The FemTech Revolution
Unlocking Opportunities in Women's Healthcare
Women make up 50% of the world's population and hold an 80% sway in shaping consumer purchasing decisions within the healthcare domain.
Women's health encompasses reproductive aspects like contraception, fertility, and maternal well-being, along with gynecological concerns such as infections, menopause, and oncology.
General health conditions affecting women can differ due to biological disparities, like cardiovascular disease, autoimmune conditions, migraines, osteoporosis, and gender-related variations in care for pain and mental health. Women's health also includes conditions lacking precise gender distinctions or adequate research, such as Alzheimer's disease. Increasingly, experts acknowledge that diseases impact women distinctively, leading to variations in treatments and therapies.
The Opportunities
The existing worldwide innovation pipeline exposes disparities between healthcare investments and healthcare requirements. This discrepancy underscores noteworthy openings to enhance women's health, particularly within female-specific conditions.
It is anticipated that the global market for women's health will expand to reach $1.19 trillion by 2027.
Menopause is a largely untapped market with 1 billion women experiencing it.
An analysis by McKinsey on numerous FemTech firms revealed a focus on aiding maternal health, providing consumer menstrual products, developing gynecological devices, and fertility solutions. Funding for these ventures reached $2.5 billion by December 2021. FemTech companies are stepping in to address areas not yet covered by established biopharmaceutical and device companies, particularly in maternal health. However, this is just the initial phase of what FemTech has the potential to tackle, with substantial opportunities remaining.
FemTech companies are poised to disrupt healthcare through various means, including enhanced care delivery through virtual and innovative clinics like Tia and Kindbody, direct-to-consumer prescription services like The Pill Club (acquired by Thirty Madison), and enabling self-care with trackers and diagnostics from Bloomlife and Clue. They are also advancing diagnostics for conditions like endometriosis and preterm birth, while addressing stigmatized topics like menstrual health, sexual health, pelvic care, and menopause. Moreover, FemTech is focusing on culturally sensitive care for subpopulations such as Black women, LGBTQ+ communities, and women in low- and middle-income countries.
In this article I highlight The 18 Most Promising Fertility Startups To Watch.
In conclusion, the realm of women's health surpasses the boundaries of a niche market, encompassing a comprehensive spectrum far beyond maternal and reproductive aspects. This expansive domain holds the potential for substantial value generation and the enhancement of women's well-being, triggering a ripple effect of positive outcomes throughout society.
Evidently, transformative shifts are already beginning to take shape. As the spotlight on women's healthcare intensifies, FemTech is stepping up to the plate, aligning resources and expertise with unaddressed demands. The rapid strides made by FemTech thus far are remarkable, foreshadowing the possibility of even more profound disruptions on the horizon.
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+ Women’s Healthcare is good,
Martin
P.S. I used some of the following sources to obtain the data for this article:
(1) McKinsey (2) Pitchbook (3) Crunchbase