This Is Perimenopause

Making the Uncomfortable Comfortable. A Conversation about Menstrual Health with Nadia Ladak

August 28, 2024 • Bespoke Projects • Season 1 • Episode 26

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Introducing Marlow a company that’s transforming the landscape of menstrual health with their lubricated tampons. Joining us is co-founder, Nadia Ladak, whose mission is to improve menstrual health with products that respect both the body and the planet. We dive into how Marlow’s tampons offer a unique solution for women experiencing discomfort due to hormonal changes and how the product’s thoughtful design can aid young girls new to menstrual health.

In this episode you'll learn:

  • About Marlow’s vision for a new kind of menstrual care. 
  • Why lubricated tampons are a game-changer for easing the discomfort of vaginal dryness during perimenopause.
  • Tools for your daughters just starting their menstrual journeys.
  • The story behind Marlow’s drive to fill a gap in the market with a product that's both healthy and sustainable.
  • How Marlow is fostering a supportive community that empowers women and girls to be open and educated about their menstrual health.


Stay connected with Mikelle & Michelle at This is Perimenopause:


Nadia Ladak Bio

Nadia Ladak is the co-founder and CEO of Marlow, a pioneering FemTech company that has revolutionized menstrual care with the first lubricated tampon. Under her leadership, Marlow has flourished, securing $1 million in funding and winning multiple awards, including a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2023 and appearances on CBC’s Dragon’s Den.

Beyond her achievements with Marlow, Nadia is deeply involved in community and healthcare initiatives. She co-chairs the Catalyst Council at Holland Bloorview Children’s Hospital and is an active member of the League of Innovators’ Alumni Council. Her work not only advances women's health but also inspires the next generation of entrepreneurs.

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Nadia:

So the big way that we try to do that is by building a community around our brand, and Marlo's like a big sister to a lot of people, so we release educational content on TikTok, on Instagram, and we also have a whole community platform called the TMI Club where we break down anything that's typically considered TMI around periods, reproductive health, sexual health. So really building this educational video content around the brand as well.

Michelle:

Welcome to. This is Perimenopause, the podcast where we delve into the transformative journey of perimenopause and beyond. I'm one of your hosts, Michele.

Speaker 3:

And I'm your other host, Michelle, and we know firsthand how confusing, overwhelming and downright lonely this phase of life can be.

Michelle:

Join us as we share real life stories and expert advice to help you navigate this journey and advocate for your best health.

Speaker 3:

We used to think menopause signaled an end, but really it's just the beginning. Today we're talking with Nadia Ladek, one of the brains behind Marlo, a company that's come up with a brilliant solution for women with vaginal dryness. What we love about Marlo is that they're on a mission to make the uncomfortable comfortable, and not just with their lubricated tampons that make our monthly cycles a little bit easier to handle. They're also determined to spark a conversation to help revolutionize menstrual health. Nadia's even got some amazing tips for moms looking to help their daughters navigate their first periods comfortably and confidently. Join us in breaking the silence around menstruation and share this with your daughter, niece, sister, mom and friends. It's a great conversation that every woman needs to hear. Nadia, welcome to the show. We're so happy to have you. Thank you so much for having me. You have a really inspiring and incredible story, and I would love if you could share your story with our listeners how you got started, what Marlo is and what motivated you to focus on revolutionizing menstrual health.

Nadia:

Definitely so. Marlo actually started in her last year of university. I went to the Ivy Business School program at Western, and in your last year, in your fourth year, to the Ivy Business School program at Western, and in your last year, in your fourth year, you take an entrepreneurship capstone course, and I remember our professor said that in order to create a good business, you have to find a problem that you're passionate about solving. And my co-founders and I looked at each other and we're like, oh, we didn't really realize that that is how most great businesses start, but it made sense, and so we sat down together and started to think about different problems that we experience.

Nadia:

Something that came up was the menstrual health space. It was something that impacted 50% of the population for one week every month for 39 years of our life, and yet there's been little to no innovation, even though there's been so much innovation in other areas, and so we really wanted to create something better. We started to think about problems in this space, and growing up, I was a swimmer, so I always needed tampons to compete in my sport, and I would get so frustrated when they were uncomfortable or painful and I had to keep using them, and my co-founders had similar experiences, so we decided to make that our more common problem that we wanted to focus on. We wanted to make tampons easier so that people didn't have to feel like they had to pause on life when on their period and that they could actually use these products comfortably, and so that's how we really started. The idea of a lubricated tampon is how could we address a problem that affects so many people and make this time of the month just a little bit more comfortable. I love that.

Speaker 3:

Nadia, most of our listeners probably haven't heard of the concept of a lubricated tampon. Can you tell us a little bit more about what that is?

Nadia:

So we created it. It's a 100% organic cotton tampon. It's made without any chemicals or fragrances or harsh ingredients. The applicator is made out of a plant-based material, so it's made out of a sugarcane-based plastic instead of a petroleum-based plastic, and it's a whole compostable wrapper and packaging. So we really prioritized environmental sustainability. But the big thing is the lubricant. So you get a little jar of lubricant and it has a cross-lit valve. So the easiest way to describe it is where you put your straw into a pop cup. That same valve is at the top of our bottle, so that when you dip your tampon in, you get the perfect coat of lubricant just on the applicator, it's not on the tampon. I know a lot of people get worried that oh, is it going to affect the absorbency of the tampon or what's going to happen.

Nadia:

But it just slides out to the applicator exactly to help it make it easier and smoother to use.

Speaker 3:

I love it. That's a genius. I don't even know why this concept has well, it's because men have been building these things for years, so thank you for joining the market. Vaginal dryness is a common, yet often unspoken about issue, and we love that. Part of your mission is to make the uncomfortable comfortable. How does Marlo aim to break the silence and spark this conversation?

Nadia:

So, yeah, most people don't realize, but actually one in three women experience vaginal dryness. It could be naturally, you experience it. It could be because of a different birth control. You went on and you're experiencing hormone changes. It could be post-pregnancy or pre-menopause, which is probably definitely very relevant to all the listeners. So it's definitely a huge problem and I found that once we started to talk to our community about it, they didn't even realize that other people were going through this and they felt so ashamed. And once they started to realize that other people also experience it and we started to open up the conversation, they felt so much more safe. And so the big way that we try to do that is by building a community around our brand, and Marlo's like a big sister to a lot of people. So we release educational content on TikTok, on Instagram, and we also have a whole community platform called the TMI Club where we break down anything that's typically considered TMI around periods, reproductive health, sexual health so really building this educational video content around the brand as well.

Speaker 3:

That's so good and there's not enough education for women's health in general, especially when it comes to menstruation. I think that there's. You know we learn about it in school that we're going to hit puberty. We then know that there's some information as we get pregnant or we're trying to get pregnant, and then again about postpartum, and then it dies off. So all this in between stuff is incredible. I've checked out some of the information. There's some really good stuff. Yeah, I love it. So you came to market with teens and young women in mind, but we think your product is pretty genius for women impairing menopause as well. Could you help our listeners understand how Marlo's product is helping to address this issue for women?

Nadia:

Period blood acts as a natural lubricant for many people. But if you have a lighter flow because you're either on different forms of birth control or you're pre-menopause and you're experiencing varying levels of estrogen, then you usually have a bit of a lighter flow, which makes it not as easy to use tampons or it could create painful sex. So if you add our lubricant it makes it much easier to use and it kind of supplements that natural lubricant that the period blood would have had. This lubricant makes it easier to make it sure that you can insert your tampon.

Speaker 3:

That's really interesting, nadia, and in past episodes we've talked a little bit about GSM, which is essentially when the vaginal and vulvar tissue becomes thin, dry and inflamed because of our declining estrogen. How could Marlo help with that as well?

Nadia:

It could definitely help if you're experiencing painful sex or you're having trouble using tampons. This lubricant would make it a lot easier. But sometimes the inflammation or it could be a sign of a different condition. So we definitely recommend, if you're experiencing a lot of pain, to go see a doctor and see if there's an underlying condition that might be impacting it. But if it's natural vaginal dryness that is happening as you enter perimenopause, this product can make it a lot easier. When previously, maybe you were able to use a tampon or you didn't experience much pain during sex, this product might make it feel a bit better and more comfortable.

Speaker 3:

Amazing. I just have a really quick question. So I could use your lubricant not just for inserting the tampons. I can also use it as keep it my side bedside table and use it when sexy time at home. Yes, definitely. I hope my husband and his friends don't listen to this.

Nadia:

You can definitely do that. So our lubricant we designed to be all natural, it's water-based and it's also glycerin free, free from any fragrances, harsh chemicals, any sugar alcohols. So this is definitely a good option to use if you want to use it beyond just tampon insertion as well.

Speaker 3:

And why is all of the safety measures that you're taking for when you built, when you created Marlo? Why is that important for our vaginal health?

Nadia:

So a lot of people don't realize, but tampons are actually a class two medical device and we had to go through Health Canada and FDA approval. And we're doing this during the time of COVID. So, understandably, health Canada had much bigger priorities to worry about, which created a bit of an issue, but it was really important to us because of how sensitive this is. You're putting it inside your body that we used all clean, all natural ingredients. So many people prioritize the food that they eat. They prioritize their physical health, mental health, and yet they'll just put whatever they want to put in their tampon and they don't know the ingredients or what they're actually inserting into their body. So we're trying to educate people that this is an overall part of your wellness and if you're taking so many precautions in other areas, you should also prioritize your menstrual and reproductive wellness as well. I love that.

Speaker 3:

Thank you. I want to transition ever so slightly, nadia. We've been talking a lot about perimenopause, as we do on the show, but I think it's really interesting to have you on our show because many of us and many of our listeners have teens right now and talking about periods and menstrual health with teens can be challenging. What advice do you have for parents who are starting these conversations?

Nadia:

My biggest piece of advice would just to make sure that your child feels comfortable coming to you with these topics, because they're so stigmatized, they're so taboo and we don't learn about it enough in school.

Nadia:

And sometimes people say that if you don't get the gold mine of parents at home, you're resorting to Google rabbit holes and Reddit and you're trying to piece together this information. But it's much better to have a trusted figure in your life that you can come to when you're experiencing any challenges and that can help you advocate for your health. And I would also say to go beyond the basics, because a lot of times parents will just talk about you know, here's the product, you're going to use it every month. There you go. Good luck, versus talking about you know, this is how your emotions will be. You might experience cramps, you might experience mood swings and like really going beyond the basics to talk about all aspects of menstrual health, so that it's not just about the products but all the other things that the child might experience, and explaining what's normal and what's maybe not normal, so that if they do experience some of those abnormal symptoms, they know to go to a doctor or they can come to you and feel like they can talk about those symptoms that they're experiencing.

Speaker 3:

I think that's really, really important because you're right, if you're just starting to get your period, you have no idea what is normal and what's not. You mentioned that Marlo has a bunch of resources on their website and social media platforms. Can you tell us a little bit more about these resources and how they might help both teens with what they need to know and also with parents how they can start the conversations?

Nadia:

Definitely. We cover a whole bunch of different topics. So we have things about understanding your anatomy and understanding your like different reproductive health organs. We have navigating PMS. We have navigating acne on your period. We have cramps. We have understanding the different types of period products, so understanding period underwear, pads, tampons, menstrual cups. We also have a step-by-step guide on how to insert a tampon, and it goes beyond just our online resources. We actually have in-person resources as well, and it goes beyond just our online resources. We actually have in-person resources as well.

Nadia:

So we go into high schools, into universities, and we host menstrual health education workshops. We usually bring in a guest speaker. We sometimes talk about our entrepreneurship journey and tie that in as well. It's usually a bit of a motivational and inspiring piece for a lot of the students that we speak with, and we have an entire first period kit available on our website as well, which comes with the first period book, and so some of the topics I mentioned are contained in that book and you can also go through it together. I feel like it's a really nice moment of trying to make the first period special, versus kind of trying to be ashamed or scared of it. This is a really nice way to give them a product, give them the book, and eventually we're going to try and add some treats in there as well, so that it just makes it a much more special experience for you and your child.

Speaker 3:

I love that. I think that's really cool that you've got that Okay. So I have a question. I have a boy, so I don't know this stuff and I didn't have these conversations with my mom and we didn't even have this when I was growing up. But period underwear, period panties, like I don't get it. Can you please, please, explain this to me?

Nadia:

So it's basically a pad stitched into an underwear not the typical pad that you would get, but almost a reusable one, and it holds a similar amount of liquid to a regular pad. It's a bit more comfortable because you don't really feel like the plastic or the itchiness of a pad, and also it's reusable, so you can throw it in the wash. People will maybe have five or six pairs rotate within their cycle, toss it in the wash and now they don't need to buy it for another couple of years or I'm not actually too sure how long they last. But the period underwear is kind of a more comfortable solution, especially at night, if you don't want to worry about leaking through your pad or changing your tampon and leaving it in too long. It's a really awesome option for sleeping at night and kind of getting through the night on your period as well.

Speaker 3:

Super interesting. I am fascinated by this period underwear stuff. But let's go back to Marlo. Your products are available now. How do women find you?

Nadia:

so we're available on our website. We're also available on amazon, so you can get it delivered with amazon prime, especially if you forget to purchase, which I know a lot of us do. It's something we get every month and yet we just don't purchase it again. So you can do subscribe and save and have it be easily delivered to you every single month on amazon. And then we're also in 100 different retailers. So different organic grocery stores like healthy planet, nature's emporium, the well. We're also available at Whole Foods, which is super exciting. So lots of different organic and natural grocery stores and pharmacies that line up with our mission of sustainability.

Speaker 3:

I love it. That's amazing Congratulations, thank you, because you guys are a relatively new company. Now, how many years have you been around?

Nadia:

We've been around for two years, but one of the years was all product development testing, working with our research labs. So it's quite new to the market and we're really excited to continue to grow it, continue to introduce new products and continue to be that big sister for all of our community members, not just in Canada but also in the US as well.

Speaker 3:

I love it. Congratulations, nadia. Please tell me a little bit more about your TMI club for those of our listeners who maybe don't know what it is too much information. Is that what it stands for?

Nadia:

Yes, it's too much information. So anything that previously are kind of stigmatized or people are like, oh it's TMI, I don't want to tell you about it. We break those things down on our platform. So things like getting a Brazilian wax or how to insert a tampon, like anything that's loaded TMI you will find on our platform.

Nadia:

We have a podcast where we talk about all these topics with different reproductive health experts. So we bring on gynecologists, pelvic physiotherapists, hormone specialists, someone from Planned Parenthood, so really a diverse amount of experts. But then we also have in-person events, so going into high schools, going into universities. Yesterday we hosted a dance fitness class. We have a whole move with Marlo series where you can come to like a spin class and it's Taylor Swift themed. Or you can come to our dance class or yoga class and really just bring your community together in person to do these move with Marlo events and feel empowered on their period, because a lot of times people feel that you know you have to be at home and resting and you can do that as well and we really encourage that but also feel like you can feel empowered and comfortable to move on your period because of our tampon products.

Speaker 3:

Oh my God, I am totally loving that. That's move. Move with Marla, move with Marla. Oh my God, I love it, I'm there. Tell me when there's the, tell me when there's a. Your next get together. Um, nadia, what's the one thing you'd love every woman and their daughters to know about their menstrual health?

Nadia:

I really want people to just be comfortable to talk about it.

Nadia:

This is a natural thing that happens for 50% of us.

Nadia:

We're going to experience it for 39 years of our life, and if we feel ashamed to talk about it every month, we're never going to open up the conversation and start to understand our body. A lot of times people feel that they just have to put up with the pain that they experience around their period because they don't know that there's any better offer, and I found that once we started to build this community and we started to spark these conversations, it almost opened up the floodgates, and we've had so many people come and talk to us about you know, I thought I was broken or I thought something was wrong with me. I didn't realize. Other people experience these types of pains when inserting a tampon or these types of cramps, and so we just really want to encourage people to advocate for their health and to understand their body and to know that what's normal, what's not normal, and you don't have to just put up with pain that you're experiencing. There are other solutions and products out there that can make this experience more comfortable.

Speaker 3:

Do you know? What I love hearing you talk about this is that a lot of the sentiments that you brought up are the same that women going through perimenopause and menopause are feeling.

Speaker 3:

They feel like they're alone. They're isolated. They didn't know other women were having these symptoms. They're confused, they're frustrated, and it's the earlier we can start with education in general about menstrual health, the better it is for everyone. So by the time you get to be perimenopausal I know you've got a few years ahead of you I feel like you're going to be like all set and just ready to ready to rock it. So well done. This is amazing.

Nadia:

That would definitely be the goal, because I just feel like so many people don't understand their body and, in terms of other health, like they're very preventative they try to exercise, they try to eat well, but yet they'll just put whatever tampon in and they won't understand what's going on with their reproductive health. So, just really being able to open up the conversation and supplement the education we get in school, Congratulations it's amazing and thank you for coming on our show.

Speaker 3:

I know that there's a ton of listeners that um are going to sit down at the dinner table tonight and have some conversations with their daughters. Um, we'll link to the show notes for everyone who wants to know how to find Marlo and your products and your TMI club, um, but thank you so much for coming on the show today. Thank you so much again for having me. Thanks so much for coming on the show today. Thank you so much again for having me. Thanks so much for listening to the show. If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate and subscribe to our podcast. When you do this, it helps to raise our podcast profile so more women can find us and get a little better understanding of what to expect in perimenopause.

Michelle:

We also read all the reviews the good, the bad and the ugly, to help us continuously improve our show. We would love to hear from you. You can connect with us through the podcast, on social media or through our website. Our information, as well as links and details from our conversation today, can be found in the show notes. This podcast is for general information only. It's designed to educate, inspire and support you on your personal journey through perimenopause. The information and opinions on this podcast are not intended to be a substitution for primary care diagnosis or treatment. The information on this podcast does not replace professional healthcare advice. The use of the information discussed is at the sole discretion of the listener. If you are suffering from symptoms or have questions, please consult a qualified healthcare practitioner.

People on this episode

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Michelle Stainton

Host
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Mikelle Ethier

Host
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Amy Schlueter

Co-host