Latest news with #femalehealth
Condé Nast Traveler
4 days ago
- Health
- Condé Nast Traveler
Six Senses Douro Valley Is Pioneering a New Perimenopause Program
In a nutshell 'Men have had extensive hormonal research done, but females are still playing catch up,' said Anna Bjurstam, the Head of Six Senses Spas and Wellness. As such she and her team have spent the last few years developing an effective program focussing on hormone balance, diet, exercise, sleep habits, bio and other metrics. Experts in the field—including Mindy Pelz who literally wrote the book on the importance of fasting in female health—oversee the program and according to Bjurstam, all practitioners will go through a certification on female health. Though it was piloted at Six Senses Douro Valley and is currently available at Six Senses Kanuhura in the Maldives, Six Senses Crans-Montana, Six Senses Ninha Van Bay, and Six Senses Rome, it will soon roll out across the entire Six Senses portfolio and guests can choose between three, five, and seven-day programs. Before arrival The program is designed to have you hit the ground running so much of the screenings happen before arrival. I had a series of calls with experts, including Javier Suarez, the property's Director of Wellness and Joana Barretos, a physiotherapist and female health expert at home in New York in the weeks leading up to my visit. I will admit that I can be skeptical of short-term, intense wellness retreats—the all-in-approach over 72 hours that doesn't replicate your life at home makes me dubious that the results will last, and I was here because I needed to make new habits that would work with my real life. I appreciated talking with Javier, who, after asking me to identify the key points I wanted to explore (trouble sleeping, weight gain, eating habits) told me to be me. 'If you drink at home, don't deprive yourself of a drink here,' he said. 'You have to eat the fries.' I submitted a questionnaire before my call with Joana, which allowed her to talk me through my symptoms and discuss my goals. For me, it was education so that I could effectively combat the fluctuations in weight, moodiness, fatigue, and more in my day to day life. We discussed my cycle, my diet, and my mental energy in recent months. I told her what exercise I preferred and did at home (a hard pass on yoga and pilates, which is often what these retreats seem to offer. I need a gym.). Three days before my arrival, a program was sent to my inbox.
CBC
12-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Waterloo startup wins money for invention that is a 'game-changer' for women's health
A women-led startup looking to ease the pain of testing for female health problems has won national money to keep their momentum going. CELLECT Laboratories Inc., based in Waterloo, Ont., was created by nanotechnology engineering alumna CT Murphy last year as part of a fourth-year capstone project at the University of Waterloo. The company's newest invention aims to address issues in screening for cervical cancer and human papillomavirus (HPV). The invention includes nanomaterial incorporated onto a commercial sanitary pad used for menstruation that will be able to collect cervical and other bacterial cells from vaginal fluids, namely menstrual blood. From there, the pad itself can be sent out to a lab for processing. CELLECT's goal, according to their website, is communicated through a catchy hashtag: #ScrapthePap. The idea is to reduce a woman's need for a Pap test, a life-saving medical process that can oftentimes be invasive, uncomfortable and even painful. In March 2024, Murphy received funding through Velocity's Up Start program and Cornerstone program to get started on the product. Now, the team are finalists in the Odlum Brown Forum Pitch, a national program for women entrepreneurs. Co-founder and COO Ibukun Elebute's pitch secured $44,420. "[It was] an electrifying feeling because I don't know that I've pitched in front of so many women in my time… so it was truly humbling, heartwarming," she said. The Odlum Brown Forum Pitch, or The Forum, hosted the competition's finale late April in Vancouver, B.C. There were over 800 attendees. The Vancouver event alone raised over $1.3 million for the charity's programming. After her pitch, Elebute described the "humbling" response from women who approached her with excitement for CELLECT's products. "That's huge validation for what we're doing," she said. In a release, CEO Kirsten Koppang Telford spoke to the importance of championing projects like CELLECT. "At a time when supporting homegrown innovation matters more than ever, we're proud to celebrate this year's finalists and all participants as they tackle real-world challenges with Canadian-built solutions," she said. Elebute notes that the funding will go toward making sure their prototype receives complete validation before the end of the year. Once a full prototype makes its way through pre-clinical rounds, it's full steam ahead for trials with clinical partners. Elebute joined the team with a background in biomedical engineering and 10 years of experience in the health technology industry. "I didn't realize how under served and under researched women's health care was," she said. "I was very infuriated and became very passionate about it because I realized that what we're inventing at CELLECT could really be a game-changer." Addressing that gap is critical to her in order to catch up on all the years women's health care may have lost in research and development. "The speculum that we all know and that's used to access the cervix was invented over 50 years ago… everything we've built and all of our knowledge and medicines and devices were all on the basis of men," she said. CELLECT Laboratories currently has a wait list on their website for the moment they're able to launch their product. For now, Elebute takes solace in knowing that Canada is supporting their efforts.
