How Women's Health Brands Can Tell Stories Backed by Science | Blush & Bloom Podcast | Ep. 61

On this week's Blush & Bloom, Gigi Kenneth sits down with Hannah Wrathall, founder of Wrapp Consulting, an independent communications advisor for women's health and NHS innovation. Hannah has spent more than fifteen years in communications and PR, leads communications and engagement for an NHS primary care service, and writes the Substack newsletter Raising Our Voices on practical ways to close the gender health gap. Her view on women's health communications is clear: tell a consistent story, back it with science, and shape it for the people in the room.

In This Episode, We Cover:

• How fertility tracking led Hannah into women's health communications
• Whether AI has changed marketing and PR for women's health startups
• Why AI trained on biased data can work against women
• When storytelling helps a pitch, and when it backfires
• How founders can build in public without oversharing
• Unpaid speaking requests in the women's health space
• Balancing science, sensitivity and marketing
• Menowashing, and how brands prove they are credible
• Hannah's plans for a shared research database

How Hannah found women's health communications

Hannah's route in started about eight years ago, when she was trying to conceive her first child and began using Natural Cycles. Learning how her cycle worked in her late twenties showed her how little most women are taught after school. Becoming a parent showed her how often women are dismissed by the health system. She started sharing content on Instagram, then LinkedIn, and saw a gap: very few communications specialists were working with women's health brands.

Has AI changed marketing for women's health startups?

Hannah sees early-stage startups using AI tools to do their own marketing, while more established companies, four or five years in and funded or profitable, look for professional support. AI can speed up everyday tasks, she says, but women's health brands face layered challenges: platform censorship, harder funding, and educating people about a condition as well as a product. That still needs human judgement.

Why is AI bias a women's health problem?

Historical data about women's bodies is incomplete and biased, because women have been understudied. General AI tools trained on that data can repeat the same gaps. As Hannah puts it, "AI is only as good as the algorithm it's built on." She is encouraged by companies training their own models on purpose-built data sets designed to reduce that bias.

Storytelling that fits the room

Storytelling has been a marketing buzzword for years, and Hannah supports it, with a caveat. She has seen pitch decks spend most of their slides on the founder's emotional reason for building, then rush product-market fit and growth at the end. Investors are often men, and NHS budgets run on metrics and targets. Her advice: keep a consistent brand voice, but adapt the message to your audience. Leaving out lived experience in one room does not mean letting anyone down.

On building in public, she suggests defining around three core brand pillars and checking each post against them. A founder's public voice can differ from their everyday self, and nobody should build in public at the cost of their mental health.

What is menowashing?

Menowashing describes brands using menopause buzzwords and empowerment language without the substance or evidence behind them. Hannah's answer is simple: only say what you know is scientifically true. Some products make extreme claims, have adverts taken down by the ASA, and carry on regardless. Proving a product works takes investment, and she wants more funding directed at the good ones.

Science your customers can follow

Hannah once worked with a smart light bulb company that sold the experience, a home cinema or a dinner at home, rather than the technology. She brings the same thinking to women's health: lead with the benefit, and explain the science plainly. She points to Uvisa Health as a company taking the time to do clinical testing properly while keeping its audience informed. Her message to founders is direct: "We aren't stupid. We can take science. Tell us what you've got."

What's next for Wrapp Consulting

Hannah wants to build a database where everyday people can find research and take part in it, drawing on her NHS patient engagement work to include more diverse participants. She is also stepping back from events where the same conversations repeat, so she can focus on work that moves things forward.

FAQ

Who is Hannah Wrathall? Hannah Wrathall is the founder of Wrapp Consulting, an independent communications advisor for women's health and NHS innovation. She has more than fifteen years of experience in communications and PR and writes the Substack newsletter Raising Our Voices.

What does Wrapp Consulting do? Wrapp Consulting helps women's health and health innovation companies tighten their brand voice and professionalise how they communicate, including fractional head of communications support.

How should women's health startups use storytelling? Hannah recommends a consistent brand story, balanced with a clear business case. Adapt the message to each audience, especially investors and NHS buyers who make decisions on metrics.

How can women's health brands avoid menowashing? Make only claims you can support with science, explain that science plainly, and invest in proving your product works rather than relying on buzzwords.

Listen and connect

Listen to the full conversation on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. Follow Hannah on LinkedIn, visit Wrapp Consulting, and subscribe to Raising Our Voices. For more conversations, visit the Blush and Bloom podcast hub, including Ep. 55 on building a femtech venture studio and Ep. 57 on funding women's health startups, and track your own health with the Asele app.

This episode is for general informational purposes and does not constitute medical, legal, or regulatory advice.