From social media censorship to struggles in securing funding for femtech brands, operating a consumer brand aimed at women’s health concerns like fertility and hormonal health is not an easy feat. Especially as residing in the grey space between a medical and cosmetic product comes with claim, testing, and marketing challenges.
Amid Trump’s takeover, the concerns for women’s reproductive rights and freedoms have reached a fever pitch. In an attempt to ban “woke” initiatives, the Trump administration banned almost 200 words, including “female,” “people + uterus,” “women,” and “pregnant person” from public-facing websites or school curricula according toThe New York Times. Some words were outright banned, while others were advised to be used with caution.
Furthermore, with only 4% of healthcare research and development dedicated towards women’s health issues, the average endometriosis diagnosis taking 7.5 years, and one in six experiencing infertility worldwide, solutions are more vital than ever. In a study by McKinsey & Co., 64% of medical interventions studied put women at a disadvantage due to limited access, lower efficacy, or a combination of both.
Women weren’t included in medical trials until 1993. In 2016, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) mandated that studies mark sex as a biological variable, but there were no consequences if this wasn’t reinforced. Five years later, there still wasn’t an equal amount of male-to-female comparisons in pre-clinical studies. A 2022 study on enrollment of female participants across 1,433 clinical drug trials in the US, including 302,664 participants, found the average inclusion percentage was 41.2%, with females underrepresented in cardiovascular disease, psychiatry, and cancer trials.
There is hope, however. The National Institutes of Health, Apple, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health announced a women’s health research partnership in January 2024: The WHx Program and WHx Women’s Health Innovation Fund at MIT launched in February 2025 to address women’s health through AI, biomedical research, and wearable technology.
In recent years, a select group of brands have stepped in where governments and medical systems fail. More than just producers of products, the brands’ founders are passionate about education and putting the powers back in the hands of the consumer. Brands building themselves like medical enterprises rather than lifestyle products are putting in the research, testing, and ongoing advocacy efforts.
BeautyMatter spoke to five founders at the intersection of women’s health, science, and consumer products: Carolyn Wheeler, CEO and co-founder of sexual wellness brand, Vella Bioscience; Mary Alice Haney, CEO and co-founder of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) supplement company, Ovii; Martha Graeff, co-founder of women’s pro-aging wellness shots brand, Happy Aging; Kat Lestage, co-founder of reproductive health supplement company, THE OVA CO; and Kristina Cahojova, founder and CEO of Kegg, makers of a medical-grade fertility device and pelvic-floor trainer.
Brand Beginnings
Wheeler and Dr. Harin Padma-Nathan, the lead Principal Investigator for Viagra and Cialis, are currently leading Vella Bioscience. The brand launched in 2021 with the Women’s Pleasure Serum, which uses a nano-encapsulated cannabidiol (CBD) technology incorporating CBD isolate for clitoral and vaginal muscle relaxation, plus liposomes to bring the ingredient deep into the layers of the skin. Backing the product’s efficacy claims, the brand worked with a third-party research lab in France specializing in sexual medicine and another study looking at myometrium tissue of the uterus. The brand closed a $7 million Seed II funding round in May 2021, led by Aaron Fleck & Associates.
Ovii grew out of the weekly female health-focused SHE MD podcast started by OBGYN Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi and editor and entrepreneur Mary Alice Haney, which has 96.6K subscribers on YouTube and 20.3K followers on Instagram. The supplement contains an inositol blend, white mulberry leaf extract, and chromium picolinate, as well as glutathione and a polyphenol blend to target hormonal balance, metabolic support, and body composition. PCOS is one of the leading causes of infertility and affects 13% of women, but up to 70% remain undiagnosed. The condition is defined by four key symptoms: regular or absent ovulation, excess male hormones, ovarian cysts, and metabolic issues. To help women assess the likelihood of having PCOS, the brand has created a quiz encompassing a holistic range of factors from irregular periods to mental health, plus key takeaways on how to improve hormonal health.
“We wanted to ensure that we weren’t just creating another supplement but something clinically backed, effective, and truly transformative for those struggling with PCOS,” Haney said.
Its founders' financial foundations and sales momentum allowed them to build the company “without significant external investment at this time,” Haney told BeautyMatter. The reception has been impressive. In their first week of business, Ovii did three months’ worth of predicted sales. The brand reports “overwhelmingly positive” feedback from product users like decreased period pain, more regular cycles, and less bloating.
Happy Aging, co-founded by Graeff and Harvard-trained, triple board-certified longevity expert Dr. Daniel Yadegar, debuted with the NAD+ Longevity Shot and the Biological Age Test. The test was produced in partnership with TruDiagnostic to produce a reading of biological age, the health of 11 key organ systems, and speed of aging through more than 75 biomarkers.
Nicotinamide riboside (NR) and resveratrol (the latter sourced from Swiss biotech company Evolva, which produces the ingredient through yeast fermentation) are hero ingredients for the NAD+ Longevity Shot. Getting to the end product involved two years of research and development, testing over 40 formulations. The company conducts purity testing and batch staging across multiple stages of production, and all ingredients are selected based on peer-reviewed studies.
“Rather than pushing boundaries on regulation, we focused on innovation in delivery,” Graeff noted. “Developing a liquid shot was significantly more complex, both in terms of formulation and logistics, but we knew it would enhance absorption, convenience, and the overall user experience.”
In two months of launching, the brand welcomed 2,000 subscribers and sold out of its inventory twice. Graeff highlights a burgeoning longevity market (projected to reach $44.2 billion by 2030), but one which was historically centered around men and biohackers rather than female solutions. The entire product line was formulated for the biological needs of women over the age of 35.
The brand launched using its founders' own capital, but recently received significant interest from investors and is in discussions with strategic partners for the next phase. Happy Aging is expected to earn $5 million to $10 million in its first year in business, with $1 million in revenue within the first four months.
THE OVA CO offers four supplements for fertility and pregnancy, sperm health, hormonal health, and reproductive health. Its products are manufactured in the UK by FDA-approved facilities, formulated by fertility doctors, nutritionists, and biochemists, as well as third-party tested. The brand was self-funded by Lestage and Danielle Fox-Thomas for two years before raising almost £750,000 ($968,948) in outside funding over the past year and a half.
With a bold and colorful aesthetic, the brand breathes new visual life into the market. Lestage defines the OVA CO as hitting a sweet spot by offering a mass price point and distribution. From a marketing perspective, finding the right balance between science-focused and efficacy claims, as well as having “a big sister energy,” was the main goal. “Cutting through the jargon and breaking down some of the science to ensure it didn’t feel so inaccessible,” Lestage said. Adjusting the formulations (ingredients and dosage levels) and messaging to be regulations-compliant for a global market has been another challenge, with the brand needing to change both several times since launch.
Kegg launched in 2020 but was born out of the start-up Lady Technologies, founded in 2017. The device was built using AI, the world's largest dataset on vaginal health, and impedance technology to track changes in cervical mucus. The brand stands behind its product so much that if users aren’t pregnant within 12 months of directed daily use, they get a full refund.
Today the brand has served over 50,000 users, and Lady Technologies secured a $6.5 million Series A funding round in January 2025, led by Relentless Consumer Partners. “What I realized with this fundraising round is sales numbers don't lie, but investors are still not comfortable with the word ‘vagina.’ The word is very sexually and politically charged. The only way to solve this is to succeed, so we are growing,” Cahojova added.
Tight Claims Regulation, Loose Safety Regulations
Being a consumer brand operating in this space offers a less time-, resource-, and finance-intensive road than launching through the pharmaceutical channel, although it’s by no means easy. “The innovation in women’s health is driven by the consumer because they understand the need. Still, you have very limited claims with consumers, and the margins are very small. But we do it because we believe the market is big and are enthusiastic about the outcomes for other women,” Cahojova said.
On the other hand, the more laidback approach to safety and efficacy measures in consumer products can be a drawback. The FDA does not review supplements before they hit the market, manufacturers are not required to disclose their supplement ingredients, and as long as brands disclose that their claims have not been evaluated by the FDA and make no claims involving disease, all is fair game. Brands are also limited in touting the benefits of their products.
“They're [agencies like the FDA] so tightly regulating what brands are allowed to say and then, on the other hand, not at all regulating what they're putting in their bodies,” Lestage explained, citing the example of only being able to talk about the hormonal balancing effects of vitamin B6, but not how myo-inositol, N-acetyl-cysteine, (NAC), and CoQ10 together has helped PCOS sufferers in clinical trials. “At this point, you have to learn to communicate in creative and effective ways without stepping on the toes of the ASA [Advertising Standards Authority] or the FDA.”
The onus is on brands to hold themselves accountable, which creates a huge grey area around ethics and regulation. “Women’s health is too important for shortcuts—so every aspect of our production, from ingredient sourcing to packaging, follows the highest industry standards. That said, I believe the supplement industry still lacks the strict oversight that pharmaceuticals receive, so it’s crucial for brands like ours to hold ourselves to the highest possible standards,” Haney added.
While some are willing to invest in ingredients and clinical trials regardless of these limitations, Lestage noted, “If brands aren't able to talk about what their products or ingredients can do, then you are going to have a stifling of brands willing to invest because it's not going to impact sales.”
Cahojova added, “The regulations are in place for good reason and people should follow them. But following them should be made easier for small companies. It's very expensive for small disruptive players to be doing it well.”
Wheeler is concerned about the impact of cutting funding in NIH grants, a previously helpful stepping stone in funding women’s health brands.
How these brands can market themselves is also being limited, with Cahojova highlighting the issue of censoring women’s health on platforms like TikTok. Especially terms like “vagina,” “vulva,” “sex,” and “cervical fluid” are subject to content removal. This month, six UK and EU brands and platforms aimed at women’s health including HANX and Daye, issued formal complaints to the European Commission about Meta, Google, LinkedIn, and Amazon, displaying a “systemic bias and discrimination” towards their content. In 2022, cycle care company Fewe launched an open letter to Meta requesting a review of cyber censorship of women’s health, so it’s clear there is still room for improvement. This censorship impacts the bottom line of brands.
Nonetheless, in the face of all these hurdles, customers are still finding their way to solutions, and brands are finding their ways to market their products with strategic use of imagery and terminology.
Filling the Research Gap and Building Communities
R&D for these companies isn’t just about developing their next product but having a broader impact on the medical field and society at large. Vella Bioscience recently published a survey of 7,065 US women ages 21 and older, approved by the FDA’s Institutional Review Boards. Using a cross-sectional, anonymous, online survey study, it showed that only 23.85% of participants were able to correctly identify what "sexual arousal" means to them.
In July 2023, the company announced the formation of a pharmaceutical company developing treatments for unmet female sexual health needs, Otrera Medical, Inc. That same year, the company received the first patent for the use of cannabinoids in antidepressant-induced female sexual dysfunction. The company also launched a Research Consortium for the Scientific Study of Women’s Sexual Wellness and made a novel discovery around a dose-dependent relationship between CBD administration and vaginal/clitoral smooth muscle relaxation, which was presented at the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH). It is also looking to do a clinical trial involving endometriosis patients at a California clinic to validate the use of its innovation in helping those with the condition.
Kegg has already completed two clinical studies: one comparing the device’s precision in measurements to serum hormone levels and ultrasound-validated ovulation and another comparing it to basal body temperature readings. Both studies show that the device had more precision and accuracy than traditional methods. It also provides a much more affordable alternative to treatments like IVF. The company recently received clearance in Japan, where the device will be distributed through doctors’ offices to address the country’s high fertility issues (affecting 1 in 4.4 couples, according to a 2021 survey).
In the US, it is researching cervical mucus as an indicator of other health conditions. The next chapter will be unlocking those who want to use Kegg as a means of natural birth control.
Happy Aging will conduct a randomized clinical trial with 100 participants using its product, with results expected in April 2025, to reinforce its transparency and efficacy efforts. The brand recently launched a marine collagen-infused Glow Shot and magnesium-, ashwagandha-, and L-theanine-containing Calm Shot, with 12 more products scheduled to launch in the next four months.
THE OVA CO is starting a clinical study with University College London (UCL) to test its products. Ovii hosts monthly Instagram lives and webinars to offer education to even noncustomers, as well as Facebook groups for its community to get information and exchange experiences. “PCOS is widely misunderstood, and so many women are dismissed by doctors or left without real solutions. We needed to ensure that Ovii wasn’t just a product but a movement and platform providing women with resources, research, and community support,” Haney added.
Stepping in Where Governments and Medical Systems Fail
For now, the research and solution-finding continues, despite the challenging political road ahead. Brands are offering hope beyond the product box. “We're able to tell women their bodies have more agency than you've been led to believe,” Wheeler added. Vella Biosciences recently commissioned three medical illustrations of the aroused vagina on three different skin tones, which are free to the public. “It's so much more difficult to understand what's missing that you never had in the first place. Imagination, language, and open conversations among women—that's the work where we get to write a new vocabulary,” Wheeler noted.
She added that there are more significant health positives to widening the conversation around women’s health, with arousal issues potentially being a tool for early diagnosis of other medical conditions like cardiovascular disease. “We need any tool we can to help ourselves,” she said. “It really does feel like the time is right for CPG to do it. But who's going to invest in R&D is what matters.”
“There is no such thing as reproductive health class [in school]. Women are ending up in the doctor's office far later into their fertility journeys than would be ideal because of wait times or just a lack of understanding,” Lestage said. “When it comes to governments and health systems, these are systemic issues that will hopefully change. But there is a need for brands to help where we can. We had an investor say to us once, ‘If you know that these ingredients can help people get pregnant faster, you have a moral prerogative to put these products out and to sell them as cheap as you can.’”
Beyond products, beauty brands can use their platforms to educate and destigmatize topics like hormonal imbalances, fertility struggles, and menopause—normalizing conversations that have long been misunderstood, Haney said. “Consumers today expect more than just products; they seek brands that genuinely invest in their well-being. It’s time for the industry to meet that demand.”
“The biggest shortfall in healthcare isn’t treatment, it’s prevention. Governments and traditional medicine are largely reactive, stepping in only after health issues arise. This is where brands can play a crucial role by offering science-backed solutions and education that empower women to take control of their health earlier in life,” Graeff remarked.
The market of women needing health solutions isn’t going to disappear anytime soon, so regulation that would boost the safety of products while allowing brands to be transparent about the benefits of their products (clinical testing provided, which would require increased funding) presents a necessary evolution. Brands like Vella Bioscience, Ovii, Happy Aging, THE OVA CO, and Kegg are leading the charge, and showing that despite women having been dismissed over their health concerns for decades, they won’t be silent any longer.
