It's Her House Built for Women's Health, and we're talking about innovations that are shaping the future of women's healthcare, answering under researched topics, and at the end of the day, fueling a better quality of life for women. I'm Melissa D'Lea, and after years of frustration, venting to my mom, and trading horror stories with friends, I'm so excited to see awareness and investment actually transforming how our bodies are understood, how we're diagnosed, and how women are cared for. In each episode, we share stories from real women like you, your mom, your sister, friends, and we interview experts who are tackling women's health challenges head on. I'm obsessed with finding leaders who are investing their time, money, energy, and souls into improving women's health and lives. These people are working tirelessly to make you healthier, more comfortable, more secure, and to make sure future generations keep it going.
Melissa:Today, more than ever, the need to study women's bodies, including and beyond reproductive subjects is recognized. It's talked about. Our bodies are different from men's, and our needs vary from woman to woman. It's the talked about stuff like pregnancy, cancer, chronic conditions, but it's also the little stuff. The I can deal with it stuff.
Melissa:At its best, it can be annoying, these little things, but at their very worst, they might cause threatening problems. Well, when you're living a full life, busy life, what's more annoying than something small but very irritating getting in the way? What about when you need to stop whatever you're doing, leave the meeting, dip out of the party to itch your vagina? So embarrassing, so uncomfortable. And wait, don't men do this in public all the time?
Melissa:To be clear, I have no intention of normalizing anyone touching their crotch in public, but I would love to never deal with any type of itching, especially in my vagina. Bacterial vaginosis, yeast infections, they are among the most common reasons women visit the OBGYN. One of the most common reasons women spend time and money and energy on a recurring vaginal problem. Well, Doctor. Kim Langdon, former clinical OBGYN and current founder and CEO of Coologix couldn't take it anymore.
Melissa:She and her patients dealt with these annoying infections for years, and she also had a front row seat to the decisions that unfortunately made the problem worse. Coologix has developed a fast, effective, and drug free treatment for vaginal infections, and doctor Kim is here to tell us the story. I'm so happy you're willing to talk with us, Kim, but I'm also still upset that this device that you're developing wasn't around when I was 25.
Dr. Langdon:I certainly understand, Melissa. I'm much older than you, but when I was in my twenties, I suffered immensely. And back then, there was nothing over the counter. So unfortunately, for whatever reason, I think that's why I chose the field of OB GYN was because subconsciously I wanted to find a better solution than what was out there. However, through medical school and residency and then in private practice, still nothing more came out than what was already on the market.
Dr. Langdon:In the 1990s, fluconazole came on board. That's a prescription of antifungal medicine. And unfortunately, a systemic drug for a localized topical infection is not the choice in medicine. And I'll talk about that in a little bit primarily because it contributes to the antifungal antibiotic drug resistance problem, which is a deadly global problem. But anyway, one of the reasons I went into medicine and OB GYN is because a lot of the times people are embarrassed to talk about these things.
Dr. Langdon:I certainly was embarrassed to talk about anything like this with a man, and at the time there were mostly men practicing OBGYNs. But that's changed quite a bit, and I felt like I needed to be one of those women who was there for other women because I didn't wanna talk to a man, and I figured if I didn't wanna talk to a man, that other women didn't want to talk to a man. Although back in the 1980s, even some of my, women colleagues thought it was odd that I was going into OB GYN. Yeah. They said, ah, why will women even come to you?
Dr. Langdon:Yes. I've had women ask me, why would a woman go to a woman OB GYN in the 1980s?
Melissa:Because it was assumed it was a sexual experience?
Dr. Langdon:Exactly. I said, well, that's just like assuming anybody that goes into urology has some sort of ulterior motive, right? There's mostly men in urology and they're mostly treating men. So it makes sense that gynecologists should be mostly women because they actually have the organ in question. Good point.
Dr. Langdon:Very good point. You know, as I've been on this journey, this dismissal is global. As a startup company, we're trying to raise funds. I've spent most of my own money, getting Coologix launched. But whenever you say a word like vagina to a group of men who have a lot of money, they seem not to be very interested.
Dr. Langdon:So I felt like I had a few strikes against me when I was talking to potential investors. Number one, I was a woman CEO. There's more of us now, but fifteen years ago that was less. And then of course then as a physician, we're often not viewed as very good business people. So that was my second strike.
Dr. Langdon:And then of course the disorder I was treating pertained to the vagina, which should interest men actually, because when the vagina is under the weather, The whole body. The whole body is in which means, I think vaginitis is a code word for no not tonight, honey. I have a headache. But women just don't want you know, they keep their little medicine in the drawer back when it was a cream and the man wouldn't ask any questions, just assumed this was not a good time for any so yeah, and I had another person once say to me, it was a man. He said, well, do women really know what's going on down there?
Dr. Langdon:I tried to be as polite as possible, but I turned to him and I said, well, do you know when your genitals itch? And he just kind of stuttered and goes, well, yeah, I guess so. I go, well, yeah. So women do know, women know a lot more about their bodies than men know about their bodies. Another more global way that women have been dismissed.
Dr. Langdon:When I was in medical school, breast cancer studies were done primarily in men. I didn't even know at the time that men got breast cancer, but no women were being studied. And I, you know, given the fact that the hormonal situation is completely opposite in women and men, that made absolutely no sense. But things have obviously changed since then.
Melissa:I mean, obviously, the way you tell a story and, like, thinking back, I'm I'm laughing at those situations, but they're really not funny. I'd love to jump into what you're building at Coologics and how the idea came about.
Dr. Langdon:Well, I didn't set out to solve this problem. I was actually getting ready to leave clinical practice and I was like dealing with a problem of my own, one that resurfaced in my forties. Less common to have these problems in your forties as you approach menopause, but I had an outbreak. I knew I had a yeast infection and I was unfortunately at home and had no medication. So I improvised because I knew that my patients, I would prescribe drugs for them, whether that be topical or oral, I always told them, I said, look, the drugs aren't gonna kick in for a day, two, three days maybe.
Dr. Langdon:So to get rid of the symptoms or at least relieve the symptoms, let's try some cold packs. And you could do that a variety of way, crushed ice, you know, put a damp cloth around it and just apply it externally and you'll get symptom relief. And we all know cooling has long been known to provide symptomatic relief for things like swelling and itching and burning and pain. So that's what I used to tell them. But while I was at home, I didn't have any medication and I was thinking about my own advice.
Dr. Langdon:So I thought, well, I'm going to make something that I can use internally. So cause I had a lot of things to do. I couldn't sit on the couch on an ice pack. So I fashioned my own little device, took me a while, trial and error. But I finally figured it out and I used it, not really thinking anything much about it, just thinking I was going to get rid of some symptoms.
Dr. Langdon:And then the next day I got very busy in the clinic and completely forgot about it primarily because my symptoms were gone. So I'm like, my symptoms are still gone. And then days and weeks and months went by and I still did not require any medication. So I kind of smacked myself in the forehead and said, what the heck is going on? A drug free solution that also stops the symptoms?
Dr. Langdon:This has to be, you know, investigated. So I started reading a bunch of really technical journal articles about microbiology in the yeast and how it has different morphologies. One morphology is the bud or the yeast form, which is just the dormant form of the yeast that just lives on our skin, in our mouths, intestines, vaginas, whatnot. It doesn't do anything. It just sits there, hangs out unless it's triggered by an environmental trigger.
Dr. Langdon:And then it morphs into what's called a hyphae and the hyphae dig into the tissue and elicit the immune response, which is the primary response that drives the symptoms. So I made my little homemade device and I thought, well, maybe this is my calling that maybe this is my purpose on the planet. And so within a year I closed up my shop and decided I was going to work on this full time and, finally be a full time soccer and hockey mom.
Melissa:Also very admirable. I know that many women can relate to experiencing itchy yeast or bacterial infections. I've had plenty. Can you explain to us what the infections are and the symptoms just to kinda get everybody on the same page and yeah.
Dr. Langdon:Yeah. So, unfortunately, it's there are risk factors associated with yeast infections, and they mostly have to do with the environment, such as the pH or the temperature, or estrogen or glucose levels. So as long as there's homeostasis, the yeast don't do anything, But things like sex can trigger it because sex is obviously friction, which is obviously heat. And then, of course, there's moisture.
Dr. Langdon:Can't get rid of the moisture in the vagina, but, the heat is something that will trigger it. Sex is associated with semen and semen is alkaline. So that raises the pH of your vagina, which is also a trigger. So between heat and an elevated pH, it's a wonder, a hundred percent of women haven't experienced this at least once or multiple times. But in any case, it really has nothing to do with anything except the microbiome of the vagina and then the environmental triggers.
Dr. Langdon:But it does seem that some women are more prone to these outbreaks than others. I think that might be related to the immune response. Some women are just more sensitive, they have some more sensitive skin, and they just might be reacting to almost like an allergic response because literally this type of itching and burning and pain isn't just a nuisance. This isn't like I mean, this is like a thousand mosquito bites, you know, or a bad case of poison ivy.
Melissa:. Poison ivy.
Dr. Langdon:Yeah. Explain to men. Yeah. Can you imagine poison ivy on your scrotum? They don't like to hear that. But anyway
Melissa:They don't like to hear that. Do sexual partners, whether it's like multiple or one or, you know, your compatibility with a sexual partner play a factor?
Dr. Langdon:I believe that could be a factor. I've had, women I've seen in my practice who don't have any problems when they get rid of somebody. So it may be a factor. It could be a component of what they utilize for their hygiene. You know, I often told women who have are recurrent sufferers, I said, don't let your partner put anything on his penis.
Dr. Langdon:Make sure it's just, you know, hypoallergenic soap that he rinses very well. No deodorants, no creams, no anything, because that is going to be, you know, something that could adversely affect the vagina. And in fact, a recent study out of the New England Journal of Medicine showed that for the, in the case of bacterial vaginosis, that if you treated the male partner, you could lower the recurrence rate in the woman. That's the first time that's ever been shown because it's no offense, but it's really always been blamed on the woman. But the woman gets BV, not to digress off of yeast infections, primarily because semen is alkaline, which raises the pH.
Dr. Langdon:And the reason semen's alkaline is so that the sperm don't get killed by the acidic vagina so that they can live and fertilize the egg. So there's a good reason semen's alkaline, but it unfortunately can play havoc in some women. About up to seventy percent of women will carry, yeast, which is a fungus in their vagina completely asymptomatically. It's not a sexually transmitted disease. Although if you have an outbreak, your partner might experience some symptoms, but because his genitalia is external and can dry off and be exposed to air, it's not an ongoing problem for men.
Dr. Langdon:Women on the other hand, you know, they have an internal organ called the vagina, and it is not as amenable to, you know, cooling it down or changing the pH or reducing the moisture. It's just inherent in the organ itself.
Melissa:And so, and when you are in the situation where you have one of these infections, what are the treatments? What are they currently and how effective are they?
Dr. Langdon:Yeah. So there's oral medications and then there's topical creams, and they're called antifungal drugs. They're mostly in the azole class. You'll hear miconazole, clotrimazole, fluconazole. Any azole is pretty much an antifungal drug.
Dr. Langdon:In the 1980s and 1990s, it was primarily the topicals that were used, and it wasn't until early 1990s that the topicals became over the counter because finally experts realized that women can self diagnose and self treat these conditions, and they shouldn't be limited to have to see a doctor for something, especially if they've had one of these infections in the past. They're very distinct. There's no Once you've had one of these and you get another one, you know exactly what it is. Unfortunately, a lot of the literature will support that women don't know what's going on or they can't self diagnose. I'm not of that opinion.
Dr. Langdon:I think once you've had one of these, you can self diagnose. Could it be something else? Certainly, especially if it comes back or doesn't respond to the appropriate therapy. And of course, there could be mixed infections now. We're often seeing bacterial vaginosis, otherwise known as BV, associated with yeast infections primarily because the pH triggers the yeast to morph into the infectious form.
Dr. Langdon:So, yeah, we got fluconazole then came out in the mid nineteen nineties, There was pretty much an uproar in the OBGYN community because we thought, oh, using an oral drug, which is considered a systemic drug for a localized topical infection is just gonna be a problem because there are side effects associated with these systemic drugs. They have toxicities that can affect major organs. I mean, who wants to treat a yeast infection and then go into the hospital with liver failure? I mean, sure, it's rare, but if it happens to you, it's a hundred percent. So, and there's other side effects that are not, insignificant.
Dr. Langdon:So all these drugs used to be about ninety five percent effective, but now the oral fluconazole is down to the fifty to seventy percent effectiveness. And that effectiveness is waning. The topicals can be as low as thirty to fifty percent effective, so we're having almost a fifty percent failure rate many times, and the two latest drugs that just came out, they have a fifty percent rate of side effects. One of them is a Tradagen, so it cannot even be used in the women of the reproductive age, which is the age of the women that get these. And of course these drugs are very expensive.
Dr. Langdon:So nobody's really done anything in this field for many, many years, and nobody's ever thought that maybe we don't need a drug. We could do manipulate the environment. And that's really what Coologics technology is doing. We're just manipulating the environment to go back to homeostasis. So it turned out if you lower the vaginal temperature to 86 degrees or lower, you can force the infectious form of the yeast, which is called hyphae, back into the dormant bud form, and And then so, that way, the coolness also takes care of the inflammatory response, could also break up biofilms, and could also preserve the normal microbiome and thus preserve the pH.
Dr. Langdon:So rather than a drug that only has one mechanism of action, we're actually targeting the infection via potentially four mechanisms of action, which is why we're showing almost a hundred percent effectiveness. By now, it's probably up to fifty women have used this device successfully. Eleven of those have been under trial supervision. And we also have published data from January 2025 in the Journal of Infectious Disease that published our animal and human results, and that's critical because the drugs on the market failed the animal model. So there's no published studies on these current drugs.
Dr. Langdon:And so we're very excited because we are the first to have both human and animal data published together, showing the mechanism and the relative effectiveness of it. We need to do a larger study, but so far, we have pretty good data.
Melissa:Yep. So Vlisse is the name of the product. What does it look like? How does it work? I'm trying to imagine using it.
Dr. Langdon:Yeah. So it's sorta looks like a torpedo with a little loop on the end, but it's it it can be held in the palm of your hand. It's it's bigger than a super tampon, but certainly smaller than things like a menstrual cup. Much easier to insert because you don't have to fold it up like a menstrual cup or a diaphragm.
Dr. Langdon:So it's easier to insert and remove. And then you just have to sit down for thirty minutes, while you're using it. So it's very smooth. It offers immediate symptom relief because even though it has to be put in the freezer for a couple of hours before you use it and then rinsed under tap water before you insert it, it almost offers within minutes some soothing cooling relief, and you can self regulate how much cooling you want. It's pleasant. It's not too cold. We've measured intravaginal temperatures. They're completely safe at 60 to 70 degrees. There's no risk of tissue burn or freezer burn, so to speak.
Melissa:I'm picturing like a jade roller. They're really popular. Oh. Like, for the inside of your vagina.
Melissa:Yeah. Yeah. I mean different shape, obviously.
Dr. Langdon:But Yeah. But what I've learned is the solid things don't retain don't have enough thermal capacity, meaning they can't cool the tissue down for long enough. It's very specific. You have to get the temperature down fast, and you have to keep it there for a period of time in order to revert the process from the infectious form back to the dormant form. And I think why there's been, nobody's thought of this before is because I think once the little bud goes to the hyphae, back when I was in med school and residency, we thought once it went to a hyphae, you had to kill it.
Dr. Langdon:We didn't know it could go back to the bud, right? So it wasn't until I started doing the research and I'm looking at all this research and it looks like every time they want the hyphae to go back to the bud, they just put it in the refrigerator or their version of a refrigerator at 86 degrees. But before me, nobody's ever thought to try that in the human body.
Melissa:Wow. Human body, you also mentioned animals. I know that you guys did some testing on mice. Please tell us about that, how it works. I'm imagining like micro tampons.
Dr. Langdon:Well, we had to get a little creative. My, colleagues at Louisiana State University have been wonderful, and they're helping us with our current study. But they came up with what's called, they're called little plastic coated magnets and they use them in their lab primarily to mix solution and test tubes. So they would cool them down sequentially and the mouse was asleep. Okay.
Dr. Langdon:It was alive, but asleep. And then they would insert it and they kept measuring the vaginal temperatures. And then when it, when it got warmer, they put another cool one in so they could measure actually the intervaginal temperatures of the mice, which was came back to be very similar to the human, a little bit higher. And they just repeated that for like thirty minutes on each mouse, and then they did another mouse, and, then they measured what's called hyphae scores and PMN scores. PMNs are little white blood cells that come out in the vagina to try to eradicate the fungus or the yeast, and unfortunately they're ineffective and they die and they release a bunch of chemicals and that's where you get all the symptoms.
Dr. Langdon:So the LSU people measured the Hy Vee scores and the PMN scores before treatment and then after treatment and then sequentially for a couple of days. And that's where they were able to show some statistical significance in reducing both of those. And that's what we will be studying also in the human study. So, yeah, we had little pictures of these little mice with little magnets in them.
Melissa:Cute.
Melissa:And also fascinating. You know, again, we already talked about this, but what makes me so excited and rightly passionate about talking to you is your medical background, your science background, your entrepreneurship, and you're solving a problem for what was your own body at a point in your life. What are any, like, experiences, and, like, how did those experiences lead to what's on the horizons for Coologics?
Dr. Langdon:Yes. So one of the third problems I want to address after we get this device on the market for vaginitis, both yeast and BV, are that both of these types of vaginitis, while a lot of people consider these just a nuisance, are actually linked to more serious conditions. For instance, premature births are linked to both BV and yeast infections, although yeast infections are less commonly associated with them. But if you look at the old data, it's pretty strong that if you treat BV and yeast infections, whether they're symptomatic or not, you can lower the preterm birth rate by up to sixty six percent. The other advantage, or the other thing that's associated with preterm birth is inflammation. So not only would our device offer up a treatment for both yeast and BV at the same time, it would also offer up treatment against the inflammation, because it's believed that it's this inflammatory response that weakens the cervix and the uterus and the amniotic fluid, they're called the membranes, but the membranes hold the amniotic fluid.
Dr. Langdon:So as those membranes weaken, your water might break early, and that happened to me with my first child. He was born at 31, and that was very scary, but I mean, he ended up doing very well, even though he was in the NICU for two weeks. Unfortunately, about fifty percent of babies who go to the NICU die. So it's a devastating, a devastating problem for which unfortunately we've had no preventative strategies ever. All we've had is diagnostic tests, or we've had some drugs that could stop the premature labor for a short period of time just to administer steroids to enhance lung maturity, but literally we have no effective treatment, so the key is prevention, and I've written a 16 page white paper with three fifty nine citations in support of this device as a potential strategy against preterm birth.
Dr. Langdon:Of course, we have to do the trial, we have to prove it, but, that's really my ultimate mission. If we could impact that, then I feel like my life was well done.
Melissa:That is so incredible. And exactly to your point, who cares if you can predict it, if you can't prevent it? And if it's something that thirty minutes with the Vlisse device, I'm obviously extrapolating here, can prevent a serious consequence such as preterm birth.
Dr. Langdon:Yeah. Yeah. I think the problem has been we've we've identified a bunch of risk factors associated with preterm birth, but they they're not amenable to do anything about. So you might say socioeconomic. Well, you can't do anything about that.
Dr. Langdon:You can say a bunch of things, well, people who, you know, stand on their feet might be more likely and so forth, but we have to look at the modifiable things. And we can modify the vaginal environment very simply without a drug and something that even if you have the wrong diagnosis with the form of vaginitis, doesn't matter, it treats both. And then it also treats the inflammation. And then if we also show that it restores pH and breaks up biofilms, well, then that's gonna be hugely important for preventing recurrent outbreaks, even if you aren't pregnant. So I envision this device to be used for acute treatment, for chronic treatment, and as a preventative treatment for those who just don't wanna experience this ever again, and potentially against preterm birth.
Dr. Langdon:All need study, but, we're on our way.
Melissa:I was going to ask you what motivates you to keep pushing, but I don't think I need to ask.
Dr. Langdon:I'm kind of stubborn, I guess. That's called perseverance.
Melissa:Awesome. Well, then for our closing ask, we'd love for you to shout out another leader who's innovating for the betterment of women's health. Who would you like to recognize?
Dr. Langdon:Yeah. So I just talked to a lady. She's a physician assistant out in San Diego, I believe, and her name's Annie Munoz, and she has a company called MVI or My Village Innovations. And she is, has developed and patented a new type of speculum that I think is going to revolutionize, how women, undergo pelvic exams. It's very unique.
Dr. Langdon:It's going to be more comfortable. It's gonna provide better visualization of the cervix. It's going to help women who are intimidated by pelvic exams to want to come in. It can be self inserted. So for anyone who's been a victim of trauma of any kind, then they can have control over the insertion.
Dr. Langdon:And it can also be used outside of, like, an office setting. You don't need to have that those stirrups and those the equipment that's needed for the current speculums because you can insert it any angle. So if a lady's laying in bed in the hospital or nursing home and we can't get her to an exam room, this could be done in the bed at the bedside, if she was experiencing problems. And believe me, when I was a resident, we got called for consults, and, you know, these people are debilitated. So to get them into an exam room on an exam table with their legs and stirrups
Melissa:Scoot down. Scoot down. I mean, we're talking a couple hours. And if people want to follow Coologics and and your work or get in touch, what's the best way to do so?
Dr. Langdon:Yeah. So just go to coologics.com, spelled coologics.com. We're also on Instagram and Facebook with the same name. And if you wanna reach us, you can email us at info@coologics.com.
Melissa:Thank you so much for sharing all of this history and innovation. Really excited about your invention, and I'm excited to continue to watch your company.
Dr. Langdon:Thank you. I appreciate your support.
Melissa:Thanks for listening. And I hope you're able to share this podcast and what you learned with others who care about women's health. Whenever I get frustrated about health concern or struggle, I always remind myself that I have more information than my mother did and way more than my grandmother's. These innovations are so important and we can't stop talking about them because those conversations result in progress for generations to come. I'd also really love to hear your stories.
Melissa:The stories that end in hallelujah and the bummers. If you're comfortable, you can leave a voice message by going to herhouse.com and clicking your stories. Again, that's her, the dash symbol, house.com and your stories. Everything is a 100% anonymous and always will be. I wanna hear about your period, your doctor's visits, your PCOS, pregnancy, giving birth, what happens after birth, being postpartum, raising your daughters, caring for your mothers.
Melissa:I want to hear about sexual health, mental health, weird symptoms, your immune system, and seriously, any differences that you recognize between women and men, because we are different down to the chromosomes that encode the entire maps of our bodies. People are researching these topics and we're going to find them.