Issue #79- We’re talking women’s sexual health 🎙️

Happy FemTech Friday, 

This week, we’re highlighting a member of our community, Pinkey Patel, founder of Myri Health. Pinkey has been selected to join the esteemed Google for Startups Accelerator: Women Founders cohort program! Congratulations to the Myri team! ✨

In this episode, I sit down  with Artika Singh, a sexual educator and influencer with 7+ years of experience. We tackle safe sex practices, STI misconceptions among Indian women, and HPV prevalence. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in understanding  the connection between sexual health and women’s health, the importance of HPV and STIs, the rise of the sexual toys industry, the orgasm gap in women, and more.

Listen on Apple Podcast, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts. And if you love the episode, I’d appreciate you sharing your feedback by writing a review. It helps ensure broader reach to the women who need it most.

Thank you Friends 

Navneet 

• Inviga Healthcare Fund (IHF), the newly launched healthcare-focused private equity fund, raised $20 million as the first close. Founded by HealthCare Global Enterprises Executive Chairman Dr B S Ajaikumar and Ajay Garg, Founder and Managing Director of Equirus Capital, the Bengaluru-based fund aims to support healthcare and pharmaceutical/life science enterprises throughout the entire value chain
• Medulance, a healthcare service provider, has secured $3 million in Series A funding led by Alkemi Growth Capital. The round also saw participation from marquee investors including Dexter Capital, Aman Gupta, and Namita Thapar.  The company plans to utilise the funds to increase its presence across the country while focusing on emergency management technology.

• LunaJoy Health, a St. Petersburg, FL-based women’s mental health company, raised $4.2M in funding.Backers included Y Combinator, FoundersX Fund, Goodwater Capital, Magic Fund, VentureSouq, Nurture Ventures, and NorthSouth Ventures. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and programs across select communities.
• Phlo, a Glasgow, UK-based provider of B2B digital pharmacy services, raised additional £9M in growth funding.The round was led by Par Equity.The company intends to use the funds to scale the digital healthcare business. 
• Outrun Therapeutics, a Dundee, Scotland, UK-based E3 ligase inhibitor and protein stabilisation developer, raised $10M in Seed funding. Backers included M Ventures and MP Healthcare Venture Management.The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its R&D sector.
• HealthSage, an Amsterdam, the Netherlands-based company which specializes in healthcare delivery and patient pathways with generative AI, raised €3M in Seed funding.The round was led by Peak, with co-investments from Healthy.Capital, Rubio Impact Ventures and serial health tech entrepreneurs Jaap Maljers and Jeroen Tas.

• Regular consumption of ultra-processed food is associated with an increased risk of 32 major health outcomes, including early death, cancer, mental health disorders, obesity, type 2 diabetes and respiratory, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal diseases.
• Breast cancer is now the world’s most common carcinogenic disease with the ailment likely to cause a million deaths a year by 2040, according to a new Lancet Commission on breast cancer. Around 7.8 million women were diagnosed with breast cancer in the last five years until 2020 and about 685,000 women died from the disease the same year, it said. Further, in 2020, women around the world on average had a 1 in 12 risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer before turning 75 years old, and this incidence is rising, researchers found.
• Physical activity lowers risk of developing heart disease partly by reducing brain activity that gets triggered because of stress, new research has found. This brain activity linked to stress was also lower in people who were more physically active, the study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found.
• A study conducted at the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä has revealed that a genetic predisposition for higher muscle strength not only predicts a longer lifespan but also lowers the risk for developing common diseases.
• Experiencing abuse or neglect as a child has been linked to lifelong ill-health by making them more vulnerable to experiencing obesity, inflammation and trauma, according to a new research. Experiencing abusive behaviour or emotional and physical neglect was found to make children more likely to become obese and experience more trauma as adults, both of which then become the cause for dysfunction in the immune system, such as inflammation.
• Engaging in the majority of daily physical activity in the evening may yield the greatest health benefits for individuals living with obesity. According to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Sydney, Australia, individuals who primarily engaged in aerobic moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) between 6pm and midnight demonstrated the lowest risk of premature death and death from cardiovascular disease.
• The gynaecological health charity Cysters and Endometriosis UK have announced a partnership to amplify women’s voice in healthcare decision-making. Despite progress in healthcare data collection, there remains a gap in representing the experiences of marginalised groups, particularly for those impacted by conditions and diseases like endometriosis.
• The Black-owned media company Group Black has launched a digital platform to empower Black women to better advocate for their health. She’s Good [For Real] will serve as Group Black’s first-owned brand in the multicultural marketing space. Actress and singer Tatyana Ali joining will join as a spokesperson and community ambassador.

• Allo Health is hosting a Q&A session with Dr Sandip Deshpande, Medical Lead, Allo Health and the Chief Faculty of the Allo Sexual Health Certification Course.
• Aditi Mittal, co-founder of Newmi Care released a video on Sexually Transmitted Diseases and how to help women navigate it.
• Rocket Health held an online session for their psychologists and created it as an all women’s venting session.
• Humm Care has curated a session called “Unleashing Potential : A Seminar on Neurodiversity in the Workplace with Dr. Pritika Gonsalves”, which will be held on April 30th.
• The Momly has released information on its diet and nutrition program called “Nourish” to focus on women’s health needs and support.

• The US menstrual care start-up Saalt has launched a new initiative aimed at addressing period poverty and environmental sustainability. The Period Equity Initiative aims to reduce 100 million tampons from the environment while combating period poverty.
• The US virtual clinic Maven has launched a health coaching programme in an effort to expand family-building options for couples struggling to conceive. With 86 percent of women not receiving preconception care from their family physician or OB/GYN, Maven’s Trying-To-Conceive (TTC) health coaching programme aims to support people who may be struggling and want to get pregnant without IVF.
• WHAM (Women’s Health Access Matters) and KPMG have initiated a partnership, amounting to $1.1 million, with the aim of advancing women’s health research and investment
• Roche has received the CE Mark for the first companion diagnostic test to identify patients with HER2-low metastatic breast cancer who may be eligible for Enhertu, a type of targeted cancer drug. Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan), jointly developed and commercialised by Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca, is a HER2-directed antibody drug conjugate.
• The medical device start-up Aspivix has announced a partnership with Bayer Switzerland in an effort to “modernise” gynaecological procedures. Aspivix has developed an innovative, suction-based cervical device designed as an alternative to the tenaculum, a surgical instrument commonly used in gynaecology for over a century.

• In a bid to bolster expertise in genetic research within the domain of reproductive and child health, the Genetic Research Centre at ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive and Child Health (ICMR-NIRRCH) has inaugurated a pioneering training course on applications of medical genetics.
• Top Government Schemes for Women Entrepreneurs in India 2024 – read here

Let’s Talk About Down There: An OB-GYN Answers All Your Burning Questions…without Making You Feel Embarrassed for Asking

Read Now

You may recognize this book’s author from her popular TikTok channel, which discusses the health topics you wish you learned in high school. Dr. Lincoln’s book provides evidence-backed advice for young women on topics such as birth control, menstrual cups, and hormones along with visual infographics and illustrations to help make it fun and engaging. Written in the same light tone as her social media content, it makes discussing taboo topics like vaginal health and sexual education feel approachable.

See you next Friday, friends 👋
Navneet

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