I maybe a little ways off from having a child, but I’m 100% woman, and I know the struggles and pain of having a period. So, I was very curious to learn more when I found out about the women owned and run postpartum comfort underwear business Nyssa, who also helps with period pain. Like many women, I experience pretty severe pain for a few days a month. I have learned a few ways to manage it: work out more and wear period underwear, but the pain still comes. So, this month I got the pleasure to experiment with Nyssa’s underwear. I tried their Nyssa VieWear Underwear, which comes with an ice/heat pack and a pocket built into the underwear for it! While you still have to find a way to deal with the period itself, I have to say walking around with a heat pack on my back, certainly made me a lot happier this month. Also, as an added bonus, these are great for athletes who are prone to hurting themselves.. I may or may not know a little something about that. To learn more about this super empowering company, please read our exclusive interview below.

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Foreword by Kira Bucca, Editor in Chief of Jejune Magazine.

Where are you based?
Nyssa HQ is based in Chicago, IL.

Can you tell us a little bit about Nyssa and why you started the brand?
Myself, Eden, and Aubrey had been friends for a decade and became first-time mothers within a year of each other. We had very different birth journeys and recoveries but felt extremely frustrated and let down by the lack of products available to help with our physical healing. We were literally handed a pair of flimsy mesh underwear, a few giant chemical ice packs, and a can of Dermoplast and sent on our way. I personally was in so much agony I could barely walk for three months after birth— and then immediately went back to work, where I felt I had to mask my pain. We wanted to do everything we could to support other birthing people by making sure the next generation of people giving birth had more options to help with comfort and recovery.

Where does the name Nyssa come from?
Nyssa means ‘new beginnings’ in Greek and is derived from the word ‘woman’ in Arabic. We feel that it beautifully captures our mission to support women during times of transformation.

It is shocking how ignored the female body is every step along the way by big companies, but it is lovely that woman-run businesses are stepping up. Why is it so important that women start taking control of the products we use for our bodies?
There’s so much to unpack here. I think there are at least two major inputs impacting the historical lack of effectively designed products for women: firstly, women’s needs and bodies are critically under-researched. I was talking to a cryotherapist in our network recently who mentioned that there hasn’t been much research around the benefits of cold therapy during menopause because studies involving women often don’t receive funding because they are more expensive due to the additional ‘variables’ of regular hormonal shifts. It’s unbelievably frustrating, but my hope is that with more women in STEM that will change in the future. Because you, in many cases, need to have real insights and data to leverage design in such a way that it helps solve the deeper issue. Secondly, female entrepreneurs are still critically underfunded by VC— only three percent of business investment goes to women. I believe that deep empathy yields the most effective, impactful design. The best personal care products for women are those designed by women. And there are SO MANY women out there with incredible ideas. It’s terrific to see so many great female-run businesses getting off the ground.

But we still need more funding and investment to power those ideas and take them to the next level, so that we have more access to products empathetically designed to meet our true needs.

Nyssa started out because of the lack of products to help with postpartum. I think so many people who haven’t had kids think that after the Third Trimester and birth that is it. Can you educate our readers about how the female body works through the Fourth Trimester?
We always say that we are not medical professionals— we are mothers who can only speak from our own experience. With that in mind, it’s mind-blowing to me how much I focused on educating myself about and preparing for, pregnancy and birth. That was it. I didn’t even think about my postpartum emotional and physical recovery. Due to the nature of my complicated delivery, I had some serious birth injuries on top of the very normal but under-discussed topics of tearing (over 50% of first-time mothers who give birth vaginally will experience tearing), postpartum bleeding, difficulty breastfeeding, dealing with hemorrhoids, and swollen tissue. Thankfully, I fared okay emotionally (aside from dealing with birth trauma) but it is also not uncommon to experience postpartum depression and anxiety, or sometimes more serious mental health issues such as postpartum, OCD, and psychosis. I say all this not to scare people, but because there is so much we can do to better prepare for postpartum. If you are prone to depression, find a postpartum therapist before you give birth; discuss with your partner/family/friends how they can best support you if you end up experiencing a difficult delivery; pre-stock your freezer and fridge with healthy and easily grab-able meals; pack FourthWear in your hospital bag; book at least a few sessions with a pelvic floor therapist. The more we talk about the reality of postpartum, and educate ourselves, the more we will be set-up for a successful recovery. It is also a complete myth that the postpartum period is six weeks. Many doulas and midwives and OB-GYNs are understanding postpartum to be a full year after birth. It can be longer. It took me about two-and-a-half years after the birth of my daughter to feel healed, and I’m still working on my diastasis recti (separated abdominal muscles).

You have two main collections FourthWear and VieWear. Can you tell us a little about each of these collections and what makes them special?
FourthWear (functional apparel) and FourthCare (personal care) are our products for postpartum recovery. Our flagship product, FourthWear Postpartum Recovery Underwear, is designed to hold ice and heat packs securely in place after a vaginal or cesarean delivery. Our VieWear and VieCare lines are designed for everyday wear and include underwear and leggings that can hold ice and heat packs discreetly in place and are great for days you are feeling a bit “ugh” below-the-belt— whether you have period pain, are suffering from endometriosis, or are going through the discomfort that can occur during fertility treatments and more, VieWear helps you carry on with a greater level of comfort and care.

All your pieces have pockets for heat/ice packs, and you sell these heat/ice packs as well. Can you tell us why you feel heat/ice packs are so helpful for the female body during postpartum, but also during one’s period?
The application of ice and heat can be very beneficial at different stages in the postpartum healing journey in terms of easing swelling and pain. Many people will apply heat when they have period pain for targeted pain relief. We worked with a cryotherapist (cold therapist) to write a whole essay about this if anyone reading would like more detail: https://nyssacare.com/pages/ice-heat

And we have a video, which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqM7065s9r0

I feel there are a million products that you can continue to expand on with Nyssa. Have you thought about including the idea of period underwear with your VieWear collection? I personally love period underwear, so my biggest problem with VieWear was that I ended up wearing two pairs of underwear when wanting to use VieWear during my period. It would be lovely if there could be an option for just one pair!
That’s great to hear! While we started Nyssa in the postpartum space, we quickly realized that the potential of what we were building could be much bigger. Our mission now is to support women through ALL of life’s most ‘unmentionable’ and transformative times— from puberty through to post-menopause. And while we design and release products, the conversation that they spark and the broader dialogue they become a part of, is just as important to us. And while we are focused on pain relief for periods vs. absorbency, we are definitively looking into ways to make VieWear more absorbent, so it’s great to hear about your experience.

I also have to say, I LOVED the heat/ice pack (although, I used it more as a heat pack) and the pocket for it. This is so convenient! I know you are focused on women’s health but have you thought about expanding into athlete health? I’m an athlete and tweaked my lower back. So, I used the underwear and heat pack and it was glorious!
Thank you! It’s really great to hear about your experience from an athlete’s perspective. We would love to explore ways to bring our patented ice/heat pack pocket design into workout gear. Not just for sport-related injury, but so that women can feel more comfortable continuing with their athletic/workout practices while experiencing something period pain, which may have held them back previously.

Jejune also loves that you use recycled materials for your collections. Can you tell us a little bit about that and why that was important to you?
Thank you. Yes, FourthWear is made from 85% post-consumer recyclables from water bottles. While there are always ways to improve, and we plan to continually pursue them, we care deeply about our environmental impact in our personal lives and want to carry that through into our business practices as much as possible, too.

Finally, we have to talk about your podcast: The Unmentionables. Can you tell us a bit about The Unmentionables, and what inspired you to start it?
Nyssa is just as much about starting and evolving conversations about the ‘unmentionables’ of womanhood as it is innovating products to help solve those unmentionables. We are not medical experts and while we always innovate and prototype our products with input from women and professionals working in the field of women’s wellbeing, we know that our own experience is limited. So we started the podcast to bring more expert knowledge and conversation to our community— and so that we can continually learn, too! The podcast just as much an essential part of Nyssa as the products we make. Season One focused heavily on the emotional and physical shifts of the Fourth Trimester. For Season Two we are talking about everything from Black sexual wellness to menopause and pelvic floor therapy.

Do you find it is empowering for women to talk about and hear other women’s stories about things we have been taught to avoid mentioning?
Oh, absolutely. This is one of the main reasons we started Nyssa. Because we couldn’t believe how in the dark we were about the reality of birth recovery. In 2017, people just weren’t talking about these things openly. Since then, more and more celebrities— Beyonce, Chrissy Teigen, Keira Knightly, Serena Williams— have shared the more difficult side of birth and postpartum. That’s been integral to opening up conversations in other spheres, too. We share a lot of different content on our Instagram, but it’s always the first-hand stories that seem to resonate with other women the most. It’s about finding that connection to your own experiences, for sure, but also so important to shape and share the language about these ‘unmentionables’ that we all experience. It’s so powerful to see how having access to the language around something that is emotionally and/or physically difficult can help us process it, and share our experiences, much more effectively. An example is ‘matrescence’— much like we can use the word adolescence to describe the birth of an adult we can use the word matrescence to describe the birth of a mother. It was a term coined in the 1970s but more recently brought back to light by Dr. Alexandra Sacks in her impactful TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/alexandra_sacks_a_new_way_to_think_about_the_transition_to_motherhood?language=en

Many businesses, small and large, have been impacted by COVID. How are you weathering this storm?
Nyssa is incredibly lucky to have Eden Laurin as our CEO. She’s one of the most fearless, flexible, and resilient people I know and, along with the rest of our amazing team, she’s powered Nyssa through the pandemic. We have had countless issues with our supply chain this year, many of which could have devastated our business. But we kept moving and iterating and flexing and are so grateful that we’ve been able to continue to not just survive, but actually grow, during this terrible year. I’m so proud of our small team.

How are you staying positive during a shelter in place?
Like many people, I’m focusing on finding deep pleasure in small things. Spending time with my daughter Neva, reading in the bath and connecting with as much nature as possible. I live in a small town by the sea in East Sussex, England, and try to get down to the water as often as I can. It helps soothe my mind and keep things in perspective.

What is your motto in life?
“Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It's all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.”— Susan Sontag

Please list any websites and/or social media you would like Jejune to promote:
Web: nyssacare.com
IG: @nyssacare
Pod: Listen on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts

Women's Health & Sustainability? Hello Nyssa!