Femtech At Work

What happens when a former accountant, nurse and IVF patient turns her frustration with menopause misinformation into a nationwide movement transforming workplaces across Australia?
In this powerful episode, we have Grace Molloy, founder and CEO of Menopause Friendly Australia, to unpack how one “impatient advocate for women” is changing the way organisations talk about and support menopause at work.
From the role of leadership and HR to the impact of poor medical training, government policy, AI, and gender pay gaps, this conversation is a masterclass for HR leaders, executives and changemakers who want to retain midlife talent, improve psychosocial safety, and normalise menopause as a core workplace wellbeing issue—not a career-limiting secret. Let’s dive in!

Key Takeaways:
What did Grace discover when she realised that even a nurse from a “women’s health family” knew almost nothing about perimenopause, and how did that spark Menopause Friendly Australia
Understand the five global standards of a menopause friendly workplace and translate them into real policies, training and culture change instead of one-off awareness days
The impact of menopause support using data like absenteeism, engagement, policy downloads and training outcomes
Find out which of the “four compelling reasons” for becoming menopause friendly, gender pay gap, productivity, talent retention, or legal/psychosocial risk matters most in your organisation
Understand the gaps in GP and medical training, and why that makes workplace education and advocacy so critical for women seeking menopause care
Discover the practical first steps as an HR or DEI leader to build a business case for menopause support, even in the face of DEI backlash or limited budgets
Understand the potential risks of AI and job change for women, and how that intersects with existing gender pay and leadership gaps

Resources:
Grace Molloy: LinkedIn
Menopause Friendly Australia: LinkedIn
Menopause Friendly Australia: https://menopausefriendly.au/
Free resources on menopause: https://menopausefriendly.au/news/
Dove x Menopause Friendly: https://menopausefriendly.au/dove/#download
Maaike Steinebach : LinkedIn
Website Femtech Future https://www.femtechfuture.com
Instagram Femtech Future: @femtech_future

Menopause doesn’t have to be a silent struggle or a career-limiting secret. As Grace shows, when workplaces choose to listen, learn and lead, they don’t just support women—they unlock wisdom, loyalty and powerhouse performance across their teams.
If this episode moved you, be part of the movement, share it with a colleague, like it, leave a review so more people can discover these conversations, and join us next week for another episode of Femtech at Work, where we keep rewriting the rules of what thriving at work really looks like.

What happens when a state decides women’s health is non‑negotiable?
Today at FemTech at Work,we have Sally Hasler, CEO of Women’s Health Victoria, to unpack how one Australian state is using policy, research, and partnership to close the gender health gap. From chronic pain and reproductive coercion to AI-driven access and corporate responsibility, this conversation shines a light on what real systems change for women’s health can look like when government, healthcare, femtech, and philanthropy finally pull in the same direction.
If you care about women’s health, femtech, policy change, or just want to understand what it takes to redesign an entire system around equity, this episode is a powerful, practical roadmap.

Key Takeaways:
How did Sally’s journey from government to the Women’s Foundation in Hong Kong to Women’s Health Victoria shape her mission to tackle gender inequity in health
What does it really mean in practice when a health system stops treating women as “small men” and starts including sex and gender in every layer of research and care
How is the Victorian government using policy, funding, and mandatory research requirements to close the gender health gap, and what can other countries understand from this approach
In what ways does gender-based violence, including reproductive coercion, quietly shape women’s mental and physical health outcomes and how can systems change disrupt this
How can corporates and insurers learn to apply a gender lens to products, policies, and workplaces so women aren’t penalised for seeking mental health or reproductive care
Why do women spend up to nine years of their working lives in poor health, and what insights can we gain about the critical role workplaces play in shifting this reality
In what ways could responsible AI help women anonymously access sexual and reproductive health information 24/7, and what safeguards are needed to avoid amplifying bias

Resources:
Sally Hasler: LinkedIn
Women’s Health Victoria: LinkedIn
Women’s Health Victoria: https://www.whv.org.au/
Maaike Steinebach: LinkedIn
Website Femtech Future https://www.femtechfuture.com
Instagram Femtech Future: @femtech_future

In a world where women are still treated as medical afterthoughts, conversations like this are not just interesting. They’re urgent! Sally’s work in Victoria shows that when we centre women’s lived experiences, demand evidence-based change, and embrace responsible femtech, we don’t just tweak the system, we rewrite it.
If this episode opened your eyes or gave you language for your own story, don’t let it stop here. Share this conversation with a friend, colleague, or policymaker who needs to hear it. Like the episode, leave a review so more people can discover these voices of change, and help us grow a global community that refuses to accept the gender health gap as inevitable.
Thank you for listening! Be part of the movement, keep the conversation going, and I’ll see you next week for another episode spotlighting the people who are reshaping the future of women’s health.

What if the most stressful part of IVF wasn’t the hormones, the scans, or the emotional rollercoaster, but the chaos of managing it all alone at your kitchen table?
In this episode, we meet the doctor-turned-founder who decided that fertility patients deserve better than photocopied instructions and guesswork. Joining us is Dr. Caroline Fiddler, a medical doctor and founder of Cycle Guide, a purpose-built IVF and fertility treatment organizer app. Drawing on her own two-and-a-half-year IVF journey and her career in hospital systems, Caroline shares how witnessing outdated, fragmented processes pushed her to build a simple, intuitive fertility app that helps patients take back control of their treatment.
If you’re going through fertility treatment, building in femtech, or working in healthcare and wondering how to improve patient journeys, this conversation will give you practical insight and emotional validation.

Key Takeaways:
How did Caroline’s own IVF journey as a single woman and years inside hospital systems lead her to create the Cycle Guide fertility organizer app
Discover why “simple, intuitive, and flexible” design can be more powerful than feature-heavy fertility platforms
How does Cycle Guide help patients understand and organise blood tests, ultrasounds, injections, procedures, and trigger shots across an entire IVF cycle
Learn from the pre-cycle checklist that prepares you for Day 1, tackles clinic contact issues, manages medication storage, and navigates real-life scheduling clashes
How do Cycle Guide's reminders and colour-coded tasks help patients avoid heartbreaking mistakes, such as missing crucial trigger injections
Understand the emotional and financial decisions around when to stop collecting your own eggs, change clinics, or consider donor eggs
How Caroline’s experience highlights the hidden friction inside fertility clinics and hospital systems, and what does that mean for femtech founders
Learn from Caroline’s honest reflections on rejection, resilience and why she’s still convinced that IVF patients deserve better digital support

Resources:
Caroline Fiddler: LinkedIn
CycleGuide: Instagram
Cycle Guide: https://cycleguide.com.au/
Maaike Steinebach : LinkedIn
Website Femtech Future https://www.femtechfuture.com
Instagram Femtech Future: @femtech_future

In a world where fertility patients still juggle life-changing decisions with paper instructions and fragmented systems, Dr. Caroline Fiddler’s story is a reminder that compassionate innovation can rewrite the experience - one organised, empowered cycle at a time.
If you’re navigating IVF yourself, supporting someone who is, or building the next wave of femtech solutions, this episode is your invitation to believe that the process can be clearer, kinder and more in your control.
If this conversation moved you, be part of the movement! Share this episode with someone who needs it, hit like, leave a review so more listeners can discover these stories, and subscribe so you don’t miss out. See you next week for another episode of FemTech at Work, where we spotlight the founders reshaping women’s health- one bold idea at a time!

What happens when an investor walks away from high finance to rebuild the fertility journey across Asia?
In this episode, you’ll step inside the world of Rhea Fertility & GenPrime and see how one woman is redesigning reproductive care for an entire region. Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Margaret Wang, founding CEO of Rhea Fertility and GenPrime, to unpack how she left a global finance career to build one of the Asia’s first truly end-to-end fertility platforms. Margaret shares her deeply personal egg-freezing journey across New York and Singapore, the legal and cultural hurdles unmarried women face in Asia, and how those experiences inspired her to create a more patient-centric, emotionally supportive fertility experience.

Key Takeaways:
How Margaret's own egg-freezing journey in New York and Singapore inspires her to design a more human and patient-centric fertility experience across Asia
Discover the end-to-end fertility ecosystem, including consults, labs, and cryopreservation, in five different countries
How do Asia's diverse fertility laws shape Rhea's strategy, including adding an LA clinic for surrogacy and LGBTQ+ services
What are the often-overlooked emotional challenges of IVF and egg freezing, and how can simple rituals make a big difference
How does Rhea partner with tech startups, and what hurdles do they face in getting clinicians to adopt innovative tools
What's driving investment in women's and reproductive health, and why are global investors betting big on Asia-focused fertility platforms
How do cultural expectations around marriage, motherhood, age, and solo parenting shape fertility choices for Asian women
What might you discover about your own fertility, and how could it shift your family planning strategy
How does Rhea envision growing its services beyond fertility to support women's overall reproductive and hormonal well-being across Asia

Resources:
Margaret Wang: LinkedIn
Rhea Fertility: LinkedIn
Rhea Fertility: https://www.rheafertility.com/
Maaike Steinebach : LinkedIn
Website Femtech Future https://www.femtechfuture.com
Instagram Femtech Future: @femtech_future

Fertility isn’t just a medical journey- it’s emotional, cultural, and deeply personal. Margaret’s story shows what’s possible when we redesign care around women’s real lives, not outdated systems. If this conversation helped you feel seen, informed, or inspired, don’t keep it to yourself.
Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it, leave a review so more women can discover it, and hit follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode. Be part of the movement to build better, more accessible reproductive care for women everywhere and we’ll see you next week for another powerful episode of FemTech At Work.

What happens when a young doctor, failed by the very system she works in, decides to rebuild women's healthcare from the ground up using AI?
Today, we're chatting with Dr. Ariella Heffernan-Marks, founder of Ovum AI, about how her battle with debilitating vestibular migraines exposed the deep biases and data gaps in women's healthcare and sparked a radically different solution. Ariella reveals how Ovum AI works as an AI health partner for women, integrating medical reports, wearables, symptoms, and reproductive health into a longitudinal 'health brain' designed around women's physiology. You'll hear how she moved from medical school to building and funding a FemTech startup, why generic tools like ChatGPT can't safely serve women's health needs, and how a human-first, privacy-obsessed approach to AI is reshaping doctor visits, workplace wellbeing, and women's long-term health. Ariella also lifts the curtain on investor bias, designing for neurodivergent users, and the self-care routines that keep her grounded while she pursues the audacious goal of closing a trillion-dollar gender health gap.
Let's dive in!

Key Takeaways:
How Ariella's "mystery illness" led her to create Ovum AI, a lifetime health record and AI advocate for women
How Ovum AI connects periods, perimenopause, chronic illness, and mental health into one intelligent system
Understand the gender health gap and why women spending 25% more time in poor health, and what does that really cost our economies and careers?
Find out how Ariella is tackling AI bias head-on
What does it take to build a women-specific AI from the ground up, instead of just plugging women’s questions into generic large language models?
Learn why data privacy is non‑negotiable and Ovum's approach to consent, de-identification, and face ID for secure health data upload
Discover Ovum's B2B strategy and how it supports women's health at work without accessing individual data
Understand the fundraising journey, what did the right investors see in women's health and AI that skeptics missed? How can founders identify aligned backers?
Learn from Ariella's founder routine (treating seasons, self-reflection and coaching) as core parts of building a FemTech company.

Resources:
Ariella Heffernan - Marks: LinkedIn
Ovum AI: LinkedIn
Ovum AI: https://www.askovum.com/
Maaike Steinebach : LinkedIn
Website Femtech Future https://www.femtechfuture.com
Instagram Femtech Future: @femtech_future

Ready to see what women’s healthcare can look like when it’s designed by women, for women, and powered by AI that actually understands us? Tune in now and step inside Ariella’s journey from dismissed patient to doctor-founder, building the “smartest AI woman in the world” with Ovum.
If this episode spoke to you, don’t keep it to yourself, be part of the movement to close the gender health gap. Share this conversation with a friend or colleague, hit follow, leave a review, and help us amplify the voices shaping the future of FemTech.
See you next week for another episode of Femtec at Work, where we spotlight the founders, builders and believers driving women's health forward!