Not Just Women's Health: Trends in Fertility Tech (Leslie Schrock)
Among the healthcare areas gaining more and more attention is women’s health. According to BCG, Investment in women’s health care companies in the US surged to an all-time high of $3.3 billion in 2022.
Women's health refers to a broad range of medical and wellness services specifically tailored to address the unique health concerns of women. Particular focus is on reproductive health, fertility, and menopause. Technology supporting women’s health can go from EHR records, telemedicine services, medical imaging, diagnostic and IVF technology, wearable devices for monitoring health, menstrual cycles, menopause symptoms, robotic surgery in gynecology, and more.
Fertility
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 1 in 5 heterosexual females ages 15 to 49, with no prior births, are unable to conceive on their own after a year of trying, and about 1 in 4 (26%) women in this group have difficulty getting pregnant or carrying a pregnancy to term.
Access to IVF and infertility treatments differ among healthcare systems around the world. In the US, in most cases, patients have to pay on their own, and it’s not cheap. The average cost for a complete IVF cycle in the US is about $12,000 plus medications. Hence the interest of investors in this sector is high. Some estimates expect the industry to reach $41 billion by 2026.
Leslie Schrock is author, entrepreneur, and angel investor working at the convergence of health and technology. She wrote two books: Bumpin’: The Modern Guide to Pregnancy mixes the latest clinical research with practical advice for working families. Fertility Rules, published in June 2023, addresses male and female fertility.
In this discussion, she shared her insights into:
key misconceptions and lack of knowledge we have around fertility,
how is the market developing,
what technologies she is hoping to see,
what investment models seem to be working so far.
Key thoughts:
“We have so much pressure to track everything all the time, and sometimes more data is not always better, it's just more. Women buy Dopplers, and then they try to track the baby's heartbeat during pregnancy. Dopplers are so scary for some women because if the baby's turned in a certain way you can't find a heartbeat. Kick counts are a much better way.”
“In about 25 percent of infertility investigations, men are never even examined.”
“Men experience age-related fertility decline as well. It's not as sudden and perhaps disruptive as it is for women who, do have declining egg quality at a certain age. It affects men too, but no one's telling them.”
“There are about 1, 300 reproductive endocrinologists in the U.S.. There are only around 200 reproductive urologists.“
“Almost 30 percent of IVF cycles in the U. S. are now done by a clinic that is owned by private equity. It's also a money machine. It's an absolute money machine.”