Insights · Definitions
What counts as women's health
Definitions of women's health vary from one report to another. Ours builds on the definition most widely used across the femtech community. Here is what we count, how we sort it and where we draw the line.
Our definition
For us, women's health means technologies and innovation addressing unmet needs in diseases, conditions and indications that exclusively, disproportionately or differently impact the health of females.
That is the core. Around it sits Women's Health+: the social determinants and enablers that shape women's health beyond the clinic.
Ms.understood methodology
Core, and everything around it.
Hover or tap a ring to open it. The inner ring is core women's health, sorted by how a condition affects women. The outer ring is Women's Health+.
How to read it
Two rings, one definition.
The inner ring is core women's health: clinical and healthcare needs. The outer ring is Women's Health+: the social determinants of women's health. Hover or tap a ring to open it, then pick a part.
Where we draw the line
Two lenses on every company.
The condition is only half the story. We also ask how central women are to the business. Pick both and see where a company sits.
1 · The condition
2 · How central women are to the business
Top left is the heart of women's health. Examples are illustrative.
Source: methodology inspired by the two-lens taxonomy proposed by FutureFemHealth (June 2026).
Where it sits
Core
The heart of women's health.
Example
Menopause care platform
- Condition:
- Exclusive. Only women experience it.
- Business:
- Pure play. Built exclusively for women's biology or life stages.
Rules of thumb
When it is not obvious.
- 01
Condition first, channel second
A product that treats a core condition is Core, whether it reaches women through a clinic, an insurer, an employer or an app.
- 02
Indication, not specialty
The condition decides where a company sits, not the medical specialty.
- 03
The further out, the higher the bar
Moving away from the core, the women-specific case must be clearer and measurable.
- 04
Women's Health+ needs a health outcome
A social determinant counts when a company can show how it changes women's health, not only women's lives.
- 05
What is out
Wellness without a clinical rationale, and generic health products with no women-specific need.