How female-led healthtech can close the gender gap

In my 20s, I struggled with eczema and chronic pain to the extent that I was unable to work full-time: I was constantly itching, unable to sleep more than an hour a night, and began to suffer from depression and anxiety. It was ironic - I'd been previously working at a pharmaceutical company developing cortisone treatments for eczema, and then began suffering from symptoms that made regular life all but impossible. I tried the conventional solutions, using strong steroid creams which suppressed the immune system but didn't address the root cause. It felt hopeless. 

It took a long time for me to take matters into my own hands - researching the gut microbiome, discovering my own wheat allergy - and eventually, after a diet shift, my symptoms reversed. This went against what I'd been told: at the time, many doctors told me that there was no connection between diet and skin health. However, emerging research connects diet, the gut microbiome, inflammation, and immune system conditions. If I hadn't trusted myself, I may still be struggling. 

This is a story I'm sure many women are familiar with. Put simply, the system failed me, and I'm not alone: it's failing millions of women like me. 

Women and chronic illness

Women are uniquely disadvantaged by chronic illness. Not only are women significantly more likely to suffer from autoimmune and chronic inflammatory conditions (according to a report from the World Economic Forum, women spend 25% more of their lives in debilitating health than men), but women have also been historically underrepresented in clinical research. Women are also diagnosed later than men for over 700 diseases, yet less than 1% of research funding goes to female-specific conditions. 

Essentially, women are suffering more from chronic illness - but their treatment is being sidelined. Women's symptoms are frequently dismissed or attributed to stress and anxiety. Medical misogyny is, unfortunately, a lived reality for most women. A study from charity Endometriosis UK found that 39% of respondents had to visit their GP 10 or more times before endometriosis was suspected - a condition I live with myself.

The traditional understanding of the gender health gap is that it's just about reproductive health but in fact, it covers so much more. I'm a firm believer that healthtech solutions - many of which are being built by women who have firsthand experience of the gender health gap - are a fundamental part of the solution. 

Healthtech and closing the gender health gap

The conventional treatment of chronic conditions falls on a well-trod path. The focus is on symptom management - patients are given treatments that mask, rather than address, the root causes. In my case, this meant years of treatments that didn't work, and years of unpleasant and difficult-to-manage symptoms. That is, until, for me, gut-focused lifestyle changes turned things around. 

We need to think about preventative medicine not as a luxury, but a necessity for conditions that disproportionately affect women. Healthtech is uniquely placed to tackle this issue. Female healthtech founders - often with firsthand experience of chronic conditions - are building solutions that address the root causes, as opposed to just masking them. They're making the shift from reactive to preventative care. And as a healthtech founder myself, I feel the medical establishment should take note. 

Currently, however, the establishment feels hostile towards women. Female founders continue to be largely shut out of VC funding - in 2024, all-women founding teams captured just 1% of all venture capital invested in the US. Many of these women are building health solutions that the male-dominated establishment is ignoring. I, myself, pitched 250 investors for my first funding round. These investors, mostly men, failed to recognise the severity of the issues facing both women and children (of whom mothers are most often the primary caretaker). 

My own experience with preventative medicine changed my life. I dealt with my eczema through rigorous research into the gut microbiome, and then applying what I'd learnt to my gut. Without this change, I wouldn't be where I am today. 

Beyond awareness

As much as we may wish otherwise, the gender health gap won't close through awareness alone. There needs to be systemic change, too. The way we understand and approach chronic conditions needs to be redesigned. Instead of just treating symptoms, we need to work to prevent them. Instead of generic advice, we need to ensure each case is understood as entirely individual. Fundamentally, this starts with taking women's health seriously at every stage of life. 

Healthtech is not - and cannot be - the only solution to the issue of chronic illness in women. But it is making a real difference. Built by individuals who have firsthand experience of these issues, female-led healthtech is offering powerful solutions to issues that we - as women - were told for so long were impossible to solve, or that didn't exist in the first place. 

To make real change we need to see more systemic support for healthtech companies that operate in the realms of preventative health, reversing diseases (not just managing symptoms), and that actively recognise the unique conditions affecting women. 

The tools exist. The science exists. There's capital on the table. All that's left is the will to take women's health as seriously as it deserves.

I had to find the answers myself. The next generation of women shouldn't have to.