WoW Woman in Women's Health - Verity Fotheringham, Founder & CEO of Hysteron

Verity Fotheringham is a women's health scientist, award-winning entrepreneur and the founder of Hysteron. Women are flying blind through the biggest health shift of their lives, and Verity is on a mission to change that. Hysteron's blood test looks beyond hormones, at 41 markers across the whole body, and tracks them over time, so women can finally understand what's happening in midlife and take control of their health. Named Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the UK StartUp Awards 2026, Verity also shares the latest menopause research as That Menopause Girl.

Hysteron helps women finally understand the biggest health shift of their lives. It's a UK blood testing service for women in perimenopause and menopause that looks further than hormones, at 41 markers across hormones and thyroid, bone regulation, heart and metabolism, stress and nutrition. Blood is taken at a clinic or by a phlebotomist at home and analysed in a UKAS-accredited lab. Every result comes back in the context of a woman's symptoms, lifestyle and treatments, so she can see the full picture and track what changes over time. Hysteron is also building the research dataset menopause has never had.

Tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.

My background is in biomedical science and women's health research, and I'm the founder of Hysteron, a UK blood testing service built for women in perimenopause and menopause.

Before Hysteron, I was in academia, working with big datasets to improve outcomes for women after pregnancy. One pattern kept jumping out at me. Women are looked after closely through pregnancy and checked again around six weeks after giving birth, and then the care largely stops. What follows is close to a silent decade in their data, until they're struggling through menopause or break a bone. Over those same years, the risk factors for heart disease, osteoporosis and type 2 diabetes climb, and so much of that is preventable. Nobody was showing women what was changing.

Hysteron fills that gap. One blood test looks at 41 markers across the whole body, from hormones and thyroid to heart, bone and nutrition, and women can test again over time to see what's shifting and whether the changes they make are working. I want women to live as long as possible, and in as good health as possible.

How did you get into this industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into, or have you had many challenges?

I started out in virology, working on Zika. Even in public health, I noticed the conversation tended to blame women for passing the virus on, rather than asking how to support them. That stuck with me, and it sent me down the rabbit hole of women's health, where I kept finding the same thing: when a condition hasn't been properly researched, the weight falls on the woman.

In women's health research, I was told menopause was too erratic to be worth studying. That writes off more than ten years of a woman's life, right when her long-term health is being shaped. Research also moves slowly, and I didn't want to wait decades for the women I was reading about, so I decided to build it myself.

It hasn't been easy. Fundraising, building a health business in a regulated space and selling direct to consumer have all been steep learning curves. What's kept me going is the women's health community, which is one of the most generous I've known, because everyone in it wants the same thing.

How long did it take you to get to where you are now? What was the biggest obstacle? What are the challenges of being in the industry you are in? 

I founded Hysteron in 2024 and we launched direct to consumer in March 2026. We then spent time listening to the women who tested with us, used their feedback to rebuild parts of our technology and our website, and relaunched in October 2026 with a single 41-marker test.

The biggest obstacle is still the taboo. Many women only start thinking about menopause once symptoms arrive, and even then plenty don't feel they can talk about it. In our own survey of UK women, 59% didn't know perimenopause can affect the heart. We're asking women to do something different: get ahead of it, understand what's changing in midlife and see how much of it is preventable. Until that feels normal, it's the hardest thing we're up against.

The other challenge is the word "niche", which I hear from investors all the time. 100% of women go through menopause, whether naturally, through surgery or because of treatment. That's half the population, in every generation, which makes it one of the biggest and most evergreen markets there is.

What are your biggest achievements to date?

Being named Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the UK StartUp Awards 2026, after winning Young Entrepreneur of the Year and Start-Up of the Year for the South East, and raising our pre-seed round from angel investors.

The thing I'm proudest of, though, is every woman who tests with us. When a woman sees the full picture of her health for the first time, and knows what she can do with it, that's why I do this.

What are the projects you are currently working on?

Right now I'm focused on getting Hysteron into the rooms where women already are: speaking at events, working with women's networks and members' clubs, and building in-person communities. Women talk far more openly face to face, and I'd love Hysteron to create real-life spaces where they can come together and ask anything.

Alongside that, we're building the dataset behind Hysteron, which I hope will one day help researchers understand what happens to women's bodies through midlife.

Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you, and if yes, why? 

Yes, hugely. Women are still underrepresented in tech, especially as founders and in the rooms where funding decisions get made, and you can see it in what gets built, with women's health so often treated as an afterthought. Hysteron is built by women, for women. We start by listening to women's experiences and then use technology to give them answers, which is so much easier when the people building it understand the problem.

I'd also love the next generation of women in science to see that starting a company is a real option too. You can fix these gaps yourself, use technology to do it, and build something bigger and better than what's there now.

What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years, and where do you see them heading?

I think women's health will move from reactive to proactive, and then to predictive, so we can spot changes years before they become problems. Wearables have already made us comfortable tracking our sleep and heart rate, though they can't see hormones, bone or cardiovascular markers, and I think blood data tracked over time will sit alongside them. Employers are starting to take menopause seriously too, as part of how they support their people.

Underneath it all is better long-term data, which will finally show what's normal for each woman, rather than for an average woman who doesn't exist.

What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?

Don't wait until you feel ready or have every credential. I started Hysteron straight out of academia, with a huge amount to learn. If you can see a gap that matters to you, start small and talk to the women you want to help as early as you can. What they tell you will shape what you build far more than any business plan.

Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?

Dr Helen O'Neill, founder of Hertility. Kate Muir, journalist and author. Joanna Strober, founder of Midi Health.

Find out more about Hysteron on their website.

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