01
The universal fit
For 150 years, cervical barriers required fitting by size. Through years of research with volunteers using diaphragms of every size, she found a single universal rim diameter, 70mm, that worked for women of all sizes.
Her story
She built the product no one else would.
After years of recurring health problems she linked to tampon use, and after talking with hundreds of women who described the same frustrations, Audrey Contente set out to create an alternative. There was no such product, and doctors and scientists did not take the problem seriously.
She spent ten years developing it in secrecy, at great personal expense, testing prototypes on herself. An athlete herself (triathlete, runner, swimmer, open water scuba diver, skier, sailor and wilderness backpacker), she tested every design under real physical conditions. Despite repeated failures and mounting debt, she refused to give up.
When the design was final she filed for patents and founded Ultrafem, a women's health company she built from startup to public corporation, raising millions in private funding along the way. In 1996 she launched the Instead Softcup, described at the time as the first major new feminine hygiene product in more than 80 years.
“I want every woman to believe, by my example, that she is capable of making innovative contributions to women's health even against all odds.”