Emmi Health

We got featured in this week's FutureFemHealth newsletter discussing the evolving PCOS market -- read more here: https://lnkd.in/e3bhuRG4

Today marks the end of my first month running Emmi Health full-time. In the past 4 weeks I launched Emmi’s pilot coaching cohort, attended the Cure. Power of X conference to learn from women’s health leaders changing the industry, brought in my first advisors and interns, prepared for my first pitch competition, and started helping women better understand their PCOS, bodies, and overall health. When I started this journey, I made a commitment to share what I was learning in public to not only help other people when possible, but also document for myself how quickly life can change in just a short period of time. In that spirit, here are some of the most surprising things I’ve learned in month 1 of business: 1. Stress is one of the most common and often overlooked PCOS triggers for many of my clients (and myself) – this is not only because prolonged, heightened stress exposure disrupts hypothalamic signaling to the ovaries (shout out Sena Therapeutics for developing a promising therapeutic targeting this mechanism), but also for the downstream metabolic effects of chronically elevated cortisol on blood sugar regulation 2. Looking at 2-3 markers of health gives us a very limited picture and stops us from treating women proactively – most women with PCOS are diagnosed because they have irregular or missing cycles, high androgens, and polycystic ovaries. But if that’s all we look at, we can miss early signals of dyslipidemia for women with PCOS that contribute to a 50% greater risk of CVD, elevated insulin that serves as a precursor long before HbA1c enters prediabetic ranges, disrupted menstrual hormones that could indicate fertility challenges years before IVF 3. Subjective health experience matters – being told you’re fine when you feel terrible is unacceptable. Many women with PCOS have heard this for years, which leaves them to constantly diminish their own health experience by saying things like “oh I’m not so bad compared to other people.” But what really matters for how you show up and participate in life is how you actually feel, full stop. Giving women tools to accept not only how they feel, but also evidence-based solutions to improve that subjective experience is powerful I’ve also learned an incredible amount about myself and how I navigate my own physical and mental health as a first-time solo founder building in a chronic disease space I personally experience every day. I’ve had to give myself grace to do and navigate things differently than the "tech founder bro" stereotype, and hope that leading from authenticity works out in the end. I’ll be sharing more updates about some exciting early results from Emmi's pilot shortly, follow along!