Addressing Gender Equity through Technology Enabled Healthcare
Femtech and women+ health space refers to software, diagnostics, products and services, that use technology to support women’s health. The term and category were coined to address the systemic disparity and exclusion of women’s healthcare needs from the healthcare industry to create targeted solutions. The lack of research and stigmas around women’s health have a new generation of entrepreneurs, investors and executives educating stakeholders about what women health encompasses way beyond just fertility. Innovations in femtech include the following categories: Menstruation & Period Care Products, Fertility & Birth Control, Menopause, Chronic Conditions & Hormonal Disorders, Pelvic Health, Pregnancy & Post Pregnancy, Breast Feeding, Sexual Wellness and General Healthcare.
Women make about 80% health care decisions in their families, and as such there has been a spike in start-ups, fund flows and investor interest towards areas that can benefit from a woman-centered approach.
Currently valued at ˜$22B, the Femtech market is expected to grow at 15% CAGR and reach ˜$75B by 2025. Fertility and Pregnancy make the vast majority of that market. According to FemTech Analytics, Pregnancy and Nursing is the largest aggregated subsector within the femtech industry amounting to 25.5% of the market, followed by Reproductive Health which makes up 24.8% of the market.
Main trends fostering growth include:
- Regulatory: Since 2016, regulatory agencies have increasingly supported digital applications for women’s health facilitating reimbursements. For instance, Natural Cycles, a hormone-free birth control application, received CE approval as a Class-Two medical device to be marketed in Europe in 2017, and the FDA approved Ava, a fertility tracking wearable, as a Class-One medical device in 2016. COVID19 waivers increased access to remote healthcare allowing female remote healthcare space to broaden rapidly.
- Demographic: Women are more likely to choose having a baby at a later age which contributes to higher difficulties in conceiving and more need of fertility treatments. Mean age of mothers for first birth in 2019 was at 27 years-old[1].
- Market driven: Working-age women spend 29% more per capita on healthcare compared to men and are 75% more likely to use digital tools for healthcare than men. Despite being a $500B category only 4% of healthcare investment goes into R&D for women related health. [2]
- Investment driven: Growing interest of VCs and Angel investors. Prior miss representation of women in VC funds made men account for 90% of the investment decisions. Increased diversity in the Investment space has fostered increase investing in female centered health innovations that reached ~$16B in 2021.
- Social/Behavioral: female health issues are becoming less stigmatized and it is more viable to discuss topics related to periods, female sexual healthcare, and menopause. The ability to access through remote telehealth improves women’s accessibility and barriers at different stages in life.
There are 1300+ companies in the femtech space and 21% of those are addressing the Pregnancy and Nursing sector. The adoption of new technologies and business models is continuing to increase accessibility and affordability for treatments. Lack of investment and R&D funding remain the largest barriers due to lack of sizeable exits.
The female population is roughly 50% of the world’s population. Distribution of Femtech companies is 55% in the US, 25% in Europe and 8% in Asia, which means that other regions of the world like South America and Africa are still an underserved and massive addressable market. Funding innovation that increases accessibility and affordability of fertility treatments could open up opportunities to be first-entrants into lower income markets. Countries like India, Israel and Nicaragua have seen accelerated adoption of telehealth services and fertility services. Focus should be on platforms and apps that provide increased accessibility on the one hand and on those developing affordable health solutions for fertility treatment.
2021 has been a landmark year for the femtech industry with global VC Investment crossing the USD 1B mark for the first time. However, for this particular strategy larger funding could help accelerate existing platforms like Maven that are increasing virtual accessibility to services and treatment and also fund companies doing research to decrease the costs of fertility treatments.
The de-stigmatization of women’s health will run a similar course to that of mental health conditions. Yet a lot of investment and efforts will be required to make up for years of gap in medical research and R&D in an industry that has for too long assumed women are men with female reproductive organs.
Sources
- FemTech Analytics- FemTech Industry Landscape Overview Q4 2021
- PitchBook- Femtech Expected to Break New Grounds
- PitchBook- The rise of femtech in VC
- New York Healthcare Innovation Report 2022
- MedTech News- Are regulations keeping pace with femtech?
- Research and Markets- Global Infertility Treatment Markets Research Report 2021
- Changing The Landscape Of Women’s Health: Founders And CEOs Sound Off
[1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr70/nvsr70-02-508.pdf
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