A term originally coined in 2016, ‘Femtech’ describes a range of solutions to improve healthcare for women across a variety of conditions such as menstrual health, fertility, menopause and contraception. Originally dismissed as niche, it is an industry that can no longer be ignored, and is predicted to be worth $60 billion by 2027.
Last week, it was reported that couples undergoing fertility treatment spend nearly £14,000, despite it technically being free on the NHS. Whilst a survey of 1,300 fertility patients revealed two-thirds had to pay for their own treatment.
Often as is the case, couples decide to turn to private treatment plans because they are faced with long waiting lists. The rise of Femtech has meant women can seek alternative options to help their path to pregnancy.
With this in mind, we’ve picked five Femtech brands that are empowering women to take control of their fertility and ovulation journey.
Launched in 2014, Ava touts itself as the ‘first FDA-approved fertility tracking wearable.’ It is worn during sleep, tracking five physiological signals that act as markers for fluctuating hormone levels, allowing it to detect the 5 most fertile days of the menstrual cycle.
As well as fertility tracking, Ava displays other health factors such as stress, sleep and resting pulse rate providing insight as to when you’re in the best place to try for a baby. They also donate 20% from the sale of every Ava Bracelet into women’s health research and development.
Natalie Rechberg-Egly, CEO of Zurich-based Valley Electronics, launched Daysy in 2014 with a mission in mind of enabling women everywhere to monitor their fertility.
Daysy is used to take your temperature in the morning, and it combines this with your menstruation data to calculate whether you’re fertile. It does this by using an algorithm based on a database of 5 million menstrual cycles. With the 3 colours you can keep track of your cycle and fertility status. If Daysy shows you a red light, you are fertile, a green light means you’re not, and a red flashing light means it is your predicted day of ovulation.
The OvuSense sensor launched last year after two years in development. It is placed in the vagina and worn whilst asleep, giving real time fertility status updates every morning. It just needs to be held near a phone to download data to the app. It predicts ovulation 24 hours in advance using information from your current cycle, then confirms the exact date with 99% accuracy.
Mira was created when co-founder and CEO, Sylvia Kang, witnessed her friend’s experiencing difficulties with getting pregnant. She decided to leave her corporate job and use her biomedical degree to create something that tracks women’s hormones and fertility cycles.
Mira measures 3 key fertility hormones through urine, identifying your 6 most fertile days and predicting your ovulation. Simply dip the test wand into urine, insert it into the Mira Analyzer, and your fertility hormone concentration results will automatically sync with the Mira App after approximately 16 minutes of analysis.
Founded in 2017, Tempdrop is the first wearable BBT (basal body temperature) sensor. The band is placed on your upper arm during sleep and can be synced with the app the next day whenever is most convenient. You can add your symptoms, learn about your cycle phases and view a chart to interpret results.
If you’re interested in finding out how a healthcare PR strategy could help your brand stand out in 2023, get in touch today to discuss further.
