Smart Menstrual Cup Empowers Health Tracking
Published 16 March 2023
Despite 300 million people menstruating every year (Vyld, 2022), women’s reproductive health is typically overlooked and underfunded. Enter UK femtech start-up Emm, which has developed a smart menstrual cup to give wearers a reliable insight into their wellbeing.
The brand’s inaugural launch is a kit that includes a period cup with a unique pleated design, which adapts to the body to prevent leakage. A portable container provides bag-friendly storage, and a UV steriliser helps clean it between uses.
An accompanying applicator enables the cup to be inserted like a tampon. This familiar form language will encourage users of the latter to switch to reusable cups and help reduce the two million tons of single-use ‘menstrual waste’ discarded globally every year.
Described as a ‘biowearable’, the product is fitted with biosensors that track the flow, volume and regularity of the wearer’s period, and sends this information to the Emm app via Bluetooth. This automatic collection of data makes it easy for users to track patterns and catch irregularities that might indicate a health issue.
Overstrained and expensive healthcare systems make personal wellness monitoring devices hugely valuable. And this is particularly true for women: in the UK, 84% feel unheard by their healthcare providers (Gov.uk, 2022), while in the US, 83% have experienced gender discrimination by such bodies (SurveyMonkey, 2018). Emm’s product highlights how underserved reproductive issues present a ripe space for innovation, and a huge cache of potential users – the global menstrual market is a $7.5bn industry (Femtech Insider, 2021).
Emm