FemTech is gaining momentum thanks to some incredible women who noticed huge gaps in the market. Many now use emerging technologies to create innovative FemTech solutions to advance women’s health.
This blog post will discuss 3 unique and innovative FemTech solutions advancing women’s health in 2024 and beyond.
Sadly, women’s health is still classed as a “niche” subject despite relating to more than 50% of the population.
The women behind the technologies discussed in this blog also talk about the gap in funding for FemTech solutions, as well as being underrepresented and the ever-present need to justify their place in a traditionally masculine world.
Blog Contents:
What is FemTech?
How Are FemTech Solutions Advancing Women's Health?
3 Unique and Innovative FemTech Solutions Advancing Women's Health
SheHer App
WoW: Women of Wearables
Matricis.ai
The Challenges Facing The FemTech Industry
The Future of FemTech Solutions Advancing Women's Health
What is FemTech?
FemTech stands for Female Technology, specifically related to women’s health solutions, including wearable devices, apps, online communities and diagnostic tools.
In 2016, Ida Tin, co-founder of period tracking app, Clue, coined the term FemTech.
Naturally, female technology products and services started with menstruation, often seen as the starting point for all things related to women’s health and health changes.
However, menstruation and reproductive health are not the whole story, and thanks to FemTech entrepreneurs we are now seeing advancements in all aspects of women’s health such as menopause, PCOS, endometriosis, sexual health etc
How Are FemTech Solutions Advancing Women’s Health?
Innovative FemTech solutions are helping to raise awareness of all aspects of women’s health, not just reproductive health.
Menopause is a big topic right now within FemTech, for too long menopause has been a taboo subject, but thankfully emerging apps such as SheHer are creating space for women to discuss their concerns.
FemTech also highlights the importance of differentiating women’s health issues from men’s because men and women are biologically different.
Women need specific tools related to their healthcare, and many FemTech solutions advancing women's health, are made by women for women.
It’s shocking to think that women were not included in clinical trials until 1993, which means huge amounts of research are still based on men’s responses, as well as the medication that is prescribed.
In fact, between 1997 and 2000, 80% of the drugs that were removed from the market in the US were due to adverse side effects almost exclusively in women.
So Let’s Discuss 3 Unique and Innovative FemTech Solutions Advancing Women’s Health
1. SheHer App
SheHer app is the brainchild of co-founders Mariatheresa Samson Kadushi & Shamala Hinrichsen. Incredibly, 5 different women from 5 different countries built the SheHer app.
This app is unique because it showcases the lived experiences of women and their real-life stories that inspire and motivate other women.
Within the app, they share reliable health information to educate women, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds who don’t necessarily have access to healthcare, making the info as accessible as possible.
Most apps focus on fertility, but SheHer is different in that many other topics related to women’s health are discussed, such as menopause, sexuality and sexual enjoyment.
Perhaps most importantly, the SheHer app is a community of women who feel less alone or isolated knowing that other women around the world are experiencing the same feelings or encountering the same symptoms.
In the Narratives of Purpose podcast episode, Shamala gave an excellent example of why location-specific and individualised approaches to women’s health must be adopted:
“Don’t tell a woman in the Borneo jungle that her baby is the size of an avocado when she’s never seen an avocado”
This is exactly what Shamala and Mariatheresa aim to achieve with the SheHer app, bring a community of women together to share their lived experiences.
2. WoW: Women of Wearables
Women of Wearables is a global organisation that brings together and supports female innovators in wearable tech and health tech.
WoW was founded by Marija Butkovic in 2016 to educate their community on the latest innovations in the tech space, support female founders with scaling their businesses and create opportunities for investment and mentoring.
They have two types of membership programmes, business and individual, both provide access to the full community, webinars, promotions and much more.
It has been proven that community is a key element of success for any start-up or entrepreneur. Women of Wearables provides the opportunity to network and be part of a wider advancement in FemTech solutions and women’s healthcare.
Marija explains more about WoW in episode 71 of the Narratives of Purpose podcast.
3. Matricis.ai: Utilising AI To Improve Women's Health
Founded by Elise Mekkaoui and Raphaelle Taub, Matricis.ai aims to utilise medical-grade AI to improve women’s health and cut down on diagnosis times, reduce errors during diagnosis and act as a companion tool to radiologists.
The first solution they are developing is a companion tool for radiologists to assist in diagnosing endometriosis.
Endometriosis affects 10% of women but has on average 7 years of medical errancy during the diagnosis process, during which 75% of cases are often misdiagnosed and also counts for 30% of infertility cases.
This innovative FemTech solution will allow physicians to correctly and more accurately diagnose endometriosis and other female-related health conditions. The AI technology will reduce the time it takes radiologists to read and assess the images produced by MRI scans or ultrasounds.
If you’d like to know more about how AI is bridging the gender health gap, you can listen to episode 70 of the women’s health series.
What Are The Challenges in the FemTech Industry?
A theme reiterated by each of these female founders is the lack of investment in FemTech solutions advancing women's health. Only 2% of funding goes to women-only founded teams, which increases to 5-10% when it’s a woman with a male supporter/founder.
The majority of founders in the FemTech space are men who sadly don’t understand women’s health concerns and still don’t see the business potential, despite women making up more than 50% of the population.
Since most funding comes from men, women have to face a different style of questioning when pitching to male investors.
Elise Mekkaoui in episode 70 of the Narratives of Purpose podcast talks about her experiences regarding targeted questioning. She remembers being asked if she would make a good manager or how she is an entrepreneur due to her young age. However, men of the same age in the same space with fewer qualifications don’t get asked the same questions.
This sentiment is echoed by Shamala and Mariatheresa in episode 75 while discussing the SheHer app and feeling the need to justify their presence.
One of their goals is to use the data they collect from their app to drive policy changes.
For example, 70% of women suffer from chronic pain or some level of pain, yet 80% of financing in research towards pain goes to men.
Even though women now participate in clinical trials and research programmes, an imbalance still exists as to how the funds are distributed and allocated, something that needs to change in 2025 and beyond.
The Future of FemTech Solutions Advancing Women’s Health
There are many hurdles still to overcome in this ever-expanding sector including proper funding and taking women’s healthcare seriously, not as a niche subject.
However, the majority of companies and founders in the FemTech industry are female-led, which provides great hope for the sector to secure more funding from other female investors.
Organisations such as Women Moving Millions advocate for women-owned businesses and they have committed more than 1 billion dollars to improve the lives of women and girls.
As more and more women move into this emerging space, the future looks brighter for women-to-women funding.
Like any emerging technology, things will continue to advance and grow which is hugely exciting.
We can surely expect to see many more unique and innovative FemTech solutions advancing women’s health in the coming years.