The detrivialisation of women’s sexual health and pain was addressed in the last two articles devoted to issues that femtech should be raising awareness around to increase investment and raise public awareness.
Shutterstock
This latest article shifts the focus to another key area that needs to climb up to the top of healthcare agendas: the mental health issues of women, especially when these are encountered in combination with, or worsened by, life circumstances such as pregnancy or the menopause.
While mental health issues are complex and can be worsened or caused by various factors, it is a fact that women going through important hormonal changes (the menopause, pregnancy, post-pregnancy, IVF treatment), tend to see their mental health worsen. Medtech solutions can help address this issues but for these tools to really take off, first we need to ensure that the difficulties these life-stage bring stop being trivialised and that their potential impact on mental health is broadly acknowledged.
Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is one such condition that, manifesting in the build-up prior to menstruation can have a significant impact on women’s social and personal relationship. Despite this, its diagnosis was only officially recognised in the 1990s. Postpartum depression, though the most studies of all puerperal disorder in psychiatry and affecting one in seven mothers in the US, only received approval for the first oral medication in 2023. Similarly, when it comes to the menopause, a US survey recently revealed that 4 out of every 10 women said menopause symptoms interfered with their work performance or productivity at least on a weekly basis. Nearly one in five (17%) say they resigned from work or considered resigning because of how bad their symptoms were. These symptoms of the menopause may be physical but also mental and include insomnia, brain fog and mood swings. This devastating toll on women living through the menopause adds up at a larger scale too: the annual global economic impact of menopause inclusive of both lost productivity and cost of care is estimated at a staggering $150 billion.
Sadly, research shows instead that a third of women seeking help for their mental health reported being asked if they were “overthinking things”. The same survey found that 22% of women seeking help feared being seen as “attention-seeking”. Another survey conducted by the American Association of Retired Persons reveals that out of only 60% of women who seek medical attention for menopause symptoms, only 25% actually receive treatment.
Regardless of whether these feelings are connected to menstrual cycle, postpartum depression or the menopause, the fact is that they require urgent attention and cannot be “waited out” or “willed away”; recent data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirms the decline in women’s mental health and reports suicide rates among women under the age of 25 in the UK are increasing and stand at one every two days. Whatever the root of the problem, it’s dramatically real.
As these conditions begin to make it slowly into the public domain and are more frequently and easily diagnosed, the femtech market is playing catch up and creating a wealth of solutions to both ease symptoms and help women access the support they need in an environment that is free of bias and stigma. Specifically, the rise in telemedicine solutions offering speedier access to diagnosis are helping to create a safe, destigmatised environment to talk mental health. A further evolution for digital therapies is the provision of talking therapies, first-line recommended treatment for depression, via digital tools. On this front, the femtech industry will need to work on both the detrivialisation of mental health issues in connection to women’s life stages, but also on familiarising medics and the public with digital health tools, which are still regarded with some distrust and often incorrectly grouped with digital wellness apps which have no scientific basis to their claims.
Working on raising the status of mental health issues among women so they are no longer seen as simple mood swings or transient reactions to changes in their chemical make-up, is key to creating the right humus for innovation to develop and thrive. Communication is therefore key to supporting the future of this market and creating an environment where female mental health issues are granted the same status and attention as other conditions.
