Did you know that globally 1.5 billion women experience menstrual pain? 800 million women around the world live with PMS. 160 million live with PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder) characterized by mood changes, physical symptoms, and cognitive changes that can significantly interfere with a person’s ability to function in their daily life. PMDD is considered a clinical diagnosis.
The following is a conversation between Emile Radyté, co-founder and CEO of Samphire Neuroscience, a women’s health company developing neurotechnology solutions for unaddressed women’s health needs (prior to founding Samphire, Em completed her Master’s and started her PhD in Neuroscience at Oxford) and Oriana Kraft, Founder of FemTechnology Summit, Medicine at ETH Zurich.
Samphire Neuroscience is a solution that is desperately needed: did you know that 82.4% of women report losing productive working time due to menstrual cycle symptoms? And YET most women won’t talk about it —only 24% of women feel comfortable discussing their experience with their employer, resulting in an average of 9 days of lost productivity every year due to presentism.
4 out of 5 of menstrual cycle complaints concern mental rather than physical symptoms. Cramps don’t even make the top five of the most difficult symptoms to deal with (which are fatigue, low mood, irritability, mood shifts and brain fog).
Samphire Neuroscience wants to change the status quo on this. They use non-invasive transcranial electrical stimulation to stimulate specific regions of the brain that have been associated with the reduction of menstrual mental and physical health symptoms in the form of a hairband so that users can easily integrate into their everyday lives (A hairband to counteract PMS symptoms — how cool is that?).
Non-invasive transcranial electrical stimulation has a literature of over 30 years across psychiatry and cognitive neuropsychology, documenting its safety and efficacy in targeting specific brain regions to provide relief from symptoms, many of which are experienced around women’s menstrual cycles. It is well established in psychiatry, as a treatment (or maintenance) option for clinical depression, neuropathic pain and fibromyalgia, and some anxiety disorders.
Samphire Neuroscience is currently running usability tests to test Samphire’s Hairband in a more naturalistic, home setting, where the Hairband can be tried out around the participants’ menstrual period. The aim is for the users to provide critical feedback about how to improve the experience, the Hairband and the companion mobile application further, so that it could seamlessly fit into women’s lives every month.?
If you could benefit from such a solution, you meet the eligibility criteria and are interested in participating please fill in this form: https://tally.so/r/3NqBbW
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