How we decide what to build.
Relief makes drug-free tools for period pain. It's a crowded category full of vague claims, so here's the thinking behind what we make, and where we draw the line.
Period pain deserves better than a pill or a prayer.
NSAIDs work, and they're first-line for a reason. But they fail for about a fifth of people, and leaning on them every single cycle can wear on your stomach. The drug-free alternatives are real and well-studied, and yet the market for them is mostly the same cheap heating belt sold under forty different names: a hot spot in the middle, a battery that dies in an hour, no idea what temperature it's even running at.
We started Relief to close that gap: take the methods that already hold up in trials and build them at the temperature and frequency the studies actually used.
Every product page says what it can't do.
Our tools ease everyday period pain. They are wellness devices. They don't diagnose, treat, or cure anything, and they don't replace a doctor. A belt won't fix endometriosis, and a patch is no substitute for care you actually need. If your pain is severe, new, or just different from your normal, see a doctor.
Two numbers decide whether any of this works.
Get them wrong and you have something that feels like it should help. We build to them, and we print them on the box.
Heat at 40–48°C
Continuous low-level heat at around 40°C significantly reduced period pain in the trials that started the category. Hotter isn't better here. Past about 48°C the only thing you gain is a burn risk, so that's where Relief · Warmth stops.
Akin et al. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 2001 & 2004
TENS at 80–100Hz
High-frequency TENS beat placebo in the Cochrane review with an odds ratio of 7.2. The low-frequency setting, the one many cheap devices quietly default to, did no better than nothing. When Pulse arrives it will run high, and the box will say so.
Proctor et al. Cochrane, 2002 / 2009
Some of the best things for period pain aren't products.
A network meta-analysis of 29 trials found that gentle movement (walking, stretching, yoga) meaningfully reduces period pain within a few weeks. NSAIDs remain a sensible first-line option for a lot of people. We sell neither of those. If you only try one thing this cycle, try the walking.
BMC Sports Science, Medicine & Rehabilitation, 2024
What we ask before anything earns a place in the range
Does the evidence hold up?
We rank methods by how strong the trials are. Heat and high-frequency TENS clear the bar. A good story on its own doesn't.
Are we building the dose that worked?
Gesturing at "heat" or "TENS" is easy. If the trial used 40°C or 80–100Hz, that's what we build to.
Would we hand it to someone we love?
Heat across the whole lower belly. A battery that outlasts the pain. Running costs stated up front. If we'd wince handing it to a sister, it isn't ready.
Do we know who it's wrong for?
Some people shouldn't use heat or TENS at all. If we can't name that group precisely, the product isn't finished.
Where that leaves us.
Relief is a small family of drug-free tools: a warming belt, stick-on heat patches, and a TENS device still in the works. All built to the temperatures and frequencies the research used, with the safety notes in plain sight.
None of it is a cure or a replacement for a doctor, and none of it will fix an underlying condition. It's comfort you can actually wear on the days it hurts.