Alice Cullinane

BBC News, West Midlands

A small tampon-shaped device aims to improve the delivery of the hormone progesterone

A new product being trialled to improve the absorption of the hormone progesterone in threatened miscarriages could "transform" women's experiences, experts say.

Named Callavid, the small tampon-shaped device aims to replace the use of vaginal pessaries.

Doses of progesterone, which help prepare the womb for the growing baby, are recommended for women who have suffered at least one miscarriage and suffer early bleeding in subsequent pregnancies.

The current delivery method can leak and cost the NHS up to £236m per year, health economists say.

University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust is leading the trial and said more than 150,000 women in the UK could be eligible for prescriptions of progesterone.

The device, created by Calla Lily Clinical Care, can move to in-person trials after it received £1m in funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

Co-founder of Calla Lily Clinical Care Lara Zibners said the funding would bring them "one step closer to making this product available to help women at one of the most distressing moments of their lives".

Professor Siobhan Quenby, who specialises in obstetrics and reproductive health at UHCW, said methods to "reduce additional psychological anxiety" were badly needed.

"Through this innovation, one which is being pioneered right here in the UK, I believe there is potential to transform women's experience."