Dive into the pivotal world of hormonal health, a booming sector within digital wellness. Discover how stigma has underserved this space, particularly in women's health issues like infertility and mental health. With insights from Dr. Elizabeth Ruzzo, the discussion covers proactive medicine's opportunities and the challenges of venture capital. The rise of telehealth and recent mergers highlight a transformative landscape, making personalized care more accessible than ever. This is a crucial moment for innovation in women's health.
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insights INSIGHT
Hormonal Health's Impact
Hormonal health, impacting women disproportionately, sits at the center of various health conditions.
This includes infertility, weight gain, depression, and PCOS, affecting 1 in 10 women and increasing diabetes risk.
insights INSIGHT
Market Opportunity
The hormonal health market presents a massive opportunity, blurring the lines between women's health and digital health.
By 2025, women's health could be a $50B industry, with digital health potentially reaching $221B by 2026.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Founders' Motivations
Many founders in women's health start companies due to personal experiences with difficulty conceiving or getting a PCOS diagnosis.
Dr. Elizabeth Ruzzo, for example, was motivated by being gaslit about birth control side effects.
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For this week’s deep dive, Alex, Natasha, and Chris dug into the world of hormonal health, a sub-sector within the massive (and booming) world of digital health.
The tl;dr before we hop into the show is that hormones -- while constantly evolving and changing -- are center node for a ton of health conditions that disproportionately impact women. These can include mental health issues, infertility, diabetes, and more. If you're someone interested in the world of digital health and always read about the Ro's and Hinge Health's of the ecosystem, this episode will teach you what else there is that deserves equal - if not more - attention.
Ruzzo walked us through the opportunity in pro-active medicine, as well as how investors reacted to her pitch when she was first raising her seed round.
We ping-ponged around different reasons as to why hormonal health is an underserved category, starting with stigma and ending with stigma.
Then we got into Modern Fertility's acquisition by Ro, and why Ruzzo and many in the digital health community were surprised at the outcome. That said, it’s still one of the rare exits, and as far as unicorns go, there are virtually no companies valued at over $1 billion that focus explicitly on women’s hormonal health.
Shifting gears, the trio turned to startups working on PCOS, one of the most common hormonal conditions out there that impacts one in ten women. Former Ro director Rachel Blank announced today that she is starting a company in this world, Allara.
To round out the conversation we touched on the recent Veera venture capital round, and closed with a short discussion concerning the the term "femtech" and why it's not so good.
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Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.
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