The Medical Futurist | April 18, 2019
The women’s health technology or so-called femtech market has been on the rise for the last couple of years, but it has mainly revolved around fertility and pregnancy. We believe that female health topics reach far beyond such traditional issues and players should concentrate more on menopause, endometriosis, or mental health, just to name a few areas. Thus, we tried to collect companies which are on top of their game in the conventional fertility and/or pregnancy area, but also start-ups and ventures who are looking way beyond that. Here’s our guide to 10 outstanding companies in women’s health.
The women’s health market is burgeoning
We’ve come a long way in the last couple of years from women’s health issues considered as taboos – women growing up in the 1980s or 1990s could surely relate to obsessively checking the back of their trousers for any sign of their periods coming too early and feeling embarrassed by the idea of anyone else knowing about it – to being openly talked about and even facilitated by digital health technologies. Two New York City high school girls even developed a video game called “Tampon Run” – the heroine’s mission is “to rid the world of the menstrual taboo.”
As technology companies slowly recognized that the area is far from being a niche market, and women started to increasingly use digital health or better say, “femtech” products for female well-being, the culture around women’s health issues started to change. It is only natural for today’s teenagers to use a period tracker app or even tweet or text about their menstruation. While that raises serious privacy issues, the fact that technology helps with issues around periods, fertility or pregnancy seems to go as natural.
While technology companies’ attitude towards women’s health is far from ideal – we discussed here in detail how and why period tracker apps, smart scales or fitness wearables can fail women, and especially pregnant women – we have to acknowledge the widening interest in the area. In the past three years, an estimated $1 billion has been poured into women’s health technology and the “femtech” market is expected to be worth more than $50 billion by 2025. The Women of Wearables organization focusing on creating a tight-knit community for supporting female entrepreneurship in every area, compiled a list about the top 100 women in “femtech” and health tech, recognizing the hard work of women entrepreneurs in the field.
Following their footsteps, we decided to collect the most progressive women’s health companies out there led by inspiring women and men, and showing the way forward – so that technology will finally change into an environment which facilitates female entrepreneurship and addresses women’s issues in the right ways.
1) Natural Cycles – Digital Birth Control From Sweden
There is a large and growing group of women who would prefer a non-invasive and non-hormonal way of contraception, however, very few methods are available for women in this space, said Anita Kraker von Schwarzenfeld, VP Science and Communication at Natural Cycles to The Medical Futurist. She added that women are increasingly turning to digital technology to manage all aspects of their lives. They are therefore welcoming a contraceptive option that educates them about their fertility and unique cycles, while also providing relevant information to help them avoid (or plan) pregnancy.
What sets Natural Cycles apart from all the other birth control apps on the market is that it’s CE-marked and cleared as a medical device by the FDA based on clinical studies. Although last January, there was an uptake in criticism towards the method, the app has been reviewed by ORCHA, an independent health app evaluation body, scoring 84 percent. The company, which originally started in Switzerland, currently has its headquarters in Sweden. It has grown into an enterprise with around 80 employees.
2) Ava Women – The Fertility Wearable
The Zurich-based company developed the Ava tracker for women who want to know more about their bodies: observe their menstruation or ovulation cycles or follow their pregnancies. It is an FDA-registered and CE-certified device which measures skin temperature, resting pulse rate, breathing rate, heart rate variability ratio, perfusion, movement, bioimpedance, heat loss, and sleep.
Via logging symptoms as well as data, users can identify changes that may indicate potential health issues, while they can also get a clearer picture and a more accurate prediction when they are likely to be most fertile – not matter whether they try to get pregnant or avoid that situation. The Medical Futurist tested it here and had an overall positive experience. It was not easy to incorporate the device into the daily going-to-bed routine, but after the learning period, the wearable worked as promised.
3) NextGen Jane – Diagnosing Health Issues With A Tampon?
The data-driven company from the San Francisco Bay Area was founded five years ago and focuses on utilizing data for women’s health. NextGen Jane is planning to mail kits to women with a tampon they can send back and have analyzed. They plan to launch their first product next year.
The Oakland-based start-up promises to get insights into female reproductive health through blood squeezed out of the tampons that women send them and detect early biomarkers for endometriosis, cervical cancer or other conditions with the help of their Smart Tampon platform serving as a sentinel system. It is refreshing to see a company going beyond the traditional women’s health issues, such as fertility and menstruation and dealing with such a painful and burdening medical issue as endometriosis.
4) Bonzun – The Virtual Midwife From Sweden
Bonnie Roupé developed pre-eclampsia when she was pregnant with her second child. She didn’t understand the symptoms but was eager to know more. Thus, after her pregnancy, she developed an app that would inform pregnant women of potential health problems they could experience.
Bonzun, founded in 2012, works as a virtual midwife, supplying users with information about how their baby is growing, and what the changes in their body mean. The app was downloaded over two million times in 79 countries so far. In the coming month, Bonnie and her team are working to bring the app to developing countries, for example, Ethiopia, Somalia or India through setting up a foundation. She told The Medical Futurist that having met the founder of several maternal hospitals in Somaliland, she found out that with the help of Bonzun, in one of the hospitals 59 women could have been saved out of the 79 that died that year. We truly hope that the efforts of Bonzun will pay off and the digital tool can save the lives of pregnant women around the globe.
5)Maven – Healthcare Designed For Women
The most engaging feature of a health service designed to basically assist women during and after their pregnancy is the holistic approach. The New York-based Maven Clinic does not only offer traditional medical specialties for women to choose from but also employs back-to-work or sleep coaches, relationship consultants or mental health therapists. They must have realized that it’s not enough to treat a condition and separate it from the setting, history or character of a given patient.
The Maven Clinic offers video appointments and private messaging with a widespread family and women’s health practitioner network and offers services from pregnancy through postpartum until surrogacy or career coaching. Quite a gap-filler.
6) HeraMED – Listening To Babies’ Heart Sounds
Israel-based HeraMED has been offering various products since 2011 promising peace of mind for expecting mothers and their family for example by monitoring fetal heart rate. The pocket-sized, dumpling-like HeraBEAT sensor can measure the unborn baby’s heart rate and pulse anywhere anytime, which could spare anxious and worried parents’ unnecessary hospital visits in cases when the mother doesn’t feel the child being “awake”. We tested the health sensor here and found that it’s an uplifting experience to measure a baby’s heart rate at home, although there’s room for improvement when it comes to user education, for example.
Numerous other health sensors, wearables, and apps support pregnant women and their little ones on the journey towards birth and beyond. Technology changes the experience of pregnancy and being a parent in a meaningful way and HeraBEAT adds to the colorful palette of useful helpers.
7) LactApp – The Guardian of Smart Breastfeeding
Another stage in motherhood widely covered by digital health technologies is the period of breastfeeding. Many companies aim to help struggling mothers, for example, Willow introduced its smart portable breast pump at CES last year. It works without external tubes, cords or bottles – moreover, you do not need to schedule extra time for pumping.
However, instead of a wearable, we have chosen a rich resource of information about lactation and maternity, an app that helps mothers through the first couple of months with a baby. The Barcelona-based LactApp team has been building a personalized chatbot that answers every breastfeeding question according to your profile and that of your baby. A useful resource for mothers who would like to know as much information about maternity issues as possible to keep their baby happy and healthy.
8) Elvie – A Fun Pelvic Floor Trainer
The UK-based company, Elvie, has been developing solutions for women since 2013. Beyond creating a silent breast pump, they built a Kegel trainer to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles via fun, five-minute workouts. Keeping these muscles strong gives us control over the bladder and bowel, and it averts urine leakage or incontinence.
Before anyone would say that this is truly a niche problem, we would like to direct your attention to the striking global statistics. 303 million women and 121 million men suffer from the condition, but the issue remains largely uncovered by meaningful (technological) solutions. Elvie offers a great preventive tool, which was also incorporated in the Oscars nominee goody bag last year – signaling the popularity of the solution.
9)Genneve – Treating Menopause With Respect and Technology
Although every woman in her life experiences menopause, a phase lasting 4-10 years where the workings of the female body completely change, there are only a handful of companies dealing with female midlife issues. The ultimate reason for that is our culture exclusively celebrating eternal youth. Investors don’t see “big money” in lady problems and developers might adopt this mindset.
However, the demand is on the rise for digital health solutions for menopause. One of the most notable online solutions is created by a Seattle-based company called Genneve, which offers many other feminine products, too. It increases access to information, health providers and community for women seeking relief for hormone-driven symptoms like hot flashes, insomnia, anxiety, and loss of libido.
10) iBreastExam – The Option To Detect Any Sign of Cancer Early
Breast cancer is the most commonly occurring cancer in women and the second most common cancer overall. There were over 2 million new cases in 2018. Keeping in mind these terrifying statistics, prevention seems to be of utmost importance.
The iBreastExam has been developed as a portable, hand-held device that enables medical professionals to identify non-palpable breast lumps in just a few minutes, without pain or radiation. The tool was approved by the FDA and clinical studies showed its high sensitivity and specificity levels.
These companies only represent the tip of the iceberg. The number of new femtech start-ups is multiplying quickly – and there seems to be more and more space for companies going beyond the traditional issues of fertility or pregnancy. Although the number of teams dealing with menopause, cancer detection, teenage health issues or bladder control is quite low, we hope investors will get to see the opportunity there soon. And not only see but also act on it.
As it is still painful for us to see digital health technology failing those in need, so here’s a wake-up call! Femtech investors, women’s health advocates, as well as fitness wearable manufacturers step forward and create solutions for the entire spectrum of wonderful women out there.