Is Femtech for Health?

Janene Oleaga, Esq.

Mar 75 min read

A mini blog series on the femtech industry and what it means for the future of women’s health

How can anyone take a stand against health? What could be wrong with health? Shouldn’t we be for health?

These are questions raised by American psychiatrist and author Jonathan Metzl in his book Against Health, where he explores the culturally complex definitions surrounding the term “health.” In an age where technology advances at our fingertips, managing health has become easier than ever, thanks to the increasing digitization of healthcare. However, this convenience often comes at the cost of privacy, as the data we generate may be exposed or sold without our full awareness.

While the field of women’s health has existed for millennia, the term “femtech” is a much newer phenomenon, coined by Ida Tin, founder of the period-tracking app Clue, in 2016. This post is the first installment in a mini blog series that delves into the rise of femtech and its implications in the evolving landscape of health and privacy.

Infographic about the femtech industry, women's healthcare, and reproductive rights in the United States and Europe

Femtech 101

According to a 2021 report by the nonprofit organization FemTech Focus, femtech encompasses a wide range of health areas, including reproductive, menstrual, sexual, pelvic floor, vaginal, oncological, bone, brain, autoimmune, and heart health. These areas are supported by femtech products across six categories: medical devices, software, therapeutic drugs, consumer products, consumer services, and consumer apps. Tin summarizes femtech as “any technology geared towards improving women’s lives.” This is a broad definition with broad implications as the femtech industry is creating a ripple of disruptions to the delivery and presentation of healthcare. Not only is the definition broad, it is constantly shifting and adapting to remain present, marketable, and relevant to women’s health.

Beyond understanding just what femtech is, we should understand what femtech does. At the core of the femtech industry is not just knowledge, but also empowerment and control. Tin explains that “Women can only fulfill their potential and life purpose when they have some agency over their own body and their own childbearing.” Femtech products and softwares benefit everyone, not just female-identifying, women, and other identities that these products are marketed towards. Whether this is advancing scientific knowledge by collecting data points on the different types of female orgasms such as the app Lioness does or tracking period symptoms with an app and sharing with someone else, the benefits of that knowledge are not primarily exclusive to the user. This knowledge is valuable to external parties such as scientists, medical professionals, and data engineers. With the aid of artificial intelligence, femtech is even making it possible to predict certain health issues before they become widespread, potentially leading to earlier interventions.

Control is not exclusive to the individual. While individuals may have the ability to decide what health metrics and data points they want collected, control over the usage of that data is ultimately up to the platform or agency that you authorize to view your data. Moreover, with these advancements comes the need for careful consideration of privacy and ethical concerns, especially as users’ personal data is collected and analyzed. A future blog in this series will explore these issues in greater detail.

To Label or Not to Label "FemTech" (And what does it mean for women's healthcare?)

Language is a powerful and necessary tool for engaging in any conversation. How we engage in those conversations will depend on how those words are interpreted, however. In 2019, The Guardian reported “FemTech” as one of the top 10 words of the year. Despite the buzzword’s growing popularity, not everyone has been satisfied with how the terminology has been coined. Olivia Goldhill has taken a stance opposing the term, making the argument that leveraging the term is more dividing than unifying. Goldhill argues that femtech services predominantly focus on biological needs such as birth control, fertility, pregnancy, and breastfeeding. Thus, only including cis-identifying bodies and excluding trans-identifying bodies, essentially “othering” women and other marginalized bodies that do not identify among the norm of white, cisgender, male, able-bodied, and so forth.

“Though the word ‘FemTech,’ may have served the valiant role of protecting some men from talking about periods, taking a narrow group of products and labelling them ‘female’ has unfortunate consequences. This designation effectively implies that half the population is a niche sub-category with a series of body-specific needs. Where, after all, is the talk of ‘MenTech’? There isn’t any.” - Olivia Goldhill

There is always the risk and danger of exclusion but that is where the importance of intentionality should be underscored. While femtech's focus on cisgender women has led to significant advancements in women's health, critics argue that it often overlooks the needs of trans-identifying individuals, who may face similar, yet distinct, healthcare challenges. Clearly, Tin was inspired to make a breakthrough with the creation of the femtech field for female-identifying, women, and other underserved populations that wanted a better understanding of their bodies and health.

“That’s a big thing. ... Then, investors can say, 'I have four FemTech companies in my portfolio' instead of 'I have a company for women peeing in their pants.' That's hard for a male investor to say.” - Ida Tin

The creation of femtech was not intended to deepen divisions between male and female bodies, which further reinforces the existence of a gender binary. Rather, it was designed to address the specific healthcare needs of women and underserved populations whose bodies are largely misunderstood or not even understood at all. As Femtech Insider argues for the importance of keeping the femtech label, “The aim is not to exclude, but merely highlight one area that needs attention and support.” Thus, companies should be cognizant of how their products can eliminate barriers to entry and usage such as sex, gender, or any other facet of identity. Depending on how we use them, words can be the entry or point of return to accessing the care that we need. Ultimately, whether we label it as femtech or something else, the key is to ensure that these innovations remain inclusive, accessible, and focused on the needs of all those who can benefit from them.

Femtech In the Name of Health

Similar to the questions that Metzl poses about health, shouldn’t we all be for the femtech industry? While the broad definition of “health” challenges us to reconsider societal norms, femtech similarly invites us to pause and reflect on its true purpose, who it serves, and how it shapes our relationship with our bodies. Before fully investing our time, attention, and data, it’s important to understand both the benefits and the uncharted territory of this rapidly evolving field. There are certainly many benefits to utilizing femtech, but there’s still much we don’t know about the body and how the industry is evolving to meet these needs. As femtech grows, it’s critical to stay vigilant about where and how our bodies are being seen and analyzed. While knowledge is power, we must wield it carefully to maintain control over our data—and by extension, our bodies.

Cited Resources (in order of appearance):

Additional Resources:

Is Femtech for Health?

Femtech 101

To Label or Not to Label "FemTech" (And what does it mean for women's healthcare?)

Femtech In the Name of Health

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