Member insights: How femtech is breaking the silence on women’s health

By building technology that puts women's health front and centre, the femtech industry is giving millions of people the language, the data and the confidence to start conversations they were never encouraged to have before.

We asked the founders, executives and innovators driving this space one question: what role do you think femtech plays in destigmatising conversations around women's health?

Here’s what they had to say.

Joanna Magaji, project director, Women’s HealthX

Femtech is creating a space where women feel more empowered to speak openly about their health and take ownership of their wellbeing.

Topics like menstrual, reproductive, and sexual health have traditionally been surrounded by stigma, making them difficult for many women to discuss.

By developing technology that normalise these conversations and address concerns that often go unspoken, as well as creating accessible at‑home diagnostic tools that allow women to manage aspects of their health privately and confidently, femtech helps break down these barriers.

It not only increases access to information but also fosters a sense of safety, autonomy, and community, all of which play a key role in destigmatising women’s health.

Melissa Wallace, CEO and founding partner, Fierce Foundry

We’re finally seeing FemTech expand beyond fertility and menstruation into historically overlooked areas of women’s health, backed by research we can act on.

For example, new platforms focused on menopause care and cardiovascular diagnostics designed specifically for women.

As founders, investors, researchers, and clinicians collaborate, visibility is accelerating and long-silenced topics are entering mainstream health and technology conversations.

That collective momentum is shifting femtech from a niche category into real infrastructure for cultural and clinical change where evidence replaces stigma, innovation replaces neglect, and women’s health will one day be treated as a standard priority rather than a whispered side conversation.

Diane Wrightson, chief operating officer, Women As One

Femtech puts a spotlight on women’s health and creates a space for conversation, investment, and action. Women’s health is human health, and this has often been forgotten.

Now we have a vehicle to drive action and that’s important to seeing real systematic change in the space.

Wolfgang Hackl MD, CEO of OncoGenomX

FemTech has already transformed how we talk about women’s health, and digital tools have moved breast and gynecologic cancer care from episodic, clinician-led encounters to more continuous, patient-reported, data-driven models—making symptoms, sexual health, and survivorship concerns more visible and discussable.

Clearly, this visibility has helped normalise conversations once considered taboo and strengthened patient agency.

Yet more is needed. Many tools lack robust validation, equitable access remains uneven, and integration into routine oncology workflows is incomplete.

The next step is combining digital engagement with clinically rigorous, genomics informed and evidence-based prediction, ensuring de-stigmatization is matched by accuracy, equity, and reliability.

Daniela Schardinger, CEO & founder, ELAFY Consulting

Femtech plays a critical role in destigmatising women’s health, but only if we move beyond pink marketing without clinical substance.

True destigmatisation requires evidence, regulatory rigor, and sustained investment. Otherwise, we risk replacing silence with noise, and speaking mainly to ourselves within the ecosystem.

The companies that will truly shift the conversation are those building data-backed, scalable solutions for conditions that have historically been underfunded and underdiagnosed.

The ultimate goal is not to preserve the label “femtech,” but to reach a point where women’s health is fully integrated into mainstream indications, research, and reimbursement.

Only then have we truly won.

Chaitra Vedullapalli, founder and president, Women in Cloud

Femtech is redefining executive functioning as a measurable, manageable leadership asset.

For decades, cognitive shifts tied to hormones, inflammation, sleep, and metabolic health were dismissed as stress or burnout.

Today, biomarker testing, cycle intelligence, and AI-driven health platforms are turning invisible strain into actionable data.

This shift destigmatises conversations around focus, memory, and emotional regulation especially during perimenopause and high-pressure leadership phases.

Executive performance is not just about mindset; it’s biological.

When women gain access to predictive health intelligence, they protect cognitive capacity, extend career longevity, and lead with clarity.

Femtech isn’t just advancing health it’s safeguarding economic leadership.

When the label limits the science: From Femtech to mainstream medicine

By Daniela Schardinger, ELAFY Consulting CEO & founder

At a major investment conference in London, the agenda was divided into two tracks.

One session was listed under the headline “Femtech / Women’s Health.”

The other appeared under “Biotech / Medtech.”

We presented the exact same data in both sessions. The slides were identical. Only the headline on the agenda was different.

The session labeled Biotech / Medtech filled the room, with investors standing along the walls.

The one labeled FemTech / Women’s Health was noticeably quieter, half empty.

The science had not changed. The market had not changed. The opportunity had not changed.

Only the label had.

This was not about the quality of the innovation. It was about categorisation.

And categorisation influences capital.

The Category That Sparked a Movement

Femtech has been instrumental in destigmatising women’s health. It created visibility where there was silence. 

It encouraged open dialogue around menstruation, fertility, menopause, pelvic pain, and sexual health. It attracted founders who were tired of watching half the population treated as a niche.

The term built momentum.

But as the industry matures, we must ask whether the same label that helped catalyse the movement is now unintentionally constraining it.

For many investors, “Femtech” still carries the undertone of consumer apps and wellness platforms. 

Even “Women’s Health” as a standalone category can suggest something specialised rather than central. Yet what is being built today includes regulated medical devices, biotech platforms, therapeutic pipelines, and surgical technologies.

When serious medical innovation is grouped under a category perceived as adjacent to mainstream medicine, funding patterns often follow that perception.

The Capital Disparity

Women’s health represents half the global population and a significant portion of lifetime healthcare expenditure. The unmet clinical need is substantial. 

The science is rigorous. Regulatory pathways are demanding.

And yet, check sizes in this space frequently remain smaller. 

Fundraising cycles are longer. Founders are asked to justify market size in ways other sectors are not.

Meanwhile, other biotech and medtech verticals raise hundreds of millions of dollars without having to defend the legitimacy of their category.

This is not about special treatment. It is about equal seriousness.

The Risk of Speaking Only to Ourselves

The women’s health ecosystem has grown into a powerful and supportive community. Dedicated conferences, panels, and investor groups have been critical in moving the conversation forward.

But there is a subtle risk in building our own parallel infrastructure.

If women’s health innovation remains in separate tracks, separate portfolios, and separate conversations, we risk speaking primarily to one another. 

Destigmatisation cannot end with awareness inside our own circle.

It must translate into integration within mainstream biotech funds, regulatory agendas, reimbursement frameworks, and scientific conferences.

The End Goal

The ultimate success of this movement will not be the expansion of the term “FemTech.”

It will be the moment we no longer need it.

When a device treating heavy menstrual bleeding is evaluated like any other surgical innovation.

When female-specific biology is embedded into broader clinical research from the outset.

When session headlines no longer determine the size of the audience.

FemTech opened the door.

The next chapter is ensuring that women’s health innovation is not treated as a niche vertical, but as fundamental medicine.

When the label no longer influences the room, the science can finally stand on its own.

About the author

Daniela Schardinger is a strategist and advocate at the forefront of women’s health innovation. She advises medical device and biotech companies navigating regulatory, investment, and market strategy, and is actively engaged in global policy conversations through the World Economic Forum and initiatives connected to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and NIH. Her work focuses on integrating women’s health into mainstream healthcare systems worldwide.

Femtech hires from recent weeks

Gedea Biotech appoints Julie Waras Brogren as CEO
Swedish women’s health company Gedea Biotech has named Julie Waras Brogren as chief executive officer as it moves into its commercialisation phase. The company said the transition comes as Gedea shifts from development into go-to-market execution around its CE-marked product, with Brogren bringing a background spanning commercial, financial and executive roles, most recently at Ascelia Pharma. In editorial terms, this looks like a classic scale-up leadership move: a company with regulatory progress behind it bringing in a commercially oriented chief executive for the next stage. 

Kindbody hires Angela Barrie as chief commercial officer
Kindbody has appointed Angela (Angie) Barrie as chief commercial officer, in a move that underlines the fertility platform’s push to expand across employer benefits, family-building and broader women’s health. The company framed the appointment as part of its next phase of growth, suggesting a stronger commercial focus as competition intensifies among fertility and reproductive-health platforms. The hire is notable because it signals that commercial leadership is becoming just as important as clinical differentiation in the race to scale women’s health platforms. 

Midi Health adds Melissa Waters as CMO
Alongside its finance hire, Midi also brought in Melissa Waters as chief marketing officer. Waters arrives with brand and growth experience from Meta, Lyft and Hims & Hers, which suggests Midi is investing in consumer positioning as well as clinical and operational scale. Editorially, the appointment reflects a broader shift in women’s health: leading companies are no longer just trying to prove demand, but to build durable brands in categories such as menopause and midlife care. 

Establishment Labs appoints Cassandra “Sandra” Harris as CFO
Establishment Labs, which describes itself as a women’s health and wellness medtech company focused on breast aesthetics and reconstruction, has appointed Cassandra “Sandra” Harris as senior vice president and chief financial officer, effective 9 March 2026. The company said the change is part of a broader leadership transition designed to support its next phase of growth, with outgoing CFO Raj Denhoy moving into a strategy role. In editorial terms, the move suggests Establishment is tightening its leadership structure as it balances expansion with profitability and execution.