Canterbury student up for national award after developing natural pain relief products
Saturday, 9 September 2023
Monique Lau remembers having to take codeine in the mornings to relieve menstrual pain just to get out of bed.
“I ended up in hospital too many times to count just from how much pain I was in,” the 22-year-old said.
The University of Canterbury student lived with painful endometriosis symptoms for seven years before she was finally diagnosed with the condition in May last year.
The years of coping with discomfort and stigma around menstrual pain, combined with a degree in chemical formulation, led Lau to create a brand of natural menstrual pain relief products called Endosoothe.
The innovation has recently seen Lau recognised as one of the country’s top entrepreneurs by being named as a Canterbury finalist in the annual KiwiNet awards.
Because endometriosis, a chronic inflammatory condition, has no cure, Lau’s diagnosis fuelled her to “solve the problem”. She founded Endosoothe two months later to help other sufferers like herself.
Endosoothe is a range of natural creams, balm sticks and teas with anti-inflammatory properties containing ingredients such as ginger root oil, clary sage oil, yarrow and cypress leaf oil.
Lau said she wanted to address the challenges and stigma women face during their menstrual cycles. “I found there was a real lack of awareness and understanding around endometriosis… and there was also a lack of products and options available [to help].
“I was put on hormone birth control and given a lot of pain relief medication that I had a lot of side effects from,” Lau said.
Medications and hot water bottles were Lau’s go-to for relieving pain, which she believed she could better by making an easy-to-use, accessible product that uses natural ingredients and doesn’t cause side effects.
Lau started the idea as part of her third-year study project researching potential ingredients, and took part in the university’s Summer Startup Programme to develop her product.
Now studying a Master’s degree at UC, Lau is a Momentum Student Entrepreneur finalist in the annual KiwiNet Research Commercialisation Awards.
The awards showcase 18 innovators and entrepreneurs from around Aotearoa creating new technologies and businesses from outstanding research.
“It's just kind of been my whole life for the last year and it's nice to be recognized for that, and know that I'm hopefully going to be making a difference,” Lau said.
Endosoothe’s star product, a soothing cream, is planned for official launch at the end of October and will be exclusively sold online.
The cream, made in the university’s laboratory, can be applied to the abdomen, lower back, chest area or anywhere that experiences discomfort during a menstrual cycle, Lau said.
The first batch of the creams, which can be pre-ordered online, sold out in June and the expanded range of balms and teas will be available from next year.
Lau is one of three Canterbury award finalists.
University of Canterbury’s Dr Sean Feast, founder and CEO of Precision Chroma, is a Sprout Breakthrough Innovator finalist for his 3D printed new method of chromatography – the separation of a mixture into its components.
The technology can reduce processing times of bio-separations by up to two days at commercial scale, simplifying the manufacture of important biologic pharmaceuticals.
TDRI, a technology born out of Lincoln Agritech, is a MAS Commercialisation Impact Award finalist for its ability to detect road problems before they happen.
Its sensing technology can measure subsurface moisture across roads – which can accelerate road deterioration by 2.5 times. Root causes for deterioration are often missed in maintenance without an effective way to measure subsurface moisture which TDRI has solved.
The KiwiNet Awards winners will be announced at an evening reception on September 28.