A notoriously difficult part of life for nearly 4 billion people.

Can technology help?

From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech.

I'm Lily Jamale. Almost. Almost half the world's population experiences menopause.

Most women face it in our 40s and 50s as our bodies start producing fewer reproductive hormones like estrogen.

When that happens, a wide range of

uncomfortable symptoms can follow and can sometimes stick around for years. The

potential market for products and technologies designed to help manage those symptoms

could be worth tens of billions of dollars. And yet, despite that massive opportunity,

somehow it's still early days in the so-called

Menotech market.

Elizabeth Hotzen is a reporter at the BBC.

She's been looking into the Menotech products

on the market now and how the industry is evolving.

The 34 plus menopause symptoms can range from hot flushes to anxiety and if they're severe

they can wreck women's quality of life. But until recently there's been a reluctance to

research and invest in technology to help. Elizabeth Garza is the CEO of Boston-based

tech-starter startup Ember Labs.

She says the reasons are cultural and financial.

I think there's a perception that when women enter menopause,

they've lost their value to society.

They're not reproducing.

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