From Symptoms to Solutions: A Purpose-Driven Path to Innovation
- Jun 30
- 3 min read
By Celine Vignal
Seesaw Health didn’t begin with a business plan or investor pitch. It started with me, alone in a dark room, curled up in pain during yet another migraine. I had exhausted every option—from prescriptions with side effects to restrictive diets, from traditional specialists to wellness influencers. Nothing worked for long. I felt like a broken system had written me off. And then came the question that changed everything: What if I could see what was happening inside my body before everything crashed?
That was the moment the vision was born: to create a tool that could give women real-time insight into their nervous system and help them intervene before inflammation, stress, or hormonal chaos took over. A system that wasn't just reactive, but empowering. I had no roadmap, just lived experience, relentless curiosity, and a stubborn belief that we deserved better.
The first step was deep research. I dove into neuroscience, autonomic regulation, and the physiology of chronic stress. That’s when I discovered 0.1Hz breathing: a specific slow breathing technique shown in studies to stimulate the vagus nerve, lower inflammation, and improve heart rate variability. I practiced it daily, tracked my symptoms, and noticed tangible shifts. But I wanted more than subjective feelings, I wanted data. That meant I needed to build something that didn’t exist.
So I started prototyping. I worked with engineers, biosensor experts, and female MDs to help me develop what would become the Egg: a patented handheld biosensor designed to detect real-time shifts in stress and vagal tone. The Egg connects to a companion app that guides users through evidence-based breathwork, but with a twist—we made the sessions feel like games (you play only with your breath!). Because healing shouldn’t feel like homework.
Why games? Because behavioral science shows that play increases engagement, emotional safety, and long-term retention. We knew the power of 0.1Hz breathing for nervous system regulation, but we also knew that unless women actually used it, consistently and with pleasure, it wouldn’t work. So we built a system that rewards practice, teaches rhythm through interaction, and adapts to each user’s baseline.
But Seesaw Health is more than just tech. It’s a movement. I began sharing my story online, and what came back was overwhelming: messages from women with fibromyalgia, endometriosis, PCOS, long COVID, anxiety, ADHD, all the "spoonies" who had spent years suffering in silence. I wasn’t alone. The deeper I went, the more I saw how under-researched and under-supported women’s inflammatory and hormonal conditions truly are.
So I expanded the vision. I brought on female MDs and researchers who understood what I was trying to do and helped refine the protocols. We focused on personalization, on the power of showing women that they’re not "too sensitive" or imagining things. Their nervous system is talking and we needed to build the translator.
Our journey hasn’t been linear. There were moments where migraines flared up during investor meetings, or when product prototypes failed to read a clean signal. But each obstacle reminded me why this matters. We weren’t just building a product; we were validating a reality that had been dismissed for decades.
Today, Seesaw Health is in the hands of early adopters who are already reporting reduced symptoms, more awareness, and a deeper sense of control over their health. We’ve taken an idea born in a moment of isolation and turned it into a platform that brings clarity, connection, and resilience to women everywhere.
From vision to venture, this journey has been about turning pain into purpose—and purpose into impact. And we’re just getting started.
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