Twin sisters Lauren Lee-Crane and Catherine Lee wanted to use their passion and personal experience to help women experience less painful periods. As endometriosis warriors, they know the challenges women face in finding solutions to their chronic period pain. They teamed up with Lauren’s husband Matt, who brought in his background in bioengineering, to develop a herbal product for menstrual pain relief. Here they talk about starting their company Semaine Health, which offers nutritional supplements, training and opportunities to participate and discuss about menstrual health.
The team behind Semaine: Matt Lee-Crane, Lauren Lee-Crane and Catherine Lee
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Jess Cording: What was the inspiration behind the company?
Lauren Lee-Crane: I’ve always had painful periods and when I was 30 I was diagnosed with endometriosis. Matt was on the hardest part of my health journey: he put me through multiple surgeries and saw me in excruciating pain. I was no longer able to take conventional OTC pain relievers because my stomach lining has swollen from my period pain after decades of taking it. Matt started adding plant-based ingredients to my morning smoothies. He selected ingredients such as curcumin and green tea and resveratrol based on clinical studies conducted with these ingredients in patients with dysmenorrhea (the clinical term for painful periods). After a few weeks of testing, I had a pain-free period that had never been seen in my life!
lacing: How was the process to turn your idea into a product?
Lauren: It wasn’t until we sent some to Cath and she had a pain-free time that we even thought about turning the concept into a product for others. Our next step was to encapsulate the powders to make them easier to use and find a manufacturer with an FDA cleared facility that could make the capsules on a large scale. We started the first 18 months with a small crowdfunding campaign. This enabled us to start Semaine on our own website in March 2020.
Matt Lee-Crane: We took a systemic approach to research to understand how all the different parts of the menstrual cycle fit and interact, rather than just thinking about one symptom – like pain – in isolation. I didn’t want to just make a “patch” that would mask a symptom or two. My goal in my research was also to make sure that all dietary supplements have been well studied, that we understand how they work, and how we can ensure that they are well absorbed. We did a small study before we publicly released the supplement to provide data for our patent application and we are ready to take the next step in our research by running a much larger and more focused clinical study. Clinical trials are really difficult and expensive to conduct, but we strive to continue combining approaches to wellness with rigorous science. As soon as we have the results of this study, we will submit them for review in an open access journal. We want all of our customers to be able to dive into the details so that they feel empowered in their knowledge of taking something that has been thoroughly tested and understanding why and how it works.
Semaine co-founder Lauren Lee-Crane
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lacing: Her website has educational articles on the blog on the relationship between diet and inflammation and how it relates to period pain. Women – especially women of color – are often dismissed by the medical community. How can we normalize these conversations and help women get proper care?
Lauren: Our mission with Semaine is not only to offer women’s health solutions that have previously been overlooked, but also to ensure that we change the paradigm of how we talk about these natural aspects of our lives. As a society, we tend to really see and look at women’s bodies from a health perspective only, through the lens of fertility / pregnancy. And even then, we know that maternal health concern is not what it should be, especially for women of color. Our periods and full monthly cycles tell us so much more about our health and well-being than just whether we are fertile. The more we understand women’s bodies, the more we can thrive and feel empowered in the choices we make at every stage of our lives. It is important to normalize conversations about periods and period symptoms so we know we are not alone and can request better treatment and representation in the medical and pharmaceutical fields.
Catherine Lee: We hope we can help make the feminine grooming aisle an accessible, fun place to shop. Shopping for period products should feel like a treat. Women should have as many period product options as there are makeup options. Every body is different and needs different types of support.
Semaine co-founder Catherine Lee
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Lacing: What would be something you wish everyone knew about period pain?
Lauren: Period pains are not normal. Period pain is common. We are so often told that menstrual pain is just part of being a woman and we just have to grin and bear it. Some cramps are perfectly normal (your body is physically working to break down the lining of your uterus), but any amount of pain should always be checked by a doctor as your body is sending you a signal. This signal could just be that your prostaglandin levels are slightly higher because you are teenagers and your hormonal fluctuations are more intense, or they signal something that needs further investigation, like fibroids, endometriosis, cysts, etc. Nobody should ever find out about them “it’s in their head” or normalize the pain someone is experiencing.
source https://dailyhealthynews.ca/how-the-sisters-behind-semaine-are-helping-improve-womens-options-for-period-pain-management/
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