Make your next chapter
your best chapter.
Let's write a new chapter for menopause, shall we?
The generation of women entering the menopause transition (women ages 40-55) have availed themselves of a wide range of evidence-based solutions to treat infertility, high-risk pregnancies, postpartum depression, urinary incontinence, fibroids and more. But menopause, despite the fact that every single woman who lives long enough will experience it, remains an outlier with all too few proven solutions. All FDA-approved treatments currently on the market for hot flashes are pharmacological, must be taken for a long period of time and have potential side effects to consider.
Hot flashes and night sweats - also known as vasomotor symptoms or VMS - are considered the most troublesome symptom of menopause. Often trivialized by popular culture, the stereotypical representations of women experiencing hot flashes diminishes the very real negative effect on their career, relationships and overall quality of life. These representations aren't harmless. In fact, when we bring a biopsychosocial lens to the experience of hot flashes, we find that fear, shame and embarrassment - fueled by these portrayals - can actually exacerbate our symptoms.
"It's like you have a nuclear broiler inside your chest. That flips on unexpectedly and you go from a normal temp to 525 degrees in a blink."
"For me, it feels like shame. Like when your math teacher berates you for misunderstanding and your ears light on fire and it radiates across your neck and chest, while putrid self-talk permeates your every thought. Your heart races, spine sweats, and pin-pricks radiate across all your hot spots."
Whether you know it or not, you are surrounded by women who are suffering in silence. It's time to write a new chapter for menopause. Want to learn more about our research-backed Cognitive Model of Vasomotor Symptoms, and how a behavioral intervention like CBT can improve physical symptoms like hot flashes? We'd love to hear from you.
Curious about investing? Please check out our Investment Overview to learn more about our approach, progress to date and the investment opportunity. We are currently raising funds using a SAFE with a 20% discount and have a streamlined process in place. Please schedule some time to connect.
So, it's not just the hot flash, which lasts anywhere from 30 seconds to ten minutes and can happen ten times a day, that's the problem. Hot flashes kick off a vicious cycle: Hot flash >> negative thoughts >> increased stress >> poor sleep >> low mood >> worse hot flashes >> worse sleep >> worse mood and so on. Given hot flashes persist, on average, seven years, during what would otherwise be a woman's prime of life, bringing new solutions to market is imperative. And, for women who enter menopause early due to cancer treatment, and for whom taking estrogen is not an option, drug-free alternatives are needed all the more.
Hello Therapeutics is developing digitally-delivered behavioral therapies that empower and equip women to break this vicious cycle and improve their experience of menopause. Our first product is focused on helping women struggling with hot flashes & night sweats, and their downstream effects on sleep and mood. The evidence base, generated in large part by Dr. Myra Hunter, Chief Medical Advisor and Chair of our Scientific Advisory Board, shows that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can reduce the frequency, severity and interference of hot flashes, improve sleep quality and mood, and overall quality of life. Peer-reviewed studies have shown comparable efficacy for well women and women with breast cancer experiencing moderate to severe hot flashes.