Lori Casselman was 42, a successful professional making strides in her career, when she stopped feeling like herself.
“When this is impacting such a huge portion of our population, why is it so difficult to get access to good care?”
Lori Casselman
June Health
Although she repeatedly discussed her symptoms, including sleeplessness and changes to body composition, with her family doctor, Casselman felt like she had to push to be taken seriously. It took her seven years to get hormone treatment for her perimenopause symptoms.
Coming from an insurance and digital health background, she was frustrated by the winding path to care. And she knew she wasn’t the only one.
“When this is impacting such a huge portion of our population, why is it so difficult to get access to good care?” Casselman said in an interview with BetaKit.
This led Casselman to embark on her “third telemedicine adventure”: building femtech startup June Health, a women’s health-focused digital care platform that launched across Canada today.
The virtual care app connects users with a care co-ordinator, who then refers them to relevant providers, such as doctors, nurse practitioners, naturopaths, and mental health professionals. Casselman said all healthcare providers on the platform have additional training in women’s health issues.
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The lead-up to menopause, called perimenopause, is different for everyone. On average, symptoms begin in the early to mid-40s and last an average of seven years. In 85 to 95 percent of women, natural hormone changes during this time trigger symptoms, which can include hot flashes, sleep problems, fatigue, mood and attention problems such as major depression and brain fog, bone density loss, and diminished libido and pain during intercourse.
Nearly 40 percent of Canadian women reported feeling that their symptoms were undertreated, according to a 2022 survey by the Menopause Foundation of Canada. A 2023 study of women in the United Kingdom found that over 20 percent considered leaving their roles at work due to menopause symptoms.
For Casselman, this is unacceptable and a big miss for employers. When her team was designing June Health, she said, they kept convenience and accessibility in mind, knowing that their users are often pulled in several directions at once by work obligations, care responsibilities, and sometimes debilitating symptoms.
In contrast to other women’s midlife health care apps, such as Montréal-based Coral and United Kingdom-based Balance, June Health markets itself as a workplace benefit. Employers pay June Health to provide their employees access to the service, and individual consumers who are not on a plan can also pay for the service.
Women between 45 and 55 are the fastest-growing demographic in the workforce in Canada, according to the Menopause Foundation of Canada. Casselman said that 75 percent of women don’t believe their employer offers any support to them through this stage of midlife, but that most of this stems from a lack of education around what employee benefit plans can actually cover. June Health attempts to bridge this gap, she said, by integrating with existing coverage plans.
The platform offers an e-pharmacy service, where prescriptions can be filled virtually and delivered to a patient’s home. It also has a supplement marketplace, which sells products at a discount. Casselman was careful to claim that these supplements, which are sold via a partnership with a third-party marketplace, are vetted by medical professionals.
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“Women’s health is a pretty hot topic at the moment, and I think that’s wonderful that there’s market momentum,” Casselman said. “But unfortunately, there’s a lot of misinformation out there as well.”
Beyond its medical services, the June Health platform also provides educational materials about common midlife health issues, and a chatbot powered by generative artificial intelligence (AI) to answer questions about symptoms and care options.
June Health raised an undisclosed round of funding from angel investors in January, then began a consumer trial with a few hundred users in Ontario to start generating revenue. Now, it’s growing its healthcare professional team. Everyone is vetted, Casselman said, and the platform is compliant with relevant health data security laws, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.
Feature image courtesy June Health.