Known Unknowns | Helen Grimshaw
KNOWN UNKNOWNS IS A SERIES THAT PROFILES MOVERS AND SHAKERS MAKING A DIFFERENCE
TO DRIVE BETTER, MORE SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS PRACTICES.
Elana is a pelvic care platform built for women. Pelvic floor dysfunction is a common and often debilitating set of symptoms that can result in many issues for women. Around one-third of women will experience a Pelvic Floor Disorder in their lifetime. Elana combines powerful easy-to-follow pelvic care online, pelvic care content, plus products and additional support when she needs it. Whether proactive or reactive, in pain, peeing, or just wanting to be in your best health, we provide the basics women need to be better informed about why their pelvic health is important, what signs to look out for, and what they can do for their own pelvic health as they age.
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Meet Helen Grimshaw, co-founder of Elana, the pelvic care platform built for women. For over 20 years, Helen has worked in digital advertising, large-scale AI search technology projects, and driving digital products to markets internationally across multiple countries, time zones and cultures, she was part of the founding team that established the semantic search company in the United States.
Most recently she has taken this experience and applied it to an area she is passionate about, Femtech. Her prior experience working in start-ups, launching products in global markets, coupled with her interest in women’s health has brought her to a place she never expected, to become a female founder in the Femtech space.
Can you tell how Elana came about?
Elana started during the pandemic, when we were all at the mercy of a screen to connect us to everything. It soon became very clear how inaccessible many critical services were. We were witnessing an unprecedented demand for digital health services, which some would argue were not particularly new, but now more emphasis was being given to the importance of them. This, coupled with the gaping hole in women’s health services made it glaringly obvious that there was no better time for a change in how we manage our health.
I have had a career history of working in the digital space. I've worked in search, AI and advertising, bringing digital products to market, but it was during a conversation with a small group of women about our varying health stages in life that this soon turned to; “wouldn't it be great if we could use all of our experience and apply it to something we're really passionate about?”
The reason I felt that we could do this was not because we are more skilled than many others at launching amazing products and services, but because we are those women - the women who've experienced these healthcare challenges first-hand. We are women of different ages, in different parts of the world in what should be in theory, very strong health markets; yet finding the right information or support was often difficult. What existed wasn't readily available or was very fragmented, confusing, and conflicting. Our lightbulb moment was to bring these experiences and conversations around pelvic health to the mainstream. So, in 2021 we launched our market research and surveyed over 300 women in the UK and US to ask a series of questions about their perception, knowledge, and attitude towards their pelvic health. It was of no surprise that most didn't know what pelvic health really was, or if they did know what it was, had already been suffering in silence, toughing it out or not addressing their pelvic health until there was an actual problem. On average, it takes 7 -10 years before a woman is diagnosed with a pelvic floor dysfunction.
We kicked off with the educational process, getting our brand out there and pushing information to help remove the taboo around pelvic health. We are excited to be launching our products to market in 2023!
Around one-third of women will experience a Pelvic Floor Disorder in their lifetime, but it often takes some women months, even years, to feel comfortable discussing the taboo topics relating to pelvic challenges - what are some of the ways you are actively challenging and reducing the stigma around women’s pelvic care? And how can we extend this education into the mainstream?
This stigma just doesn't just apply to pelvic health. Much of women's health issues are not discussed. Elana is raising awareness among women by empowering them to have more self- awareness when it comes to promoting positive pelvic health. It should be as important to women as eating the right foods, moving their bodies, taking care of their mental well-being and knowing what products they are putting on their face or in their hair; yet it is often overlooked until there is an issue that impacts on daily health. We found a lot of the information that out there was siloed in medical journals not designed for general consumption, or in a language that is either boring or inaccessible and hard to understand. Our focus is to enable easier access to information and care that supports positive pelvic health to women in a way that is identifiable, and, actionable.
What is the biggest misconception you’ve come across about pelvic care?
One of the misconceptions I have come across is that pelvic care is not important until you're in your old age.
In 2021 in the UK, The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) made recommendations in the draft health guidelines that pelvic floor exercises should be taught to girls in school between the ages of 12 to 17 to help avoid issues such as incontinence later in life. This is such an important move for women’s health because we need understand how to maintain our health as we age.
What does inclusion or driving inclusivity and equality mean to you?
Inclusion the means having representation of more than one type of narrative in education, the economy and healthcare. Contributions from different perspectives and different groups of people, be it gender, age, culture, sexual orientation, can only be of benefit to us all. If we are not speaking out loud about these topics then we are not growing, we are not progressing as a society. Conversations then need to develop into actions by looking at structures that support this - and we can start with the workplace.
How can men be an ally to female healthcare?
Firstly, healthcare is not a man versus woman issue. What we are looking for is to level the playing field. Ensuring that health services and support is adequately available to support female medical issues as well as male. This starts with normalising the conversation around stigmatised topics relating to women’s health; Menstruation, fertility, pregnancy, pelvic health, menopause and many more. These are all just part of the female health lifecycle, yet we are often expected to act like they don’t happen or are not acknowledged as having an impact on our work, economy and life. Women make up over 50% of the population in the UK and US, and according to research 90% of women are primary healthcare decision makers for their family. Yet women’s health receives a pitiful 4% of Research & Development funding worldwide. Analysts worldwide agree that overall investment in women’s health remains underfunded, so understanding the issues and recognising the opportunities in femtech will go a long way in supporting an increase in funding and investment into women’s health innovation.
What does your dream day of work look like to you?
Working alongside ambassadors for women’s health such as Professor Dame Lesley Regan, who was appointed England’s first ever Women's Health Ambassador in January of this year. Her mission is to drive women’s health to the top of the agenda with a focus on closing the gender health gap and improving care for women. This is a very exciting and momentous appointment as it aims to tackle decades of gender health inequality in England with plans to introduce compulsory women’s health training for doctors.
Where do you see femtech in 5 years?
I hope to see FemTech more integrated under the umbrella of Healthtech. The Femtech term was coined by the founder of Clue, Ida Tin, back in 2012. In part, to highlight the collective group of companies developing tech and products to further women’s health innovations and making it easier for a male investor to talk about having a FemTech company in their portfolio rather than explaining the intricacies of women’s health. She has done a remarkable job shedding light on female healthcare and so I think the term does serve its purpose. But when we think about it, the term ‘maletech’ does not exist. In 5 years’, time, I hope we reach this kind of widespread representation.
Rapid Fire
What do you do for fun? I’m a bit calmer these days. I have lived in big cities, travelled extensively around the world with work all my life, and whilst I still love the buzz of doing that, I'm now happy to stay more local hanging out with family and friends.
What keeps you awake at night? Perimenopause! In all seriousness, equality is a big thing for me. I've always worked in predominantly male dominated environments, and it wasn't until I had two daughters that I found myself becoming increasingly passionate about finding ways to use my voice as a woman.
What books are you reading? If in Doubt Wash Your Hair, by Anya Hindmarch.
What podcasts are you listening to? Diary of a CEO and Femtech Focus on my morning dog walks.
What is one thing people don’t know about you that may surprise them? I am quite introverted. My current job requires me to speak up about difficult, ‘taboo’ subjects, which is not comfortable or natural for me.
What makes you feel powerful? I have a strong sense of self and don't try to be anyone other than me. It has taken me 40 plus years to get to this point. When I was younger, I worried too much about what other people thought whereas now, ego doesn't really matter, because we're all human at the end of the day.
Fill in the missing word…. I dream of a world where … Femtech becomes Healthtech, where gender does not impact our access to better opportunities in healthcare.
For more information about Elana, visit: https://elana.health