Menopause is the permanent end of menstrual cycles for 12 months or more, caused by decreased ovarian follicles and estrogen.

Each woman’s experience varies, and common symptoms include hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, decreased libido, insomnia, fatigue, mood swings, brain fog, and joint pain.

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13 million menopausal women

In the UK, there are approximately 13 million menopausal women, including around 4.3 million aged 50 and over who are employed, reports NIH.

This number is increasing, meaning more working women will experience menopause.

Yet 41 per cent of medical schools report having no formal menopause training.

Women often wait years for a proper diagnosis, enduring debilitating symptoms that are misattributed to stress or ageing.

The economic costs are significant, and unemployment from menopause symptoms totals £1.5 billion each year, and lost productivity adds another £1.88 billion.

Here’s where London-based Hormona comes into play!

“Half of GPs say they don’t have enough support to properly treat women with menopausal symptoms, and women are stuck having multiple appointments over months just to get the most basic level of help,” says Karolina Löfqvist, CEO and Co-founder of Hormona. 

Hormona: Understand and manage their hormone health

Founded by Karolina Löfqvist (CEO) and Jasmine Tagesson (COO), Hormona is a women’s health company that uses AI and first-of-their-kind at-home testing to empower women to understand and manage their hormone health. 

The company has received a £99,972 grant from Innovate UK, the UK government’s innovation agency.

This funding, part of the Biomedical Catalyst program, will help develop tools to improve how the NHS and healthcare providers diagnose and manage perimenopause.

With this support, Hormona plans to turn its consumer platform into a clinical decision support tool to help millions of women get faster and more accurate care.

Dr. Anna Targonskaya, Medical & Research Lead at Hormona and practising OB/GYN, adds, “Current perimenopause diagnosis is essentially guesswork – we’re asking women to describe complex hormonal changes to time-pressured clinicians without any objective data. This grant allows us to bring precision medicine to one of healthcare’s most neglected areas.”

Addressing fundamental flaws with AI

Hormona provides personalised hormone tracking and expert-backed guidance to help women address hormonal imbalances and related conditions.

The company collaborates with a team of endocrinologists, gynaecologists, and nutritionists to deliver science-backed insights.

The company’s solution, “Hormona Perimenopause,” uses AI-powered smartphone analysis of at-home hormone tests to detect crucial reproductive hormones in urine, delivering results in just 15 minutes.

The technology will generate clinical reports aligned with NICE guidelines, giving healthcare providers objective hormone data to support faster, more accurate diagnosis within 10-minute appointment slots.

Unlike traditional hormone testing, which costs £174 per session and requires multiple blood draws, Hormona’s at-home testing provides continuous hormone tracking at a fraction of the cost, while AI analysis ensures clinical-grade accuracy comparable to laboratory testing.

The project builds on the company’s proven track record, with users across 190+ countries. The company has also been recognised as a FemTech World Awards winner recently. 

Pilot test with NHS providers

By 2026, the company aims to test its clinical platform with NHS providers.

This could improve care for millions of women and ease the strain on a system where women typically take seven sick days a year due to menopause symptoms.

Also, 36 per cent of women need to see their GP three or more times to get the right treatment.

With a team of 12, Hormona has raised €7.3M to date from investors including Voima Ventures and SuperNode Global VC.