellness routines, akin to physical exercise.
Together, these insights point to a growing appetite for products that support emotional regulation as much as aesthetic outcomes.
Beauty’s Intersection
Mintel predicts that by the year 2030, beauty will evolve from focusing on results-driven products to prioritizing emotional resonance and the ability to regulate mood.
Mood and multisensory design are expected to reshape beauty, encouraging brands to move from efficacy-first to experience-first. Advances in functional fragrance, neuroscience, and immersive tech (VR and AR beauty experiences) will transform products into daily mood and sensory enhancers.
Most wellness and beauty brands still treat emotional well-being like an afterthought, Dr. Radytė stated. “Hormones affect how we think and feel every day, but hardly anything out there actually helps women understand what’s going on in their brains. We don’t need more ways to cover things up—we need tools that help us work with those changes and feel more like ourselves through them,” she added.
Beauty can tap into this shifting landscape through licensing science, data partnerships, or mood-regulating product development, like L’Oréal’s partnership with menstrual health app Clue, which aims to integrate cycle data into skincare R&D, from puberty to menopause.
As beauty brands move toward science-backed innovation, consumers are evolving just as fast. Gen Z is becoming the first truly hormone-literate generation—approaching hormonal health as part of everyday well-being rather than a purely medical concern.
Through social media, wellness platforms, and even AI tools like ChatGPT, individuals are learning to connect hormonal patterns with skin, mood, and energy in real time. Across platforms, this awareness is reshaping what “balance” means in modern self-care. Despite its extremes, this wave of hormonal curiosity reflects a broader cultural shift toward knowledge, personalization, and preventative care.
Femtech is redefining not only women’s health, but what efficacy means in beauty. The next frontier will be products and platforms that help women regulate mood, not just manage symptoms.
The Outlook
Brands that understand the hormonal-mental health nexus will define the future of holistic care. The commercial case is clear—addressing this intersection is not just impact driven, but also one of femtech’s most scalable frontiers.
“Too often, emotional changes are treated as purely mental health issues rather than getting to the root cause,” said Dr. Colon. “We need more education, not just medication. True empowerment comes from giving women knowledge, options, and the tools to rebalance naturally.”
That shift, from dismissal to data-driven empathy, is exactly where femtech’s next frontier begins. Mental health won’t be treated as a symptom of hormones; it will be recognized as part of the same system, approached in a holistic, patient-centered fashion.
And for brands, the opportunity lies in building solutions that serve both.
