The Inner Rhythms Podcast

Episode 70 -Tech Meets Cycle Wisdom: Pioneering the Future of Non-Hormonal Birth Control with Eirini Rapti of inne

• Iris Josephina • Episode 70

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🐚Topics covered

  • Why measuring progesterone directly changes everything
  • The difference between temperature tracking & hormonal data
  • How technology can be a conversation partner
  • What true contraceptive autonomy requires
  • Why contraception should be collective responsibility
  • The shift that happens when you stop the pill
  • How to evaluate "non-hormonal" options
  • The pharmaceutical industry's response to declining pill use
  • Nature's collective design of fertility


About Eirini Rapti

Eirini started inne in 2017 motivated by her own desire to use natural contraception, but realised that traditional natural fertility methods were almost impossible to use reliably in real life. She was determined to find a way of leveraging technology to enable all women to have a greater understanding of their bodies and take control of their contraceptive choices, so that they could make the most of their careers and relationships. Eirini set about developing a saliva biosensor device that enables women to identify and predict the fertile phase in their natural cycle. Based on her own experience and through multiple user interviews, Eirini understood that a new product had to be compatible with a busy daily life, simple and hygienic to use, and more insightful than the period-tracking apps already on the market.


Where to find Eirini Rapti and Inne

📝Website: https://inne.io/
📷Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inne_io/ 


About the Host

I’m Iris Josephina, a functional hormone specialist, orthomolecular hormone coach, and entrepreneur. Through Cycle Seeds and The Inner Rhythms Podcast, I support people in reconnecting with their cyclical nature, deepening body literacy, and reclaiming hormonal harmony from a place of sovereignty and embodied knowledge. Most people know me from Instagram, where I share stories, tools, and inspiration on cyclical living, menstrual cycles, fertility, hormones, and more. 


Let’s stay connected:

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cycleseeds 

📧 Join my newsletter: https://www.cycleseeds.com/cyclseeds-newsletter 

💻 Visit the Cycle Seeds website: https://www.cycleseeds.com/ 

📝 Check out the blog: https://www.cycleseeds.com/blog

🎓 Holistic Hormone & Cycle Coaching Certification Training: https://www.cycleseeds.com/hhcc-waitlist-2027 

📚Join my courses: https://www.cycleseeds.com/courses-masterclasses 

📊 Chart Your Cycle Masterclass: https://cycleseeds.plugandpay.nl/checkout/chart-your-cycle-97



[00:00:00] Iris Josephina: You are listening to the podcast of Iris Josephina. If you are passionate about exploring the menstrual cycle, cyclical living, body wisdom, personal growth, spirituality, and running a business in alignment with your natural cycles, you're in the right place. I'm Iris. I'm an entrepreneur, functional hormone specialist, trainer and coach, and I am on a mission

[00:00:29] Iris Josephina: to share insights, fun facts, and inspiration I discover along the way as I run my business and walk my own path on earth. Here you'll hear my personal stories, guest interviews, and vulnerable shares from clients and students. Most people know me from Instagram where you can find me under at cycle seeds, or they have been a coaching client or student in one of my courses.

[00:00:52] Iris Josephina: I'm so grateful you're here. Let's dive into today's episode.

[00:00:56] Iris Josephina: So today I'm here with Eirini, who is the founder of inne, and I'm so excited that you're here. I think what you're doing is cutting edge and very much what we need in women's and cyclical health. Welcome to the show.

[00:01:14] Eirini Rapti: Hey, Iris. What a beautiful name, by the way.

[00:01:17] Iris Josephina: Thank you. So for those who don't know you yet, can you share a little bit about who you are? What is your background and what is like the, education and the inspiration that you had for the creation of, in.

[00:01:33] Eirini Rapti: Yeah, sure. Happy to. so you and your audience is finding me at my early forties, and I live in Berlin and I'm mainly a mom and a founder of inner these days in this chapter of life. but my first, first chapter started in Athens. So I'm Greek. I was born in this beautiful sunny city, but I left quite early, and studied in London.

[00:01:58] Eirini Rapti: That's where I did my first studies. Funnily enough, my background or my first degrees were in languages and performance.

[00:02:06] Iris Josephina: Hmm.

[00:02:08] Eirini Rapti: and then somehow right after my, bachelor's, I found a job, in the medical fields. So I worked for a healthcare organization that was basically doing a pat repatriations and evacuations from like, let's say war zones or crisis zones, et cetera, mainly because I spoke several languages

[00:02:28] Eirini Rapti: and I ended up staying more than a decade,

[00:02:30] Iris Josephina: Wow.

[00:02:31] Eirini Rapti: and in those 10 years I worked in London with them in Paris and then in Southeast Asia. and it was one of the most profound experiences. That's before in, because it was really around connecting you with the human. Helping them navigate the healthcare system, helping them and their families go out of really, crisis situations.

[00:02:53] Eirini Rapti: and in that process I, you know, I studied also business. I did an MBA, I got a lot of training on quality assurance and project management and all of that. and in my early thirties, I moved back from Southeast Asia and, found myself in a. Chapter start. I didn't know where it was gonna lead, but, where I was firstly single, or better divorced, off the pill because I thought, I'm gonna take a break.

[00:03:20] Eirini Rapti: I don't need, contraception right now. And then boom, I was like. What is happening? Is it because I'm divorced, that I'm experiencing this whole, this whole happiness, it shouldn't be happening. my ex is a wonderful human, by the way, but, but what was actually happening is I was getting back into my natural rhythm

[00:03:41] Iris Josephina: Mm-hmm.

[00:03:42] Eirini Rapti: and I was ovulating.

[00:03:44] Eirini Rapti: And I was, having cervical fluids, which I never had before, and I could feel, sexuality in ways that I didn't before. Like, you know, I, I remember sitting there and being like, hold on. Why am I having these weird thoughts? you know, and, and I think there was a, a moment of, of realization that, and also a little bit of self shame.

[00:04:11] Eirini Rapti: Because I had considered myself, you know, well traveled, well studied, very international, very in tune with the world and societies, right? Especially after having been in Southeast Asia for a few years and I knew nothing about my own body. Zero. And I was 32. and I think that's kind of how the, the inner or my inner journey started, which was, you know, trying to understand, okay, how do I make sense of this?

[00:04:39] Eirini Rapti: yeah. And the options, this was 2015 or 14 actually. And the options back then were, were hardly digital. So there was very few peer trackers. I think the first one I used back then was called Kind, I dunno

[00:04:53] Iris Josephina: yes, I, I remember that. Yes. Yes. I remember when it was actually coming out. For those, for those who don't know what Kandara is, it's like a natural fertility management app where you can record all your data, your temperature, your fluids, your cervical opening and position and texture. Yeah, it was, it was big under in the community.

[00:05:14] Eirini Rapti: A hundred percent. And it was a couple, a wonderful couple that started it. And I remember they were sharing that they had met in Burning Man, and I was like, oh my God. Like I'm part of a revolution happening. I loved it. And then, you know, I of course bought all the, the books, right? and started this journey of understanding what was happening in my body.

[00:05:35] Eirini Rapti: And I feel, I don't know how you feel about it, but I feel like. For me at least, the way it manifested was, not so internal. Like I had a need to communicate this, so I was, I was like this little child everyday learning something. So I was like telling all my girlfriends or sisters or community and they were like, you're nuts.

[00:05:53] Iris Josephina: Yes.

[00:05:53] Eirini Rapti: This does not ex like, what are you talking? I don't even know. Because of course I was at a generation that had always been under hormonal contraception.

[00:06:01] Iris Josephina: Yeah.

[00:06:02] Eirini Rapti: but it was a very external push. It's really interesting. It was, I was learning about my body, but it was like I had the need to communicate, you know?

[00:06:09] Iris Josephina: I recognize that I was, I was similar. I think we discovered all of this around the same time. I was a bit younger. I was in my early twenties, like 20 12, 20, 20 13. I was 23 back then. and yeah, it, it was like I was learning so much and feeling so much understanding. There is this natural need like, oh, I discovered this good thing.

[00:06:33] Iris Josephina: I need to share this with my people. But then I also received a lot of like pushback and I even also shared with family and they were like, you're crazy. That's irresponsible. What are you doing? Do you wanna get pregnant now? Like you're in the

[00:06:49] Eirini Rapti: This is how my uncle conceived their child, right? Like these other kinds of things. See, for me, I didn't like, I did not necessarily, so I, I didn't have a partner for the beginning of it, and then I met my, next. Partner who is also the father of my child. And, and I was very, you know, it was very clear to me I wanted to try this inner relationship, the fertility awareness method F at the time.

[00:07:12] Eirini Rapti: And so he was very receptive or I didn't give him a choice. I think it's either or. I took him on this journey, but there was also. and we had a long distance relationship, right? So it was not, I didn't feel pressured that, oh, I have to contracept in whatever way. But, but there were, I had the space to do it for me.

[00:07:30] Iris Josephina: Yeah.

[00:07:31] Eirini Rapti: And I think that's, that was an important step for me. And again, I'm, I'm a little bit older than you or quite a bit older, and so I went through this like, you know, marking your calendar when your period comes in, writing like your paper diary type of thing. In, in a way that no one would understand. Right.

[00:07:50] Eirini Rapti: So, so like I had to come up with codes of symbols, just in case, you know, my mom opened my diary or like some friends or at school, like I didn't want it to be visual or understood. So I went from that to my twenties. Living in London, where also contraception and fertility clinics are very. free and to go through the peel, the parts, the injection, you know, like all the sort of hormonal contraceptives because it was just like, this is what you do.

[00:08:22] Iris Josephina: Yeah.

[00:08:23] Eirini Rapti: And then find myself in my early thirties being like, very little lady and, and what's available is really, great because it's, you know, it's, it's, decades of research and women trying to actually have a voice and talk about this, and a lot of strong communities and it's really years behind any kind of technology, right?

[00:08:43] Eirini Rapti: Because, I remember, you know, working and I was working remotely at the time. I had an Apple computer, a Kindle for my books. You know, like I had all this technology that sort of like packaged my life, and allowed me to be remote and float.

[00:09:01] Iris Josephina: Mm-hmm.

[00:09:02] Eirini Rapti: Then I had to use an old thermometer or like a vaginal one, or like, I remember buying this, I think maybe your audience is, remembers it, some of them or not, but it was this American company called Fair Heaven or something.

[00:09:15] Eirini Rapti: They had this big thermometer with 10 buttons on it.

[00:09:18] Iris Josephina: Yeah, I know that one.

[00:09:21] Eirini Rapti: Yeah, there was another one that was about measuring electrolyte changes and you had to put a probe in your vagina and a probe in your mouth. I don't know, it was like,

[00:09:30] Iris Josephina: Very complicated. Yeah. And so. I heard you say, or, or I saw on your website that like the traditional natural fertility methods eventually were, maybe like too hard for people to use reliably. And was that like the motivation for you to,

[00:09:51] Iris Josephina: to create a product that is more user friendly basically?

[00:09:55] Eirini Rapti: Yeah, I cannot say that I had complete, you know, I was not dogmatic that this, you know, the current methods were not gonna work for everyone. The current thumb methods at the time, current, but I had two really, energies that were pushing me forward. The first one is, no matter what this has to scale, like it has to be available to more people.

[00:10:16] Eirini Rapti: I had just started. Yeah, yeah. let me think. Where was the sentence that, yeah, so what I was sharing was that it wasn't that I was dogmatic that the farm methods will not work for everyone, but I did have two very concrete.

[00:10:31] Eirini Rapti: Sort of pushes that were pulling me forward. One was, how do we put this in front of more people's eyes? And I felt and still feel that technology and science, and the medical expertise have the capacity to bring that in the center of a conversation. and quite frankly, there wasn't in any innovation for so many years on it, you know, apart from, you know, starting to digitize it.

[00:10:52] Eirini Rapti: And the other pool was a curiosity of why do we even measure temperature and why do we even measure our cervical flu fluids? Like what's the biological thing that actually happened?

[00:11:04] Iris Josephina: Yeah.

[00:11:04] Eirini Rapti: and there I became obsessed with hormones. I'm still obsessed with hormones. I think it's the one thing that, that, drives our whole lives.

[00:11:12] Eirini Rapti: and I'm not just talking about fertility hormones, but I'm talking also about stress hormones, right? And, I'm entering perimenopause right now, or I'm in it and I see how, you know, like the data that I've collected in the last few years is super useful to me right now. so, so I was like, no, no, we have to replace, there's no excuse.

[00:11:32] Eirini Rapti: To only rely on temperature just because we don't have technology good enough to measure what really matters, which is hormones. And of course, my naivete in the beginning was that I was gonna measure all kinds of hormones all at the same time. And then of course, entrepreneurship helped me shape ideas of like, you know, there has to be core innovation, but step by step.

[00:11:54] Eirini Rapti: Yeah.

[00:11:55] Iris Josephina: Yeah. And can you then share what technology inne uses to gain insight into our cycles and what that means?

[00:12:07] Eirini Rapti: Sure. So we use saliva, and we have a daily test. it's based on what is called lateral flow technology, so sort of like paper diagnostics. and it's. For those that are geeking, the audience, in the audience is antibody based. So basically we collect a little bit of your saliva and we measure right now progesterone in it, which is basically what temperature mimics right.

[00:12:30] Eirini Rapti: So, so temperature rises because your progesterone rises, but instead of looking at temperature, we look at the actual progesterone hormone. and then we have a little device, where you put your test in and then the device reads it for you and the data comes into your phone. So we've really tried to build an experience that will be.

[00:12:49] Eirini Rapti: I hate this example, but that will be as easy as taking a pill or as, or as taking a temperature measurement, but give you a data point that is more reliable because it doesn't get affected by sleep or, lack, of, or sickness and actually something that tells you much more about your body. So I'm checking around to see if I have any product here.

[00:13:09] Eirini Rapti: I'm sure your people have seen it, but yeah, these are this. Strips. I can open a, a box for your ps. and this is our second gen, so this is what it looks like. It's really, really small and you deposit a bit of saliva here, and then you put it in the mini lab, and then this takes a measurement and sends it over to your phone.

[00:13:30] Iris Josephina: Amazing. And you would, because progesterone is produced mostly the second part of the cycle. So would you start measuring this around ovulation or do you. Measure throughout the menstrual cycle.

[00:13:43] Eirini Rapti: You measure it throughout and it's actually produced throughout the cycle. It just grows during ovulation. So it really is the same for those that know temperature. It's the same principle, just that, it has the benefits of you get your hormonal levels instead of temperature, but then you also have flexibility of when you measure.

[00:14:02] Eirini Rapti: So for example, temperature, unless you use like an AA ring integration, you have to. Or an overnight, you have to take it in the morning, right? And with, with, progesterone or inne, you have four hours in a day from six till two, depending on when you set them that you can take the measurement. But basically we measure from sort of your follicular and, phase, we build a baseline. And then we look at the eyes, we confirm your ovulation if it does happen, and then we also continue your lal phase. or at least you have the capacity for it to try and understand whether there's any lal phase deficiency is in there. So we, we look at your full, you know, on a daily routine. It's a daily test, but also we look at your full cycle, the end.

[00:14:45] Eirini Rapti: Yeah.

[00:14:46] Iris Josephina: so cool. I love, I love how technology can be used for good things like this

[00:14:52] Eirini Rapti: Yeah, well if someone concentrates on it, but yeah.

[00:14:56] Iris Josephina: Yeah. And how do you see that inne really balances this technology part without losing. The more intuitive part of us understanding our cycles, but also, gaining true understanding without creating a disconnect by, by relying on a device, really.

[00:15:15] Eirini Rapti: Yeah. The inne is not built to be your, your, doctor, as in there is not that. And, and we have been very intentional about it. So inne in's persona was always this, cool hippie auntie where, and we, we always said, you know, we want inne to be the auntie you go to with questions that you wouldn't go to your mother. And, and so it's, it's a conversation. It's not, a conversation with your own body. It's not like this is what you do, that's how you do it. and we've built that in different touch points. So from when you unpack the product or how you experience it daily, it's meant to give you delight, of how you interact, how it, it looks, it's very, you know, it doesn't have sharp edges.

[00:15:58] Eirini Rapti: Very soft texture. Right? but also not become like a, a stressful thing you have to do every day. because we also serve women who want to get pregnant, right? Not just, avoid pregnancy. So there, the, the, the intentionality and the stress is very different. so we've designed it to sort of like be easy and also something you can rely on so very scientifically, vigorous, but also not take over your life.

[00:16:25] Eirini Rapti: And then when you move into the digital part of it, the, the experience is very, calm. We have, messaging and we have some insights there for you. So we measure your progesterone, we tell you your fertility, but then we also prompt you to track other things, and I think that's where the conversation starts. and I had recently, so I, I started this month connecting with our community. So I did like 15 minute calls with customers and I had a, a lot of these women who told me like, yeah, I'm using it for contraception, but actually I'm using it for me to understand my body. And I think that's the, the win, right?

[00:16:59] Eirini Rapti: and, and when I ask. How do you experience that? They say, oh, you know, like there were all these things as suspected and you know, I had this woman who told me I was tracking with other apps, but I just being able to have the layer of hormonal data, allowed me to see things differently. And that's where I'm like, okay, now I need to add more hormones in there and vitamins and other tests.

[00:17:21] Eirini Rapti: Right? the founder in me.

[00:17:23] Iris Josephina: Yeah. Beautiful. So what I'm hearing is that a lot of people actually already just by using it, move through like psychological and emotional shifts in how they relate to their body and what their body is telling them and what their body is doing. are there an.

[00:17:40] Eirini Rapti: I think that's, sorry to interrupt you, but I feel this is sort of something that, you cannot really contact. You cannot really explain well to people unless they try it, but it's something that happens every time when you stop taking the pill. It's just a, it's like, you know, stopping a medication or stopping certain foods that give you bad symptoms.

[00:18:03] Eirini Rapti: It, you just start experiencing your normal cycle. it's just that if you have never experienced it, you know, don't know how it is. And what I often hear from inner women that were on the pill is I was on the pill and then I was off the pill and had no cycle for two years, or, you know, my cycles were 60 days and I don't know what was happening.

[00:18:22] Eirini Rapti: So there's this anxiety of transitioning, but then they start getting into this circular or cyclical, I call it intelligence. And they're like, ah, Uhhuh

[00:18:35] Iris Josephina: Yeah, I can imagine. It also comes with a lot of peace, especially if

[00:18:40] Eirini Rapti: depends on your cycle phase.

[00:18:42] Iris Josephina: you. That's true. That's true. But also like if you've just, you know, lived on autopilot, on the pill and then all of a sudden have like this beautiful data that comes from your body that you can give meaning to, and that tells you something about how you feel, how you relate, how you like, what your interceptive state is in your body.

[00:19:08] Iris Josephina: So yeah, very beautiful. Yeah. And for you, if you had to describe or, or dream up what true contraceptive autonomy looks like in today's world, how would you describe that?

[00:19:27] Eirini Rapti: I feel that the world is a big place. So if I was to answer to the question, thinking of the world's complexity in mind, I would, my first answer would be accessibility.

[00:19:36] Iris Josephina: Mm-hmm.

[00:19:36] Eirini Rapti: I think accessibility is extremely important, but in my worldview, contraceptive accessibility needs to include methods that are not invasive, that are not causing, side effects.

[00:19:50] Eirini Rapti: And it does include also hormonal. Versions. that might be the only option for some people. But, so I, I have this accessibility being the biggest umbrella, and within this accessibility, really having, more options that are designed by women for the female body or thought. our thought for women, rather than, you know, some really hardcore, painful options only.

[00:20:14] Eirini Rapti: yeah, that's what I would, I would want and I feel like we need to change the narrative, of accessibility and of contraception in general. We need to change it towards, for a way from women only.

[00:20:28] Iris Josephina: Yeah, I agree.

[00:20:29] Eirini Rapti: And I feel that there is something with hormones there. I don't know what the wording is yet, but, I hate how we, we talk about contraception getting pregnant, perimenopause.

[00:20:40] Eirini Rapti: What actually, what is is happening is you have a human walking through life and you have hormonal chapters.

[00:20:46] Iris Josephina: Mm-hmm.

[00:20:47] Eirini Rapti: And I think that's what we need to name, because then contraception is only contraception because there's two humans meeting. It's not only one human, and we need to change this narrative of conversation, right?

[00:20:58] Eirini Rapti: Like I hear younger women and they're being asked like, are you on something? you know, with a, with a partner. And it's like, are you on something? You know, like, I think this has to be a conversation. Or what do you know? What options do we have?

[00:21:11] Iris Josephina: Mm-hmm.

[00:21:12] Eirini Rapti: So I feel that I hope there will be a change in, in the wording of contraception and what it means away from the individual to more of a collective.

[00:21:21] Iris Josephina: Yeah. I love that. And that also makes it more of a collective effort rather than, yeah. Something that we need to manage on our own and if we don't do it, we're deemed irresponsible.

[00:21:31] Eirini Rapti: Yeah, I mean, do you know what it is? Like, I don't wanna sound too spiritual, or too boohoo, but I think nature has been pretty good at making it collective, right? you know, like, nature tells you when the environment is not good and you need to not ovulate or if it's cold or if you're too stressed, like you're not gonna have a good pregnancy.

[00:21:50] Eirini Rapti: So I think nature has been very, very wise. it also can tell when there are two females. Very close to each other, thinking on their cycle. So there's a lot of, collective design, but we have packets did really well in very tight boxes in our modern society, and I think we need to just open up the boxes a bit more.

[00:22:09] Eirini Rapti: Wow. Did I just say that So inspirational today.

[00:22:14] Iris Josephina: that was good.

[00:22:16] Eirini Rapti: Yeah.

[00:22:16] Iris Josephina: And so when, when you, you know, came on the market with this, is there any like resistance or challenges that you faced as like a tech-based contraceptive in like the more pharmaceutical dominated spaces that we, in our society seem to like put more value on?

[00:22:36] Eirini Rapti: Yeah, sure. I think it's good to contextualize a bit. So we came on the market in 2020 as a fertility monitoring.

[00:22:44] Iris Josephina: Uhhuh. Okay.

[00:22:45] Eirini Rapti: but it was, we were always a con going to be a contraceptive, but, you know, we needed to do a clinical trial or we didn't need to. We decided that for us to really claim contraception, we needed to have a clinical trial.

[00:22:57] Eirini Rapti: It was a company decision and, science driven decision. So we came to the market as a fertility monitoring, and a lot of women used us to get pregnant and some others to understand their cycle. So really, there was always question mark. There. Then we just became an official contraceptive in June this year.

[00:23:15] Eirini Rapti: and now we are officially a contraceptive. I think in this time where we had a clinical trial and regulatory approval, natural cycles has been growing. So there's a lot of awareness around, using technology. for contraception and especially their partnership with ura, I feel like their offering is, it has helped a lot the whole world be receptive to it.

[00:23:38] Eirini Rapti: Although their, their offering is very much around simplifying the experience and making it simpler so it scales, it makes a lot of sense. and at the same time, I feel like, there's some hardcore facts. So the use of the pill is dropping. 35% less in Germany only. So, so pharmaceuticals have been very, they had to, they have to face the facts.

[00:24:00] Eirini Rapti: It's just what it is. so the recent experience from the last six months has actually been very different than the past. So we have, had, peel manufacturers or pharmaceuticals reach out for partnerships and distributions. And I know a lot of the big ones are looking to add non-hormonal options in their portfolio.

[00:24:22] Eirini Rapti: I just hope the non-hormonal ones they add are not some kind of device that's gonna be exactly like the a UD, but, but they are looking for options seriously because their revenue's dropping.

[00:24:34] Iris Josephina: Yeah, we spoke about this before we actually started recording. In the Netherlands, they have this little valve that they can put and they, they promote it as non-hormonal and how good it is, but then you're still 100%. Dependent on a doctor to put it inside of you and to open and close the valve

[00:24:52] Eirini Rapti: I think this, when you move your f when you first told me I was shocked, but when you move your finger of opening and closing and we think this is in your tube, it's just giving me the shivers like, what is this? But maybe I'm just, I'm just, I need to see it more. Yeah. I don't think this is the hormone free.

[00:25:09] Eirini Rapti: We need you.

[00:25:10] Iris Josephina: yeah, I agree with you because the, the way that you are. Creating in the what you're, the data that you're collecting with in a, people can really interpret it and assign a meaning to it. Like, ah, okay, I'm here in my cycle and this is what's happening in my body. If you have a valve that is closed, you just know, ah, my egg cannot ever reach my uterus and it will just die off in my tube.

[00:25:37] Iris Josephina: That's the safety of the, the contraception. And then when you're ready, you can open the valve so that I can go through and you can get pregnant. So it's still giving all the power away. And what I'm seeing with inne is that you put the power in the hands of the woman to collect the data to see and witness the data and assign meaning to it.

[00:26:00] Iris Josephina: And I think that is where, where true. Power, fertility awareness, power, contraceptive power lies, and it really embodies this sovereignty and autonomy that a lot of us in this field, and I think we are in the same community that we are fighting for, and that we are wishing for every single person on this planet to have this reproductive autonomy and being able to make choices, but also to truly understand.

[00:26:30] Iris Josephina: What is my body trying to tell me and what are the different snippets of data that can help me understand? And I think it's amazing what what you are doing and

[00:26:41] Eirini Rapti: you, my dear. I don't see any other way. I don't see any other way. I, and, and I say this with all my love, right? Like I feel, you know, we are in a world where people want to make their own decisions, and so they should in areas like, what jobs should I work? For what is my purpose in life? How do I want to impact my community?

[00:27:02] Eirini Rapti: How do I want to eat? What vitamins do I take? What clothes do I wear? do they cause trouble to the environment or not? This is all an autonomy growing and, community world where hopefully we're going away from individualism to. My own decisions. I am still aware how my own decisions affect the world and I'm part of the world, right?

[00:27:23] Eirini Rapti: So it's a network. I feel like we are for the last decades, getting back into being a web of people in that you cannot take half of the world's population and just take their main, driver of, of everyday life, which is hormonal health away from them. You just cannot, it doesn't make any sense. And also it might make sense for some, and I think that's why we need to have options, but not for all.

[00:27:51] Eirini Rapti: So like it's a no brainer for me. And, and and that's why, you know, with Franzi, when we were first setting up the brand, we were very much about, you know, inner comes from the German word, inner Hilton, which is to pose.

[00:28:04] Iris Josephina: Mm-hmm.

[00:28:04] Eirini Rapti: This is not to have a device that tells you this and this and that. This is to take a minute for yourself, pose and tune in, have an inner look.

[00:28:12] Eirini Rapti: So it's that conversation with the auntie where you can, you know, ask the question and then she gives you her experience and also the space to decide. I just want this experience sharing to be validated, medically driven and cutting edge, and actually really just playful and happy as an experience.

[00:28:31] Iris Josephina: I love that. And if you had any snippet of wisdom that you could share with the women listening or maybe getting inspired to take charge of their fertility and their cycle and their health in general, what would it be? What would you tell them?

[00:28:48] Eirini Rapti: Wisdom. I feel that, there is something around the right thing at the right time, and I feel that, I assume some women that are still not, or that are considering perhaps slipping the pill, hormonal contraception and are not yet in this journey, but are thinking about it. perhaps are struggling for when is the right time.

[00:29:09] Eirini Rapti: And I feel that, I trust in our bodies and in our, and in the way life manifests. The right, right. Time comes. And when it does, then I think we need to jump at it. and just try out and tune in. And I feel that, You know, it, it feels like a very deeply personal decision, anything around fertility, and yet it's very much a village decision, right?

[00:29:32] Eirini Rapti: Look at the people that work with you, that come to your courses, that listen to your podcast like we are a community, because we all experience very similar things. So like, don't be, you know, don't be scared to take a leap of faith and trust in yourself. So yeah, take a moment to pause. Hmm.

[00:29:50] Iris Josephina: Beautiful. Thank you for sharing. And what is the best places where people can find you? Can you share

[00:29:56] Eirini Rapti: Mm, yeah, sure. So we have a website just like everyone else@inne.io. social media is a great place for us. Instagram, that's where we post a lot of our content. We have a mixture of scientific, medical content, but also some fun, stuff. we're starting community. Calls, but they're mainly for our users.

[00:30:14] Eirini Rapti: just community spaces and newsletters. we actively have, women, like customers, users, we call them inner women in Germany and Austria. And, we'll be expanding in the rest of Europe. Right now. We do have people who just order the product and give a German address, but then we have this amazing customer who's been traveling around the world, so we deliver her strip.

[00:30:39] Eirini Rapti: In a boat somewhere, in a harbo. so we have some really interesting people in the community. so yeah, so I look forward to being more available in the uk in the Netherlands, in Spain, which is close to my heart. but for now we're very much German, Austrian based. yeah. And our material is always German and English.

[00:30:58] Eirini Rapti: So.

[00:30:59] Iris Josephina: Beautiful. I'm looking forward to this like massive spread. If there's anything I can help you with, please know, I'm happy to do that. And I just wanna just wanna thank you for your passion and your dedication to this, because I'm sure it's not been an easy ride as an entrepreneur in this tech space. And I just wanna thank you for coming on and sharing about this new cutting edge tech technology and sharing it with the world.

[00:31:29] Eirini Rapti: It's a pleasure. Ris, I must just say I love your name. I love it. It's, it's also, I will tell you privately another time, but it's, it's something that I use a lot as a code for my life because it's, you know, the rainbow has all the colors. So Beautiful.

[00:31:45] Iris Josephina: Thank you so much. 

[00:31:47] Iris Josephina: Okay, this wraps up today's episode. Thank you so much for listening. Want to know more about me? The best way to reach me is via at Cycle Seeds on Instagram, and if you heard something today and you think, oh my God, wow, I learned something new. Feel free to share the podcast on your social media and tag me or leave a review of rating.

[00:32:08] Iris Josephina: In this way, you help me reach more people like you. Thank you so much. I.