New Wearable Tracks Hot Flashes for 1.3M Women Yearly

For Ali Hewson, perimenopause hit harder than expected, bringing hourly hot flashes, brain fog, and exhaustion that affected her work as a humanitarian and mother of four. It took her 10 years and four different doctors to find the right hormone therapy, leaving her feeling like "an experiment."

Now she's backing a solution to help other women avoid that frustrating journey. Peri, a small wearable device launching in the U.S. this week, automatically tracks hot flashes and night sweats for the first time ever in wearable technology.

The device, about the size of a flattened AirPods case, attaches to your torso with a sticker and works all day, night, and even in the shower. It captures sleep patterns, exercise, anxiety levels, and menstrual cycles while women log lifestyle factors like caffeine intake and medications in a companion app.

"Of course busy women can't be expected to record every single anxiety attack, hot flash, or sleep disturbance accurately," Hewson says. When she heard about Peri, it clicked immediately as a way to get real answers about how hormones, lifestyle, and symptoms connect.

Ireland-based scientists Heidi Davis and Donal O'Gorman created Peri after recognizing a huge gap in women's health. An estimated 1.3 to 2 million American women enter perimenopause each year, with symptoms lasting up to a decade.

"Women are quite intuitive, they know something is not right, but they're not getting the help they need," says Davis, the company's CEO. Their goal was giving women concrete data to navigate this transition with confidence and stop wasting money on solutions that don't work.

The team spent six years developing and testing the technology. Using four different sensors for motion, light, skin response, and temperature, Peri's algorithms can detect the physiological patterns of hot flashes and night sweats with impressive accuracy.

Why This Inspires

This isn't just about comfort. New research shows severe hot flashes correlate with higher risks of cardiovascular disease later in life, making perimenopause a critical window for long-term health.

While the menopause market explodes with lotions, supplements, and influencer products, Peri represents something different: personalized data that women can share with their doctors. It's the bridge between what women experience in their bodies and what clinicians can actually measure and treat.

The wearables market is booming, with fitness-focused devices like Whoop and Oura raising billions. But Peri targets something more relatable than performance optimization: helping women simply feel like themselves again.

With $3.5 million in funding from Hewson and impact investors, the lean startup is ready to serve a massive underserved market that will only grow as awareness increases.