Women’s Health Brands Filling Critical Voids Through Innovation

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.