Trend alert: Biohacking is the next wave of women’s wellness

Biohacking may have started as a Silicon Valley boys’ club to catalyze better health, with Bulletproof coffee, Paleo diets, and tools for a Four-Hour Body. But increasingly female wellness pioneers are claiming the movement as their own, adapting and creating optimization practices for women’s biology.

“A lot of us are living lives that aren’t making us feel very good,” explained Parsley Health founder Robin Berzin, MD, at a recent Well+Good Talks panel on biohacking for women. “And now it’s time for a little investigation into the principles and practices that make us feel better.”

Driving the women’s health scene are new tools like the MyFLO app—created by Well+Good Council member Alisa Vitti (see the Women are Using Techology to Disrupt Birth Control Access Trend for more details)—that allows you to track-and-hack your menstrual cycle like a scientist, suggesting how to relieve PMS symptoms through diet and more. Nutrition experts like Moon Juice’s Amanda Chantal Bacon are dusting our coffee with adaptogenic plants and mushrooms to help boost mental stamina, soothe stress, and balance hormones. (And the rest of us have caught on, big time.) And beauty brands like Mother Dirt are using the science of live bacteria to “hack” the skin’s microbiome for issues like acne, eczema, and even body odor.

Expect to see more biohacks specifically for women, like LifeStory Health’s menstrual blood analysis and Female Fuel, a nootropic supplement designed for women. While many biohacking staples, from infrared light therapy to the ketogenic diet, will continue to grow an audience of women.

What else is going to be huge next year? We’ve picked 18 for ’18—check out all of our Wellness Trend predictions here.