Did you know that Ida Tin, the founder of a menstrual-tracking app called Clue, coined the term “femtech,” also known as Female Technology? The objective was to address all the menstrual-associated concerns under one umbrella term.
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Women’s menstrual health is a concern with a high number of unmet solutions and femtech caters to these underlying issues. The evolution of female technology is on a constant but slow rise, with a moderate growing interest in the female technology revolution.
The femtech market size in projected to touch $29.62 billion by 2032, as per Fortune Business Insights. The spectrum of femtech is vast, including products, such as apps tracking menstrual cycles, fertility cycles, sexual wellness, and others. These factors are slowly but significantly changing the facade of women's wellness.
Top femtech players are gearing up to offer solutions through wearables, digital platforms, and customised healthcare. This could help improve women's health outcomes while empowering them with information and tools that cater to their unique physiological requirements, reducing gender disparities and ultimately bridging the gaps in female healthcare.
How are femtech trends shaping up?
Upcoming trends in femtech reflect increasing innovation surrounding women’s health and well-being. Rising awareness and femtech research are bound to transform the industry landscape in the coming years. Women’s healthcare is constantly evolving, and femtech companies are recognising the potential for innovation and growth.
The first, and perhaps the most important, trend surrounding female technology is personalised healthcare. Although it is not a new concept, increased access to data, information, and patient choice has made it more accessible. As a result, more individuals today are becoming increasingly interested in and educated about the various health and treatment options available. With regard to female healthcare, supportive self-management enables patient choices, and shared decision-making brings more favourable outcomes. Today, a large variety of applications, wearables, and other online tools are empowering women around the world and giving them control over their health.
Several key players have introduced AI and big data to femtech. These revolutionary technologies can be used in female healthcare to analyse a woman’s menstrual cycle and offer personalised suggestions. The solution can also prompt the user to seek medical advice based on the data it captures using AI.
AI-assisted screening of breast cancer is also emerging as a viable solution. Citing an instance, in November 2023, healthcare giant GE introduced the FDA-approved MyBreastAI range of solutions. Earlier that year, in June, Paige rolled out a new range of AI solutions that can diagnose breast cancer.
While the majority of femtech solutions are aimed at the reproductive health and menstrual hygiene of younger women, new solutions are emerging for post-menopausal women. As a result, menopause is one of the fastest-growing segments in femtech as every woman experiences menopause and related symptoms. In fact, women spend nearly one-third of their lives in the post-menopausal state.
With increasing awareness of menopause and related hormonal changes, tools catering to this segment of women will gain traction. These solutions can help provide the support needed during some of the most severe symptoms of menopause.
The trends mentioned above in femtech highlight the increasing emphasis on personalised healthcare for women through technology-driven solutions that make it more accessible. These trends will positively influence the femtech market outlook.
How will femtech market players benefit?
Femtech is facilitating more equitable healthcare by delivering services to women in underserved and remote areas, via virtual care platforms such as telehealth. In addition, it has raised awareness and conversation around women’s health and issues, encouraging proactive health management and lowering stigma. All in all, it is expected that femtech will continue to drive better health outcomes in the future, provide more informed decision-making for women, and increase patient engagement.
As the demand for healthcare solutions tailored to women's special needs rises, there are tremendous opportunities for new and existing femtech market players. In addition, private equity companies and venture capital firms are upping their investments in the sector. These factors, along with the rising demand from the female population for innovative products, are propelling the market forward.
With femtech's rising popularity in the past several years, smaller players are jumping on the femtech train to leverage opportunities in a vastly underserved technology market. Rising investments are anticipated to fuel opportunities for small and medium-sized femtech players as well as emerging tech and biotech startups eyeing an entry into the promising market.
What key challenges does the femtech industry face?
In the progressive world, women's health is at the forefront of transforming change. However, female leaders in femtech constantly face the unnerving challenge of procuring funds. Compounding hurdles such as a lack of data, regulatory issues, cybersecurity, lack of diversity, and stigma around women’s health and wellness are restraining the market’s potential to expand.
Another hindrance in the industry is satiating women’s requirements. Ventures often fail to address meeting women's needs while curating products and services. Designing products that are both effective and efficient is the need of the hour and can be deployed through extensive research and development. Furthermore, bounded accessibility to latter-day femtech products is limiting the market growth.
Where does the future of femtech lie?
Women make up nearly half of the global population, and their health issues have been overlooked for quite a few decades. For a long time, female healthcare has been considered a niche market. However, driven by technological advancements, continuous innovation has helped bridge the gap to a large extent. What started merely as a subset of the healthcare industry, the femtech market is garnering increased innovation and funding from market players, both big and small.
In the next few years, we are bound to observe femtech thrive with growing research, innovation, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing in healthcare and femtech. These factors collectively are also enabling the development of sustainable, efficient, and remarkable solutions for female healthcare. Rising adoption among women, along with the rise of telehealth and virtual consultations, will drive the femtech market forward.
