Why is menopause not getting more VC funding?
Gender and age-related biases are preventing startups from receiving funding for much-needed innovations tackling menopause.
According to a recent report, solutions for women in menopause have received an estimated $445 in funding (with most of this investment going to pharma and medical device companies). This is much lower than the $2.9 billion invested in fertility solutions despite the market size being roughly equal. We’ve seen a number of discussions at this point addressing the lack of funding for menopause, including the latest one on Pitchbook. The article, titled “VCs are finally ready to talk about menopause,” discusses how investors are starting to “recognize that menopause is a massive market that’s ripe for innovation.”
Some investors have started to speak up about their interest in this space. But the truth is that menopause lags far behind when it comes to actual dollars invested in startups. Not many articles have delved deep into the reasons why there is still so little funding going to solutions tackling menopause. The Pitchbook article acknowledges that one reason may be the stigmas associated with menopause, and that’s certainly one factor. But there are also stigmas associated with erectile dysfunction, for which just TWO companies (Ro and Hims) have raised more than $370 million alone. That suggests there’s more going on when it comes to investing in solutions for a health issue that specifically affects women, and at a specific age.
Our own fundraising journey to grow Caria has given us some insights about other factors that may be hindering investment in menopause tech. We’re proud to be backed by forward-thinking investors who are equally as passionate as us about our mission of advancing women’s post-reproductive healthcare. But we also encountered many misconceptions from other investors, some of which we discuss below. Many of these misconceptions are rooted in age and gender-related biases, and they are a barrier to any startup trying to innovate in this market.
We discuss and dismantle some of these misconceptions with the hope that other much-needed solutions don’t run into the same barriers when seeking funding to help women in menopause. Menopause startups should be assessed on the same factors that are used to assess startups in every other industry, such as the team, merit of the idea, and traction. Misconceptions, like the ones below, that are based in biases not backed by data should not be the reason viable solutions fail to get funding.
Note: All are real quotes we heard during our investor conversations during 2019–2020
Misconception #1: “We’re concerned about the market size — we don’t think it’s big enough.” — female VC at a seed-stage fund
Multiple founders in the menopause space have spoken up about running into this issue, so at least we know we’re not alone! This misconception was especially surprising to hear from an investor at a fund that had backed women’s health solutions in other areas. Let’s look at some reasons why menopause is not a small market (or at least not any more “niche” than fertility/pregnancy or ED):
- Menopause directly affects, or will affect, half the population of the planet. According to FemAging, 1.1 billion women in the world will be in menopause by 2025. In the US, this number is more than 50 million (by comparison, 30 million men in the US are affected by ED)
- There are almost 9 times as many women in the US in menopause as there are in pregnancy (while fertility & motherhood solutions have raised $2.9Bn in funding). Additionally, fertility rate is continuing a five-year downward trend, whereas menopause is growing with 6,000 women entering this phase in the US every day.
- Women in menopause have higher spending power than other groups in the US
Misconception #2: “Women in menopause are hard to acquire. They’re not online and they don’t use tech.” — male angel investor
We need to unpack this misconception in more ways than one. First, the majority of women currently experiencing menopause are between the ages 40–65 (Gen X), and they are extremely digital:
- More than 73% of women in menopause already use mobile applications
- 93% of women in menopause are demanding tech-enabled solutions to manage their health, such as apps
- According to a Nielsen study, Gen X spend more time on social media than millennials
- Average Apple Watch user is 41 years old
Second, women can experience menopause at earlier ages, due to premature or induced menopause, so it’s possible that even millennials (who no one would say aren’t “digital”) can benefit from menopause tech.
Misconception #3: “This doesn’t sound like a serious enough problem.” — male angel investor
The pain bias in healthcare has been well documented at this point. When it comes to pain, men and women are treated differently in the healthcare system. Women’s health concerns are often dismissed or not considered “serious” even when they are, which can have deadly consequences. The pain bias is also true for menopause, and it exists even outside the healthcare system. But here’s why the lack of solutions for menopause is a serious problem:
- 84% of women say symptoms of menopause affects their daily life
- ⅓ of women say their symptoms impact their work and career — doctors warn that untreated symptoms can cause women to drop out of the labor force at the peak of their careers
- Menopause can seriously impact women’s mental health — 20% have depression at some point during menopause
- According to this study, untreated vasomotor symptoms (just 1 subset of menopausal symptoms) cost nearly $370M in direct and indirect costs for 250,000 women sampled in the study over a 12-month period (that’s approximately $45bn/year when multiplied by all women in menopause in the US workforce)
Misconception #4: “I’m seeing a lot of pitches from menopause startups but it’s not that big of a problem. I didn’t have a difficult menopause. It’s only a few women complaining.” — female VC at seed stage fund
Disheartening to hear, but when it comes to some health issues like menopause, pain bias can even be found amongst women. This goes to show just how little awareness there is about menopause amongst all genders. It’s true that some women experience little to no symptoms of menopause. It’s also true that some women have access to the right providers and support which means their healthcare journeys are less challenging. But they are a lucky minority. Data shows that’s not the case for the majority:
- 85% of women experience symptoms of menopause
- 84% of them say it impacts their daily life
- Only 8% receive treatment
- According to statistics from the UK, almost 60% of women spend over a year going to doctors with their symptoms before they’re informed they’re in menopause and given their care options (15% spend over 4 years)
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There’s a chance that these misconceptions will continue to be held despite data proving the contrary. After all, deeply ingrained age- and gender-related biases are hard to dismantle, even when presented with the facts (as we’ve discovered). We hope that if enough people — founders, investors, media, customers — correct the misconceptions with data, things will begin to change.
That said, there is definitely one reason that investors can no longer cite for not investing in this space: “There just isn’t enough innovation or companies to fund.”
It’s thrilling to see the wide range of solutions that are now tackling this problem. There’s a startup for nearly every type of investor and fund. From marketplaces to CPGs, from medical devices to digital health, innovators are stepping up to the plate and having an impact on a long-underserved issue. It’s time for more investors to do the same.
