Identical twins Lauren “Lar” Lee Crane and Catherine “Cath” Lee share a lot in common…unfortunately, struggling with debilitating endometriosis is one of them. At 39 years old, Lar and Cath have lived with endometriosis for over a decade and know firsthand the pain and trauma it can present. After years-long pursuits of relief and experimenting with countless plant-based formulations, they launched Semaine, a line of all-natural anti-inflammatories catering to female reproductive stages from pre-menopause through menopause.
Born to a White mother from the Cajun south and a Chinese-American dad born in the Chinatown section of Washington, D.C., they proudly refer to themselves as the “Asian Cajuns”. While neither of them believes they are actively experiencing symptoms related to perimenopause, Lar says that they’ve both been on and off hormone-based birth control since the age of 16, so it’s hard to tease out. Still, they have a keen understanding of the various stages of reproductive life due to their personal experiences and work in the space.
“Our mom didn’t start showing perimenopause symptoms until her early fifties. I know you mimic your mom, but at the same time, Cath and I have had more extensive surgeries on our reproductive systems due to the endometriosis,” says Lauren.
She says that neither she nor Cath was ever put on any “heavy-duty hormonal drugs” to curb the growth of endometrial tissue. Still, She knows that some powerful pharmaceuticals can put you into early menopause.
“I always assumed that I would enter into perimenopause earlier than my mom because of the two surgeries I’ve had and the amount of scar tissue and issues going on, especially around my ovaries. But it’s hard to say being on birth control…a lot of those symptoms are tamped down and quieted, I think.”
What is endometriosis anyway?
The Endometriosis Association defines endometriosis as a disorder where similar tissues inside the uterus start to grow outside the uterine cavity. It’s primarily an imbalance of the immune and hormonal systems affecting up to 10% of women of active reproductive age. Research shows that it can be hereditary; while it’s not surprising that they both have it, Cath says her and Lar’s endometriosis is different.
“Lauren’s was stage four…mine was stage two. Mine was primarily around my digestive organs more than my reproductive organs.”
They started their periods at an early age and within six months of each other.
Cath got hers first during the summer at age 12, and Lar got hers the following winter. While they both had excruciating menstrual cramps and heavy bleeding throughout their cycles, their respective struggles with endometriosis peaked in their mid-to-late twenties.
The sisters say their periods got progressively worse as they got older.
“I remember college periods being worse than high school periods, but it was like this kind of slow progression, like a frog in a boiling pot of water,” Cath recalls. “It was like, ‘this is bad, but they’ve always been bad. This feels worse. Now I can’t make it to class.’ That was in my twenties.”
Lar also dealt with painful periods and visited several doctors who told her that painful periods were normal and to take more ibuprofen. Lar and Cath were well into their twenties before they even heard a doctor say the word endometriosis related to what they were experiencing.
“The average amount of time it takes to get diagnosed with endometriosis is seven to ten years, and that’s generally for White women,” Lar says. “So for women of color, particularly Black women and Indigenous women, it takes about twice as long. For us, it took about 15 years to get diagnosed.”
The twins have since learned that endometriosis is challenging to diagnose officially because it can only be seen with surgical intervention. While high-powered ultrasounds may detect it, generally, it has to be confirmed through laparoscopic surgery. They’ve also learned that Ob-gyn residents only receive limited education related to endometriosis, so many doctors are ill-prepared to diagnose it, let alone treat it.
A lasting solution for a chronic problem
After years of suffering, designing their lives around their chronic symptoms, and multiple surgeries between them, they were able to achieve some relief and improve their quality of life. However, they still had painful periods and were eventually unable to take ibuprofen or other NSAIDs after years of heavy use irreparably damaged the linings of their stomachs.
Fortunately for the twins, Lar’s husband Matt, then a scientist at the University of Washington, supported his wife through her painful monthly periods. After watching her suffer with immobilizing pain month after month, Matt became motivated to find something Lar could take to improve her periods without damaging her stomach.
“Matt was conducting research, working in a biology lab at the University of Washington’s Medical School. At the time, they were studying inflammation and aging, so he was already thinking about inflammation.”
Lar says that through his work at the lab, Matt was able to focus on how inflammation connects to Dysmenorrhea, the clinical name for painful periods.
“I had Dysmenorrhea, so he focused on clinical studies that looked at plant-based extracts and minerals that helped lessen the pain on your period and also helped women with endometriosis. He was like, ‘listen, I’m going to pull all these ingredients together, and we’re just going to try it,” she recalls.
Lar, a self-proclaimed lover of “plant-based everything,” was skeptical about the effectiveness of a plant-based painkiller but said that, ultimately, she was proven wrong.
“Matt’s work was more than ‘ooh, let’s try some herbs.’ It was a very specific rigorous clinical study to determine what to pull together and which mechanisms and pathways the different plant extracts could tackle. That was the key. It’s like we’re not just using one or two ingredients known to adjust estrogen — it’s a combination of nine ingredients that help specifically target different pathways and lower your inflammation.”
Matt formulated a powder that he began putting in Lar’s morning smoothies. She recalls that her first period after taking the powder was pain-free…something she hadn’t experienced since she started menstruating. For the next few months, Lar continued her morning smoothie routine with the same pain-free period results.
To confirm that it wasn’t a fluke (or wishful thinking), she sent some to Cath; when it worked for her, they knew they were on to something.
Lar and Cath enlisted other women to try the powder, including some who didn’t have endo but suffered from bad menstrual cramps, migraines, or bloating. They conducted their own little focus group of 30 people and say they “got really good results.”
From there, Semaine was born.
A new approach to an old problem
The sisters (along with Matt) launched Semaine in March of 2020 — during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Named in reference to “la semaine ketchup” (French slang for the week of a woman’s period), today Semaine offers a proprietary line of plant-based anti-inflammatories for the various reproductive stages experienced by “those who are born with a uterus and ovaries”.
With Matt serving as Semaine’s Chief Science Officer, Lar (CEO) and Cath (Head of Operations) say their differentiator is the deliberate focus on not just addressing hormone imbalance, but reducing inflammation by targeting specific inflammatory markers. They say that no one in the pharmaceutical or supplement spaces has innovated on the ingredients people have used to tackle Dysmenorrhea.
“Midol hasn’t changed. They’re basically NSAIDs with caffeine, just repackaged. They’ve been the same since the eighties,” says Lar. “And even with supplements that you see at Whole Foods or your local health food store, they use traditional Chinese medicine ingredients or elevated ingredients, which is great, but they do one thing — either helping to lower estrogen or raise estrogen levels. Our products focus on lowering inflammation as well.”
Despite launching during the pandemic, Semaine has experienced steady, incremental growth by partnering with other women-first organizations like Endo Black and PCOS Challenge on education campaigns. And they’ve been able to grow Semaine’s presence by expanding to retail shelves, including Walgreen’s and H-E-B, a supermarket chain in Texas.
“We were lucky because we were a digital company trying to figure out how to run a business online. We had a captive audience of people at home and also more people with more painful periods because of the stress of COVID and dealing with the pandemic,” Cath says.
After launching their first formula, PMS & Period Support, to rave customer reviews, Lar says they were unprepared for how quickly their growing fan base began to ask about when they’d be releasing other products to support their reproductive health needs.
“We’d developed our first product to target painful periods and cramps, and it’s meant to be taken when you’re on your period. So many people were like, ‘okay, that’s great, but I’m in perimenopause, or I’ve just hit menopause.”
Their second product, The Daily Hormone Balance, is a daily supplement recommended for women going through perimenopause because it specifically targets metabolic hormone support.
A product quickly followed that to reduce Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs), a common but largely undiscussed condition associated with estrogen depletion during menopause transition.
“Most of us incorrectly believe that UTIs is a young twentysomething having tons of sex problem — which can be true and not shameful at all! But really, it’s older women who are either going through perimenopause or are in post-menopause when UTIs increase as our estrogen levels decrease,” says Cath.
Earlier this spring, they followed up with their menopause product, Menopause Essentials.
“Generally, when people think, ‘oh, my hormones are out of whack,’ they’re thinking about estrogen, progesterone, or testosterone,” says Cath. “But we have so many more hormones, and they’re all an interconnected system in the way they cue your body.
As we move into perimenopause and post-menopause,” she continues, “our chances of lifestyle and health complications and diseases like diabetes, high cholesterol, and heart disease increase because of the changes in our metabolic and sex hormones.”
Making a difference through product + research + education
The Semaine team believes they have a winning approach to plant-based inflammatories. Even so, they know that they’re operating in a crowded and largely unregulated space (supplements are not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration – FDA). This requires a compelling and stand-out value proposition for why their products are the better plant-based supplements on the market.
Because of this, they’re committed to delivering quality products backed by clinical research and credible education. Over the summer they completed a clinical trial on their daily supplement. They were excited to find that people’s cholesterol went down by an average of 46 points after only two months of taking it.
Wide-spread education is also a big part of their model. They’re reaching out to healthcare providers and working with gynecologists, pelvic floor therapists, and nurses, to educate them on different options for women struggling with pain and discomfort. They’ve invested in clinical trials on their supplements, reinforcing their credibility when engaging the medical community.
Lar says that while it’s expensive, [the doctors] are not going to take their efficacy claims seriously without clinical backing of the ingredients.
“It’s a struggle as a small business to make that kind of investment, but in the long run, we’ll see the return through more healthcare practitioners helping women manage their period-related pain and discomfort through non-pharmaceutical and non-surgical interventions.”
When asked about their long-term vision for Semaine, they acknowledge that the learning curve for both women and their healthcare providers is steep. Still, they’re doubling down on their mission to empower women through education and options.
“I think we can shift the paradigm and approach women’s health, specifically with more options, with more education. It’s empowering to know what exactly is going on with our bodies and understand what we’re putting into them,” says Lar. “Even if you’re still dreading perimenopause or menopause, or you’re someone who dreads your periods, as we all have, it’s about being able to understand your body better and know that you have the tools to treat those things. That makes life so much better, so, so much better. And that’s what we want to be.”
You can learn more about Semaine and purchase products on their website (use MMM20 to receive 20% off your first bottle). You may also find them at a store near you. Follow them on Instagram @semainehealth.
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