Cork researcher: ‘It’s time women’s health is given the research it deserves’

A researcher for more than 20 years, it was a desire to see her work make a real-life impact that influenced Professor Siobhain O’Mahony to launch her own business.

A lot of research ends up, Professor O’Mahony explains, “as a paper or a conference talk, which to me wasn’t impactful enough for people, or for the time and money that we’re putting into it”.

A Professor of Neurobiology at University College Cork, Professor O’Mahony is also Founder and CEO of women’s health company FemmeBiome.

This science-led company is supported by UCC Innovation and builds on more than two decades of research conducted by Professor O’Mahony and colleagues at APC Microbiome Ireland.

Through exploring the role gut bacteria, otherwise known as the microbiome, has in female health – and in particular changes observed in the microbiome during periods of hormonal transition for women – the team at FemmeBiome is developing microbiome-based products designed specifically for women.

This work all started when Professor O’Mahony and her team were studying potential links between physical pain and changes in the gut microbiome. “The bacteria in your bowel,” Professor O’Mahony explains, “can affect your gut health, your immune health, your hormone health and your nervous system health. Our nervous system is how we feel pain, so that’s why we were interested.”

Through the course of this research, the team made an interesting discovery – the same level of stress on men and women had a significantly greater effect on a specific set of bacteria in the gut in women.

“There are some bacteria in our bowel,” outlines Professor O’Mahony, “that can actually regulate your hormonal balance, including oestrogen. Men have these as well, these types of hormones that are associated with oestrogen metabolism, but I was really intrigued to see the same stress level affected this set of bacteria, called the estrobolome, at a much, much more dramatic level in women than it did in women.”

These findings led the team to further investigate how changes in the gut microbiome during perimenopause and menopause, major hormonal transitions in a woman’s life, may influence her health and wellbeing.

Survey of 120 women

Teaming up with Health Innovation Hub Ireland in Cork, they surveyed 120 women between the ages of 45 and 55 about their experiences with hormonal changes. The results were stark.

“We asked them about 40 different symptoms,” recalls Professor O’Mahony. “And most of the women had a collection of them”. Six of the most, as the professor puts it, “prevalent and worrisome” reported symptoms in the survey were brain-related, with sleep disturbance, anxiety and brain fog among the most frequently cited.

“61% of women said they had brain fog,” says Professor O’Mahony. “And even when I was administering the survey, I was like, ‘I don’t know what brain fog is! What is it?’ It sounds so nice and gentle, but actually, it should be called brain theft.”

The neurological symptoms of perimenopause and menopause can be particularly difficult to deal with for women who are often at the busiest point of their careers and lives.

“You’re trying to get on and achieve what you should be achieving,” says Professor O’Mahony. “You’re in your career and everything is accelerated, and your life is busier now than it ever was. But nobody tells people that they’re suddenly not going to be able to sleep, which will be exacerbating all the other symptoms that might be bubbling under the surface. So that brain fog and that anxiety that were reported hugely affected and pushed women over the edge because of their sleep disturbances as well.”

These concerning findings sent Professor O’Mahony “back to the drawing board” to see what bacteria might be missing from women’s microbiome during perimenopause and menopause. Securing financial support from Enterprise Ireland, the team were able to further develop their research. This ultimately led to the development of FemmeBiome’s first product – a clinically validated probiotic supplement named MoreMe, designed to support women specifically going through this hormonal transition. The product launched for pre-sale, fittingly, on World Menopause Day on Sunday.

It’s not just supplements that haven’t necessarily been tailored to women. Women’s health research in general has been notably neglected across the board. “Most of the pharmaceuticals on the market, most of the clinical trials for them that have been done, have been done in men,” says Professor O’Mahony. “And that is up to the last 15, 20 years. Even products that are designed for women have not been tested in women... So we don’t know enough about women’s health, about how to track our hormones during our life, how to guide young women about their menstrual health, their reproductive health, to actually give women the education but also maybe the interventions, the supplements, the drugs, the devices they need and actually deserve to feel healthy.”

Looking after health during perimenopause

What else can women be doing to look after their microbiome and wider health during perimenopause and menopause?

Professor O’Mahony says that looking after our diet is crucial for the microbiome.

“As Irish people, we probably don’t eat enough fibre... Initially, I would start with high-fibre foods, but integrating it very slowly, maybe one extra piece of food a day for a week.”

Professor O’Mahony also cites yoghurt and isoflavone-rich foods – flax seeds, pear, garlic – as being important for gut health. “When you have the right microbes in your gut,” she explains, “you can break these down and they actually mimic oestrogen.”

Diet aside, another vital part of health and wellbeing during perimenopause and menopause is social connection. “Talking to other women. Seeing what they’re doing, how they’re actually feeling. I think a lot of women, when they’re in this stage of life, probably tend to feel less confident and probably don’t go meeting their friends enough. So I think that socialising and chatting – and going for a walk, getting gentle exercise – with other women around the same age is probably really beneficial for brain health.”

With companies like FemmeBiome blazing a trail for women’s health research, the future is beginning to look brighter for those who will go through the significant hormonal changes of perimenopause and menopause – in other words, half the world’s population. Professor O’Mahony is optimistic. “It’s time now where women’s health has to be given the time and the research and the money that should have been put into it years ago. But we don’t need to look backwards. We can only look forwards.”

See: https://femmebiome.com/.

FemmeBiome is a UCC Innovation Spin-Out Company. See: https://www.ucc.ie/en/innovation