Podcast

April 30, 2026

Hertility CEO Helen O’Neill on building a foundational model for women’s health

'The biggest challenge? Girls just want to have funding'

With over 700k women in the UK waiting for gynecological care, why is half the population still so underserved by its health system?

Yes, women have historically been left out of clinical trials, but there are logistical reasons as to why, Hertility CEO Helen O’Neill tells host Amy Lewin. “Collecting data from women on the third day of their menstrual cycle at scale is actually feasibly and technically very difficult to do.”

Helen is more familiar with these difficulties than most: Hertility has built a diagnostic testing system to support women through their fertility journeys, and provides onward clinical care — from telemedicine gynecological appointments and ultrasounds to IVF and egg freezing.

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The result? Hertility, Helen says, can diagnose endometriosis with 98-99% confidence in eight days — the same condition which takes on average nine years to diagnose via the NHS.

In this episode of the Sifted podcast, Helen shares how she’s building a foundational model for women’s health, why Hertility “started off trying to be a baguette and has twisted itself into a pretzel for every investor” and why it’s important to demystify the “homogeneous idea of women’s health”.

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Maya Dharampal-Hornby

Maya Dharampal-Hornby is a reporter, covering UK tech for Sifted, based in London. She's also the producer of Startup Europe — The Sifted Podcast .

Amy Lewin

Amy Lewin is Sifted’s editor and host of Startup Europe — The Sifted Podcast . Follow her on X, LinkedIn and Bluesky

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