Since Mia, Erin, and I launched our crowdfunding effort to answer the question: “What is known about the efficacy and safety of tech products for reproductive health?” I’ve been asked things like:

• Aren’t there grants out there for this?

• Why do you need funding? 

• Couldn’t a venture capitalist or a founder pay for this? 

These are all good questions, and things we considered ourselves when we started contemplating how to kick off this project. I’m here with the answers:

• Aren’t there grants out there for this? Grant funding wasn’t a good fit for this for a variety of reasons. Women’s health is historically underfunded and understudied. Academic funding is also a long and arduous process and can take up to 12 months to see any money. Since Mia is an MSPH and medical student, she’s on a student timeline and we couldn’t wait that long. 

• Why do we need funding? We are doing this on a shoestring budget to cover two things: Mia’s living expenses as a student during the summer, and my lowest consulting rate. As an independent consultant, taking this research on means not taking other paid client work. It’s as simple as that. We also believe that women and students should be paid for their labor, and we don’t want to perpetuate the wage gap. 

• Why couldn’t a VC or a founder front this? Well, VCs invest in companies, and women-led companies get about 2% of all venture capital, and 95% of VCs are men. It’s a small slice of the pie to go for, and again, the timing isn’t on our side. We also are running a research project, not a business. We’ve had a few FemTech founders express interest in paying for this but their own budgets are strapped, and we want to be able to function with complete scientific integrity without bias. 

I am happy to answer any other questions! We’ve had a great start with the first $1,600 donated but we still have $4,400 to go to meet our $6,000 goal by May 25, 2022. Experiment.com is an ‘all or nothing” platform, so we have to raise the full amount to see any of it. We need everyone’s support.

What IS technology for women’s reproductive health?

Commonly referred to as FemTech, these apps and devices address healthcare needs related to things like menstruation, PCOS, endometriosis, breastfeeding, breast cancer, fertility and pregnancy, pelvic floor disfunction, incontinence, sexual satisfaction, and more. Below you can see the types of products within FemTech.

For our study, we are examining medical devices, healthcare software, consumer apps, and consumer devices to understand what has been FDA cleared, what is the scientific evidence base supporting the interventions, and what is the quality of that evidence so that clinicians and patients can feel confident in exploring new women’s health innovation products.