Healthcare technological advancements have taken revolutionary steps throughout recent years, making medicine and healthcare information more accessible to patients. Femtech, short for female technology, is one of the many flourishing arms of modern medicine, and its main mission is to balance out gender disparities and biases, as well as eliminate stigma.
The ever-growing demand for personalized female healthcare treatments and procedures propelled the female-centric medical technology market to evolve and push boundaries to bring distinct and specific care for women’s health and wellness. In short, femtech encompasses a broad range of services and products that use technology to improve women’s health, including digital health services. Femtech products and services cover everything from medical treatments to wearable devices, female hygiene items, informative apps, and more.
Femtech has rapidly become a catchy, yet relevant topic in the healthcare business for accurately tackling not just physical, but mental aspects of women’s health issues that, to this day, are still surrounded by stigma and misinformation. Femtech startups are also turning the heads of investors and leaders, as this technology is being considered very profitable and forward-thinking.
The Rise of Femtech
Despite its increasing popularity, femtech remains a significantly underdeveloped area of health tech, even though women spend billions of dollars annually for treatment and medical expenses. According to a report by Pitchbook, the global femtech market generated $820.6 million in 2019, and could potentially reach at least $3 billion by the end of 2030.
A report by Frost & Sullivan shows that global venture capital funding and investments across the femtech industry amounted to roughly $1.7 billion in the first half of 2019. They estimate this number to reach $9 billion by 2024. Another report by Frost & Sullivan suggests that the femtech market could reach as much as $50 billion by 2025.
The same report showcases that 90% of women are primary healthcare decision-makers for their families and key influencers for friends, and 80% of household healthcare spending is done by women. Additionally, they suggest that 66% of women look online for healthcare information, while only 4% of women are CEOs at Fortune 500 healthcare companies — this number is expected to increase.
Which Areas Are Impacted the Most by Femtech?
The technology surrounding women’s health is being generously funded more and more as years go by, but what are the specific areas that femtech impacts in the healthcare sphere? Initially, femtech’s main goal was bettering solutions that encompassed pregnancy and fertility care, as well as hygiene, breastfeeding, and menstrual wellness.
Over the years, startups broadened their scope, bringing innovation and new perspectives into female medicine, specifically in areas that had long been ignored. Now, femtech ensures women receive the best care possible through both physical care and digital health apps and wearables.
Here are a few areas where femtech makes a huge difference for women:
Female Fertility
Countless apps and technologies are receiving generous funding from investors that deal with female fertility, including menstrual tracking apps and smart tampon platforms. These allow the collection of menstrual and cervicovaginal samples, that are then shipped to a lab for analysis and disease detection. Furthermore, there’s also a sensor bracelet that allows women to predict fertile days while they are sleeping.
Pregnancy & Motherhood
The rise of femtech brought numerous solutions that focus on assisting mothers, starting from the point of conception to birth and the newborn period. There’s already apps on the market that help women with their pregnancy, by recommending healthy diet plans and advising the dos and don’ts during pregnancy to ensure both the mother’s and baby’s health remain in good shape.
Diseases
There has always been a gap when it comes to available healthcare services for women. With femtech, many solutions that focus on treating chronic conditions of women, ranging from physical and mental health issues, including cancer, tumors, heart disease, anxiety, and depression, are greatly improving. There are a handful of biotech start-ups that already deal with early breast cancer detection with the help of AI, as well as the treatment of cancer survivors.
Lifestyle & Wellness
Health shouldn’t only pop into our minds when we’re feeling unhealthy. Living a healthy lifestyle is necessary, that’s why femtech startups focus on female mind and body well-being rigorously. Furthermore, femtech also focuses on developing a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to holistic health.
