Innovation in women’s health is expanding at an unprecedented rate, with the market expected to hit $45.5 billion by 2025 – investors are rapidly increasing their funding for women’s health enterprises.
While the focus in funding and innovation has generally been on fertility, pregnancy, and breastfeeding, now we’re seeing an expansion beyond these to include new focus areas and unmet needs. Menopause, mental health, and holistic wellness, for example, represent 23% of investment dollars in 2023. Innovation in this area also spans many categories – supplements, food and beverage, technology, fashion, and more.
The enthusiasm to deliver new products and services designed with women in mind is higher than ever.
The Light and Dark Sides of Women’s Health Innovation
Amidst all this change, we’re seeing exciting innovations that offer solutions to problems that were previously ignored.
For example, FemTherapeutic is using AI and 3D-printing technology to create personalized intra-vaginal prosthetics for pelvic floor disorders, a condition affecting roughly a third of women. This innovation is helping to solve the long standing problems associated with one-size-fits-all devices that women have historically been forced to cope with, improving their comfort and quality of life.
Or, Mira. A breakthrough hormone tracking device with an AI-powered app, that provides women with precise, personalized insights to support fertility needs, or to better understand menopause and perimenopause symptoms.
But the women’s health market is not without its dark side.
The ongoing perimenopause gold rush is a great example of an area of innovation where there is real potential to address unmet needs, and broad opportunities that span many product categories. But where, amidst the enthusiasm, there are companies delivering “snakeoil” solutions that don’t solve the problems they say they solve – or worse, they exacerbate them.
And, even when companies get it “right,” there is always room for improvement and recognizing are more steps that need to be taken to represent women authentically and with integrity. In 2023, for example, Dove faced criticism for its well-known “Real Beauty” campaign’s use of AI-generated women, despite previously pledging to never use AI to represent women in advertisements, and to focus on campaigns that celebrate natural beauty across different ages, body types, and ethnicities.
The Research Gap in Women’s Health
Despite the growing pains, it’s good that we’re seeing more attention being placed on women’s health, because research focused specifically on women hasn’t kept pace with health research overall – in fact, far from it. As of 2020, only 10.8% of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding was allocated to women’s health research. Even the U.S. government gives twice as much funding to researching diseases that mainly affect men, compared to those that impact women.
This research gap has real-world effects, leading to a range of unmet needs, inaccurate diagnoses, ineffective treatments, and a general lack of understanding of women and their unique physiologies.
As researchers, strategists, and innovators, it’s crucial that we address these issues and approach women’s health with integrity – remembering that there are far-reaching implications beyond hitting growth goals and sales markers. It’s vital to get things right.
That begins with building empathy into the research and innovation process, and seeking to genuinely understand the emotional, physical and social needs of women. And, it requires care and attention throughout the innovation process to ensure that the focus remains on real solutions to real problems.
If your brand is thinking about exploring innovation for women, here’s what you should keep in mind.
Key Principles for Approaching Women’s Health Innovation with Integrity
- Prioritize Inclusivity: Every woman is different, and there are very real physiological differences that need to be taken into account. Make sure that your research and product development consider the diverse experiences of women across different ages, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds through diverse recruitment practices.
- Empathy-Led Research: Depth interviews and focus discussions are powerful tools, but the inclusion of design-based and participatory research methods is essential in this space. Any opportunity for innovators to directly engage with, and deeply understand the lived experiences of the women they aim to support is a good one. But go beyond the usual tools, and treat women as co-creators and collaborators in the whole process.
- Collaborate Across Disciplines: Strong cross-functional involvement is essential from the beginning of any innovation initiative – especially in this space. From co-creation with external experts to early involvement of R&D, build teams that reflect a wide range of experiences and disciplines.
- Diversity within your research team: Build research teams and projects that reflect the complexity of women’s experiences, ensuring multiple perspectives challenge potential biases and blind spots.
- Continuously Assess Relevance: Continuously take a step back and make sure that the solutions you’re moving toward solve real problems women experience, not imagined or manufactured needs.
Are you exploring this space and want to make sure you get it right? At The Sound, we’re all about designing outcomes-oriented research with integrity.
Our team goes beyond surface-level insights, diving deep into the nuanced experiences of people and understanding the needs that drive meaningful innovation. We start with human stories so we can find strategic opportunities to create real value for the people you want to reach. And that means understanding people, and in this case, women, first.
Want to learn more? Come talk to us.
