User:Renabee/Femtech

copied from Femtech (or female technology) is a term used to define software and services that use technology tailored towards women's health. This includes fertility solutions, period-tracking apps, pregnancy and nursing care, women's sexual wellness, and reproductive system health care. While there are several different aspects of women's health femtech applies to, femtech mainly focuses on menstruation care through period-tracking apps. Before Femtech was officially established, Luna Luna, created by a firm in Japan, helped women keep track of their menstruation cycles. Now called Luna, the app uses AI to predict those cycles.

Femtech didn't become an official term until 2016. Ida Tin, a Danish entrepreneur, created the term. Femtech is specifically focused on applications for women's health, These applications come in several different forms, such as mobile apps and medical devices. The industry has grown and continues to grow since femtech was official established. By 2025, with continuous growth, the femtech industry could be worth $50 billion.

Ethics
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There have been concerns about data-sharing practices in Femtech, particularly within fertility-trackers. This issue has affected several applications outside of Femtech, but due to the sensitivity of the data being shared within Femtech, it becomes more urgent. In the aftermath of the overturning of Roe V. Wade and the laws passed by states banning abortion, there was a widespread fear Femtech would be weaponized to monitor women and whether or not they get an abortion. Some apps have come under fire for ambiguous privacy ethics after it emerged that user data had been shared (without consent) with companies such as Facebook. This allowed Facebook, and other companies that Facebook shares their data with, to target users with fertility or pregnancy related products based around which point in their monthly menstrual cycle they were. Flo, a well-known period tracking app, which collects personal data from users, has also sold that data and attempted to conceal who it was sold to. The Federal Trade Commission did step in and Flo is no longer able to conceal what they do with data from users and must ask for their consent if they want to share their data. However, though Flo was stopped, companies such as Facebook and other period-tracking apps continue to share user data. Some have argued this is harmful, as it assumes things such as intended eventual pregnancy and disregards alternate conception outcomes such as termination or miscarriage. There have been additional concerns about Femtech apps reporting false information regarding users' reproductive health. While the intention behind Femtech is to give visibility to women's health and empower women, there have been several issues with Femtech perpetuating social inequalities, such as sexist stereotypes, going against what they're original goal. Feminists who have studied Femtech closely came to conclusion that rather than empowering women, they're exploiting the anxieties women have when it comes to their health. The main issues are medical reliability, privacy, gender stereotyping and epistemic injustice. Proposals to combat data-sharing practices have arisen through the use of ethics-by-design tools that stem from the CSD (Capability Sensitive Design) framework. However, it is more of a theoretical framework rather than a permanent solution. There has yet to be a permanent solution presented.

Access to Femtech
While there are several advantages to femtech, it's not accessible to all women, specifically women in low-income countries—over 44 million women in those countries lack access to the services offered. High-risk pregnancies are only one of the dangers women in low-income countries face without access to proper care. Period-tracking apps, for example, assume users have cellphones to download and use their applications. When it comes to the digital health, only 3% of the deals they've made were focused on women's health, while the rest of that focus went to men's health. With women's health already not being prioritized, femtech reframing itself to consider women globally is becoming a necessity. To close that gap, "e-hybrid" prenatal care has been proposed, which will allow flexibility is providing services to pregnant women and the kind of care that they need, specifically for women in low-income countries. However, it is mainly a potential model rather than a solid solution with many obstacles to overcome before it could actually be implemented. Femtech could start to move in the direction of operating in a global context in the meantime, though it could be some time before that happens.