Let Femtech Soar!

by Meenal Gakhar ‘22

Female technology space catering to women’s health and wellness (more commonly known as “Femtech”) has had a banner several years and a breakout 2021, with global venture capital investment surpassing $1 billion for the first time[1]. As a subcategory of health technology, this industry vertical attempts to highlight the historical and systemic exclusion of women’s health needs in the healthcare industry while creating targeted solutions for a range of those needs.

However, despite the fact that women control 80% of healthcare decisions in the world and spend 29% more per capita on healthcare compared to men, only 3% of the 2,728 US digital health deals since 2011 have focused on women’s’ health[2]. For those that have focused on women’s health, a majority are companies supporting solutions addressing fertility, pregnancy, and motherhood. We shouldn’t have to say it, but here it goes- women are so much more than their reproductive organs. The shortsightedness of only building around this (important) need means companies miss the greater opportunity to enhance the totality of women’s healthcare experience. While we’ve cheered advancement in the Femtech sector, we’re just at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to transforming the health of all women.

The reason for why we are still at the tip of the iceberg is historical. Because so much data has historically failed to take into account gender, because it treats men as the default and women as atypical, bias and discrimination are baked into our systems. And women pay tremendous costs for this bias, in time, money, and often with their lives, leaving them chronically misunderstood, mistreated and misdiagnosed. This male default bias goes back at least to the ancient Greeks who kicked off the trend on seeing the female body as the “mutilated male body”. The female was the male turned outside-in. Thanks, Aristotle!

For this reason of historical biases, it is equally important for Femtech to be far-reaching than just female reproductive health. It is for clinicians and medical technology companies to look critically within their industries to account for the biological differences in women's bodies that affect the presentation and management of medical conditions. Whether it's diabetes, coronary heart disorders or any other condition, we need to -- as part of the femtech wave -- think about the ways to retroactively make up for the lack of data, design, and clinical practices around women's bodies in conditions that are gender agnostic.

With a need for more and better health technologies targeting biological and medical issues specific to women, the industry is primed for continued growth. The following is a non-exhaustive list of possible whitespace and opportunity areas that exist for Femtech industry to boom further-

Support to women as caregivers

As 37% of caregiving women are part of the “sandwich generation,” providing care to both aging parents and children living at home, there is a unique opportunity for Femtech companies to support women through the challenges surrounding both child and elder caregiving.  Cleo, a parenting benefits company, partnered with UrbanSitter to help connect families with vetted babysitters[3], while Maven bought Bright Parenting, a parent-child relationship app that will be embedded into Maven’s upcoming pediatrics and parenting program[4]. Cariloop has reached more than 300,000 families with their Caregiver Support Platform, saving families an average of 100 hours of care coordination, research and navigation for each loved one they support[5]. This space is ripe for so much innovation!

Holistic care for queer and transgender communities

Only 48% of Gen Zs identify as exclusively heterosexual (compared to 65% of Millennials)[6]. Given the poor health outcomes associated with lack of culturally competent care, there is meaningful opportunity for digital health and Femtech companies to meet the comprehensive healthcare needs of queer and trans communities. It is heartening to see a new crop of startups such as Plume, that is more narrowly targeted at transgender-specific care, or Folx that offers services for the broader LGBTQ community[7]. Others such as Queerly Health, Violet, and Woven Bodies are working to holistically support the healthcare of these vulnerable populations.

Ageing women support through conditions such as Alzheimers, Menopause, Osteoporosis

By 2025, 1.1 billion women are expected to be postmenopausal. There is an unmet need for more solutions like Joylux, that offers a platform of life-changing solutions with high-tech devices, digital tools and products that address menopausal-related health concerns[8] or Bone Health, which is an innovative company on a mission to improve conditions of women with osteoporosis, that has recently closed its $2.5 million funding round[9], or even Retispec, that develops a tool for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers in the eye[10].

Virtual care for clinical decision support

Many digital health solutions offer connected wearables and devices to monitor women during pregnancy (e.g., contraction trackers, vital sign monitors). For instance, Allara Health is a virtual care platform for women who suffer from polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS[11]. Oula, a remote maternity care platform, aims to deliver the best of obstetrics and midwifery to patients[12]. Digital care can also be instrumental in providing remote support for highly stigmatized conditions such as pelvic floor disorders, fibroids/ endometriosis, overactive bladder and the rest. There is so much progress that still needs to be made in the virtual care space for whole-person health!

Bottom line—we don’t need gendered shampoos and we don’t need Apple’s health app that launched without the option to track menstrual cycles. When women, people of color and nonbinary people are left out of the design and development process, we are left with products built by cisgender men and we are sent home in the middle of a heart attack. However, when historically oppressed communities build products, we get hands-free breast pumps, posture support systems that empower wheelchair users, apps that scan cosmetics and hygiene products to determine precisely what they’re made of, biotech companies that improve symptoms of endometriosis, and so much more.

Investing in women means that we’re investing in the entirety of the population, not just a fraction of it. Shifting to a future of inclusive, more comprehensive health care is more possible than ever—and I can’t wait.

About the Author

Meenal Gakhar is a 2nd year MBA student at Northwestern Kellogg School of Management. She is a femtech and mental health enthusiast, social-impact minded and passionate about democratizing access to and from funds for a more equal tomorrow. She has experience as an investor, technology program manager, as well as a strategy consultant. In her free time she likes to read and travel.

 

References

[1] https://pitchbook.com/blog/what-is-femtech

[2] https://rockhealth.com/femtech-is-expansive-its-time-to-start-treating-it-as-such/

[3] https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/14/parenting-benefits-company-cleo-partners-with-urbansitter-to-address-the-u-s-childcare-crisis/

[4] https://www.mavenclinic.com/post/maven-acquires-bright-parenting-give-parents-support-pediatrics-program-app#:~:text=In%20addition%20to%20the%20hundreds,past%20the%20first%20year%20postpartum.

[5] https://www.cariloop.com/how-this-startup-aims-to-help-50-million-caregivers-in-america

[6] https://www.out.com/news-opinion/2016/3/11/less-50-teens-identify-straight-says-new-study

[7] https://money.yahoo.com/transgender-health-startups-having-moment-103043045.html

[8] https://joylux.com/pages/about-us

[9] https://www.forbes.com/sites/marijabutkovic/2021/05/17/this-medtech-company-invented-a-solution-to-treat-bone-health-conditions-affecting-54-million-americans-and-costing-the-healthcare-system-19-billion-annually/?sh=584ee4ad17d5

[10] https://alzheimersnewstoday.com/2020/10/21/retispec-gentex-developing-technology-detect-early-alzheimers/?preview_id=36664

[11] https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/former-ro-executive-launches-allara-health-targeted-to-women-s-hormonal-health#:~:text=Allara%20is%20an%20all%2Din,polycystic%20ovary%20syndrome%20(PCOS).

[12] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210517005092/en/Oula%E2%80%99s-Virtual-Care-Platform-Keeps-Maternity-Patients-Connected-Between-Appointments