Despite the rise of health apps specifically for women, there is still a world to be won in the medical world where the male body has always been the norm, say Jaswina Elahi and Rosanne Edelenbosch of the Rathenau Instituut.
Good news for women in the Netherlands. When screening for cervical cancer, the smear is replaced by a self-sampling test. A pap smear is a tedious examination and the percentage of women participating in the population screening has been declining for years. Such a self-test is one way in which technology can remove barriers to receiving care.
But there are more aspects of care for women that need improvement. This is shown by recent research by the Rathenau Institute. Women experience side effects of medicines and treatments more often than men, and diagnoses are made late or not at all.
Much is still unknown about women-specific disorders and diseases that lead to different symptoms in women than in men, such as cardiovascular disease. This is partly because doctors were historically men and the male body was the norm in research until quite recently.
Duckbill
Gender inequality is in the capillaries of healthcare: in treatment protocols, medical data and technology. The duckbill used in the smear test, hardly renewed for centuries, is another example of technology that takes little account of women.
The reason for the Rathenau research is the exponential growth of the market for ‘FemTech’: apps, products and services aimed at the health and well-being of women. For example, apps that allow women to keep track of their periods, or blood test devices that provide insight into fertility.
In addition to a market aimed directly at the consumer, there is also FemTech for use in healthcare. Think of new scanning techniques (MRI) for research into specifically the small vessels around the heart, where heart problems often occur in women.
Sign of emancipation
It shows that researchers, developers and investors are paying more attention to women’s health. It is also a sign of emancipation: it is mainly female technology developers and investors who are making progress with FemTech.
At the same time, the Rathenau research shows that developing technology aimed at women’s health needs is insufficient to close the health gap with men. To this end, the roots of gender inequality within healthcare must also be tackled, and that requires active management by the government.
A few examples. Technology that is already used for mammography or heart research is not simply replaced by new technology that is less painful or better suited to the female body. That is expensive and complicated. A second example: there is much less data available on women’s health than on that of men. Even though European regulations have stated since 2022 that clinical research must focus on a reflection of all patients, the data backlog on the female body is not being made up.
Research not attractive
Third, research into better medicines for women is not attractive to the pharmaceutical industry, because these medicines compete with medicines already used by women. From that point of view, it is incomprehensible that ZonMw’s research program into health and gender has stopped after 2020.
Closing the health gap is no easy task. More technology specifically for women is needed – even if this does not automatically fit in with more efficient healthcare. Catching up with women in the current health care system requires giving priority to women’s health in policy, health services and research.
Jaswina Elahi and Rosanne Edelenbosch are researchers at the Rathenau Institute
2023-07-29 13:00:00
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