FemTech Focus

On this episode, FemTech Focus's co-founders, Dr. Brittany Barreto and Dr. Julie Hakim are back again with the BODY 101 series! This time they discuss the beautiful, milk-producing and tender breasts. This episode includes everything from breast anatomy to how to examine your breasts, nipple discharge and common breast issues. Tune in and let's be breast-ies!

Check out FemTech Focus at femtechfocus.org

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Bill Gruber is currently the President and CEO of Solace Therapeutics, an emerging women’s health company focused on a revolutionary non-surgical office based treatment for unexpected bladder leaks, the primary symptom of female Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI). Bill was the President and CEO of Interlace Medical. While at Interlace he raised over $28MM in venture capital for the development and launch of devices for the treatment of Abnormal Uterine Bleeding caused by fibroids. The company was purchased by Hologic in 2011. Bill began his career in sales and marketing roles at Procter and Gamble before transitioning into the medical device sector. We discussed the types of urinary incontinence, what is the urethral sling, product design in FemTech and how to convince investors to care about women's health & wellness.

Check out Solace Therapeutics at www.solacetx.com

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Dr. Roopan Gill is an obstetrician gynecologist with expertise in family planning and abortion care and also the Co-Founder & Executive Director of Vitala Global. Dr. Gill is a Women’s Health Advisor for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Paris section and has worked as an emergency obstetrician gynecologist in Nigeria and Yemen and has supported projects in countries such as Malawi, Chad and Pakistan. Her research interests include human-centered design, innovative approaches to improving abortion access, sexual and reproductive health in humanitarian contexts and knowledge translation to improve health policy. She completed her training in Canada and holds a Masters in Public Health in Global Health from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. We discussed reproductive health for adolescent girls, self-managed medication abortions and did some abortion myth-busting.

Check out Vitala Global at vitalaglobal.org

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Sabrina Johnson is the founder, CEO and is a member of the Board of Directors of Daré Bioscience, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to the advancement of innovative products for women’s health. Daré in Italian, it means“ To Give” while Dare in English, it“ To be Bold.” Sabrina has had an extensive career in healthcare industry and bringing products to market. She previously served as President of WomanCare Global Trading, Chief Financial Officer of Cypress Bioscience, Inc. Sabrina has a Masters of International Management degree with honors from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird), a MSc in Biochemical Engineering from the University of London, University College London and a BSc in Biomedical Engineering from Tulane University. We discussed the various products currently in Daré Bioscience's portfolio, bacterial vaginosis, female sexual arousal disorder andbarriers in bringing FemTech products to market.

Check out Daré Bioscience at darebioscience.com

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Jannine Versi is the COO & Co-Founder of Elektra Health. Elektra Health is on a mission to smash the menopause taboo by empowering women with world-class, evidence-based care, education and community. We’re building a movement to bring high-quality hormonal healthcare into the 21st century alongside some of the best investors in the space. Two million women enter menopause every year in the US. A majority face the transition unprepared, unsupported and under-cared for, just when they need it most. Prior to Elektra Health, she worked at Google, The White House National Economic Council, the U.S. Department of Commerce and Cityblock Health. Jannine earned her BA in International Relations & History from University of Pennsylvania and her MBA from Harvard Business School. In this episode we discussed integrative care with menopause, the history of hormone therapy and breathing techniques for hot flashes.

Check out Elektra Health at elektrahealth.com

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Shara Raqs is the inventor and founder of MUSE.CYCLES. A guided experience to optimize one's hormone cycle for creative thinking, inspiration and pleasure. Prior to MUSE.CYCLES, Shara was a creative artist and former professional dancer. MUSE.CYCLES started as a personal experiment with everyday self-trackers which later turned into collaborations with other neuroscientists and a study with the Kriegsfield Neuroscience lab at Berkeley. In this episode we discussed how how fertility is linked to creativity, Shara's personal journey through self-tracking and filling the gap in research for women's brain health.

Check out MUSE.CYCLES at discoveryourmuse.com

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Saundra Pelletier is the CEO of Evofem Biosciences, a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative women's sexual and reproductive health products.  In September 2020, Saundra led the successful launch of Phexxi – the first and only FDA-approved non-hormonal, female-controlled, on-demand prescription contraceptive vaginal gel.  Saundra is also advancing the Company’s pipeline product, EVO100, into a Phase 3 clinical trial for prevention of urogenital chlamydia and gonorrhea in women.  During her tenure, Saundra has led multiple equity financing rounds, raising more than $425 million in capital.  Prior to joining Evofem, Saundra founded WCG, a global non-profit organization focused on creating access to reproductive health products in over 100 developing countries.  Saundra is a breast cancer survivor, single mother, published author, skilled moderator, and coveted keynote speaker.  She was recently named to Inc. Magazine’s 2020 Female Founders 100 List. We discussed Phexxi's launch and becoming a public company.

Check out Evofem at evofem.com and Phexxi at phexxi.com

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Kimberly Seals Allers is an award-winning journalist turned speaker and advocate focused on advocating for equity in maternal and infant health. For the past seven years, she has ran on-the-ground community-partnered projects in Birmingham, AL, New Orleans, LA, Detroit and Philadelphia, to name a few, to better understand the lived experiences of birth and breastfeeding in low-income communities of color. Kimberly was recently named one of “21 Leaders for the 21st Century” for 2018 by Women’s eNews for her media advocacy work. Her fifth book, The Big Let Down—How Medicine, Big Business and Feminism Undermine Breastfeeding was published by St. Martin’s Press in January 2017. Kimberly has appeared on Good Morning America, CNN, Anderson Cooper, the Tom Joyner Morning Show, Fox News and has been featured in various international and national media outlets, including The Guardian (U.K.), U.S. News & World Report, Essence, Black Enterprise, Pregnancy and in various online media properties. Kimberly is a graduate of New York University and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. We discussed black maternal health, disparities in maternal health, dismantling biases for all women's health and the intersection of policy & health.

Check out Irth at birthwithoutbias.com

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Dr. Andrea Lukes has an extensive career in women’s health ranging from being a board-certified OB/GYN to the Chief Medical Officer of Health Decisions. Dr. Lukes currently advises Health Decisions on the development and implementation of research protocols and communications to the FDA. Dr. Lukes has conducted and/or overseen more than 80 clinical trials of investigational women’s health products over the last ten years. Her articles have appeared in journals including the Obstetrics and Gynecology, the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the International Journal of Women’s Health, Cancer and Current Medical Research & Opinion and Drug Safety just to name a few. She also founded the Carolina Women’s Research & Wellness Center, co-founded and served as the Director of Gynecology for the Women’s Hemostasis and Thrombosis Clinic at the Duke University Medical Center and founded and chaired the OB/GYN Alliance, an online network of 8,000 OB/GYN physicians in the United States. We discussed heavy menstrual bleeding, clinical trials and barriers to getting women medical device getting approved.

Check out Health Decisions at healthdec.com

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Suzanne Strong is the Chief Strategic Solutions and Programs Officer at Livestrong, an organization that is helping cancer survivors and their loved ones improve their quality of lives. They believe in putting the survivor first, by creating tools and resources to help ease the challenges of a cancer diagnosis. Suzanne is a graduate from Texas Christian University and started her career in the television industry, telling stories of the people and places which make Texas so unique. Over the years she started leading local non-profits in New York around the state like Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) and the Children’s Miracle Network. In this episode we discussed cancers that greatly affect women, the lack of innovation for mammograms and quality of life for all cancer patients.

Check out Livestrong at livestrong.org

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