From A Lifetime of Advocacy: Dr. Margo Harrison’s Fight for Women’s Autonomy with WaveBye
Written by Ananya Bhalla, Editorial And Content Lead at Ignite
Dr. Margo Harrison’s journey into women’s health began long before medical school or entrepreneurship.
When she was in her mid-teens, Harrison spent a summer with a host family in a low-income country. Most of that time was beside the wife of the family’s eldest son, a college-educated woman still confined to spending her days fetching water. After many visits to the village well, they became close friends.
One early morning before the flight home, that woman looked over at her. “You get to go home to opportunities I will never have.” She’d said it with the kind of acceptance that broke Harrison’s heart. “Why is it that I must stay here, while you leave for better things?”
“That moment was profound and deeply upsetting,” Harrison says. “It set me on a track. I became invested in women’s liberty and opportunity, and in figuring out how to use my own privilege and access to empower other women—especially by helping them understand their sexual and reproductive health so they could have more options in life.”
That sense of purpose guided her through years of medical training, a public health degree, and her career as an obstetrician-gynecologist. But clinical care alone couldn’t reach enough people.
“Thinking back to that woman, her situation was dictated by the fact that she had a uterus. I can’t change the broader social structures, but I can help people feel in charge of their sexual and reproductive health and use those parts of themselves on their own terms.
Even if people are living in circumstances beyond their control, they deserve products that can help them take control of their own health.”
Her training at Johns Hopkins, with its motto “changing lives millions at a time,” reinforced the idea that her work needed a wider reach. Research, partnerships, and entrepreneurship became the next step, culminating in the launch of WaveBye—a company dedicated to improving menstrual health and empowering people through better understanding of their cycles.
Building Impact, One Cycle at a Time
For Harrison, WaveBye isn’t just a product line—it’s a bridge. “There’s this huge gap between ‘doing nothing’ and ‘seeing a doctor,’ and most people navigate that space alone until things get worse. I want WaveBye to fill that gap with evidence-based, accessible tools that empower people to understand and improve their cycle health early, not just when they’re in pain.”
The company already has direct-to-consumer products on the market, but its larger ambitions center on bringing a flagship product through FDA approval to ensure affordability and accessibility within the healthcare system. The early outcomes are already changing lives. Harrison recalls a fellow OB/GYN who hadn’t ovulated in five months and was preparing to resume hormonal birth control. “She told me, ‘Before I go back on hormones, I want to try your product. If I can avoid hormones, I want to.’ After two months, she ovulated. That means we’ve supported her metabolic, cardiovascular, and bone health. Restoring her cycle exactly the way we hoped.”
Another early user, who had been missing one to two days each month from work and life because of her period, followed the WaveBye protocol and committed to a full year’s worth of product. Six months later, she told Harrison, “My period just keeps getting better every month.”
For Harrison, those stories reflect WaveBye’s deeper purpose: helping people reclaim their time, their health, and their autonomy.
Scaling with the Right Partners
Harrison knows scaling that impact requires more than a good product. “To get the product I’ve been envisioning into the world at scale, we need FDA approval—not just for access, but for education, clarity, and affordability. And once we have that, we need insurers and employer health plans to see the value: this is a low-cost product that gives women back their time, reduces presenteeism and absenteeism, and helps them stay engaged at work, with their families, and in their communities.”
She credits Ignite with helping her navigate the process. “Ignite has been incredible. They’ve connected me with mentors, surfaced blind spots I didn’t even know I had, and opened doors into healthcare systems I couldn’t approach alone. Even judges from the Golden Ticket competition have continued mentoring me—on intellectual property, legal strategy, and more. That kind of support is rare, and exactly what founders at this stage need.”
The Bigger Vision
For Harrison, WaveBye is only the beginning. “Our core mission is to improve the period experience, but the broader goal is autonomy. Optimizing cycle health helps people live free from chronic pain, helps those with PCOS ovulate, supports those navigating perimenopause and menopause. And as people learn about their cycles, they’re also learning about their metabolic health, fertility, and long-term wellness. It all ladders up to freedom—the freedom to know your body and make choices for it.”
Harrison often considers what she would say to the woman she met at fifteen-years-old, the one whose words set her on this path. “Honestly? I think I’d just say I’m sorry. It wasn’t fair. We could have so easily switched places. I just hope I can get back to communities like that and do everything I can for women who have no other options—except maybe to choose how they use their bodies. For her, I just wish things had been different.”
