“One in two women have painful periods, but we live it alone”: she invents a device to combat period pain

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Faced with period pain, Barbara Bourneau imagined a very thin bottle of hot water to slip over the front of her period panties. The innovative device diffuses constant, therapeutic heat and provides effective relief in all circumstances.

“I suffered every time I got my period for 24 years.” Ever since she hit puberty, Barbara Bourneau has enduredsevere pain related to her menstrual cycle. As often happens in these cases, she was prescribed one birth control pill, then another, very early on. But despite several attempts and changes, none had any effect. And the young woman continues to suffer several days a month: “I missed classes, when I was working, I felt very bad,” explains the trained lawyer. “I've done research, but nothing physically explains this pain, specifically, I don't have endometriosis.”

So Auscitaine swallows, at short intervals, first Doliprane® and Ibuprofen®, before increasing the doses and switching to Ketoprofen® and Antadys®. And when he can, he puts a hot water bottle on the pelvic region. “But when you're working, it's difficult and the hot water bottles end up leaking, which can be dangerous.” Then an idea came to me: “I was wondering how to have heat that diffuses in the long term, I thought about biker gloves and smart textiles.” He talks about it to an engineer friend, then puts the thought to the back of his mind.

It wasn't until a few months later, when she returned from Santiago de Compostela, that her friend spoke about it again. And that's when he decided to develop an innovative heating device to ease his pain and that of others. “One in two women has painful periods, but it's something we live alone,” regrets the woman who left her sales job to create her company, Jamais sans TaBOO.

European production

He then worked with a German company to envision this technological tool. After several tests, “Bouillotte 2.0” was born. Once powered up, this hot water bottle diffuses heat at a therapeutic temperature that hardly varies. It takes the shape of the pelvic region and is about 2 mm thick. “The goal is to be able to wear it anywhere and anytime”, indicates the founder, who wanted to make her product as small as possible, “so that she can put it in her bag”.

To accompany this hot water bottle, Gersoise has created two models of menstrual underwear: panties and thong. Italian lace, French knot, Portuguese manufacturing… “We wanted them to be elegant and comfortable.” Beyond the absorbent side, for which he worked to achieve a sensation of almost zero moisture, the designer, who will soon turn 37, also had to respond to an important technical constraint: creating a space in which to slide the heating. She thus envisioned a kind of kangaroo pocket on the front of the underwear, where women may or may not install the device.

The 2 mm thin hot water bottle slips into a pocket on the front of the trousers.
The 2 mm thin hot water bottle slips into a pocket on the front of the trousers.
Photo DDM – LL

Once the first prototypes were created, tests were carried out on women with painful periods and proved conclusive. Starting with the personal experience of Jamais sans TABOO founder, who ensures that she only takes one painkiller per cycle: “My sister no longer needs it. For me, I think there's a psychological side to it, I'm still afraid I don't have it. pain, but I'm not desperate to stop taking any medicine.

Faced with these positive results and well supported by CCI and the Network of Initiatives GersBarbara Bourneau therefore officially launched her brand, on Internetat the beginning of this September and is already considering possible future products, which will always aim to improve women's well-being.

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