ELVIE

• Elvie is a UK-based company that creates smart products for mothers.
• They promoted women's growing interest in hormones by partnering with the NHS to offer their pelvic trainer on prescription to patients having stress urinary incontinence. The device normally costs £169.
• The device is inserted into the vagina and is linked to an app, which measures for improvement areas.
• Elvie also promoted the realities of new motherhood through their bold ad campaigns. They employed wit and humor, a rare strategy in a sector where engagements are typically sentimental or clinical.
•  Hormonal changes during pregnancy and the increased weight of the fetus can cause urinary stress incontinence.
• The biofeedback inside the device resulted in enhanced compliance and success rates by 10%.
• It also led to reduction in surgery rates by 50%, which helped the NHS to save around £424 per patient.
• Their pelvic trainer as well as their silent, cordless breast pump were hailed as game changers.

WOMANIZER

• Womanizer is a US-based sexual wellness company which develops innovative products to boost female pleasure.
• They promoted women's growing interest in hormones by sponsoring a  pilot study known as Treatment of Orgasmic Difficulty in Perimenopausal, Menopausal and Post-Menopausal Women.
• Women in menopause experience surges and dips in hormones which menopause affects their brain and the rest of their body.
• The study found that the Womanizer Deluxe, an indirect clitoral simulator, was very effective in helping menopausal women to enhance "sexual function, sexual distress and overall quality of life".
•  86% of the women said that the Womanizer product enhanced their sexual function.

STIGMA OF FEMALE HORMONES

• The stigma connected with women's hormones, including menstruation and uteruses — can be traced back to Leviticus. In that chapter of the Bible is a list of all the ways monthly bleeding makes a woman "unclean."
• Historically, "women's anger, volatility, instability, unreliability, weakness, frailty, and neuroticism." was believed to result from a women's hormonal system.
• The beliefs around women's hormones stigmatizes women in two ways. First, legitimate emotions and reactions are blamed on hormonal cycles. This viewpoint diminishes a woman's anger or distress, making it easier for society to deny whatever is troubling her.
• Not only is emotional health at risk from this stigma. "At the same time, any actual health problems that arise from our reproductive cycles or hormones or organs are disbelieved or minimized."
• Even today, the DSM barely mentions reproductive hormones. Doctors are not trained to look to hormonal changes for causes of symptoms presented by women.
•  Psychiatry residents in almost half the programs in the US are not required to consider hormones in their diagnostic procedures.
•  Research on the effect of hormones is negligible in comparison to other medical topics.
• In general, female hormones are "treated with an antique combination of bias and disgust, and women's complaints met with disbelief."
• In the last presidential election in 2016, news stories about Hillary Clinton's hormones, making her unfit for office continually arose in the news. Even news stories defending her stated that "Hillary Clinton is the "perfect" age to be president because she's a postmenopausal woman who is "biologically primed" to lead."
• And yet, all women "understand themselves to be in constant conversation with their hormones, which they know can wreak havoc with their mood."

BRAND IMPACT

Beauty

• A recent survey of British women revealed that over sixty percent of women feel there is no understanding in the beauty industry of the challenges of women dealing with hormonal changes.
• "I haven't seen a single product on the high street that will help me or anyone who is either perimenopausal or in menopause," she says. "There is nothing to help me with my dry skin or drying out hair. Ninety-nine percent of all beauty counter sales assistants don't understand the needs of their customers when they are going through the menopause."
• The beauty industry is beginning to take notice. As an example, Amareta markets itself with a powerful message.
• They believe that changing hormones are a significant factor in changing skin conditions and recommend women synch their skin treatments with their hormonal phases.

Supplements

• Not only the beauty industry is seeking to remove the stigma of hormonal changes. The supplement industry is also taking note.
• A nutritionist has created and is marketing a daily supplement with a "wide-ranging blend of 28 ingredients" designed to support hormonal health while speaking "to modern consumers with digestible education and cool packaging."
• To explain the significant role of hormones, Eden has a "Hormones 101" section on its website. It also supports an extensive blog that dives into the various conditions hormones affect.

Indie Global Brands

• An Indie Global Beauty Expo was recently held in New York and then in London.
• Jilliam Wright, CEO and co-founder of the event, predicted that female wellness is a noteworthy trend in the global independent beauty category.
• Innovation in the field is mainly female-led and focuses on sexual wellness and hormonal health. 
• Global society has become so open that people can talk about things like hormones that significantly affect everyone and have intelligent conversations that demystify the patriarchal views; Levitcus's words are no longer meaningful.