Making Impactful Investments in Women’s Health

Over the past few weeks, I have had several interesting conversations with female VCs about how to source a strong investment in the women’s health space. We constantly come back to the idea of funding businesses that count all women as beneficiaries rather than a small subset, such as the “worried well” or the upper echelons of U.S. society. Access and affordability are important considerations if you are investing in a company that you expect to deliver social returns on top of financial returns.

While this list is not perfect, these are facets of women’s health that I believe deliver support to a diverse set of individuals that identify as women.

1. Infant Nutrition — For children born in 2016, about 57% of mothers are breastfeeding in addition to supplementing with formula after 6 months, and only 25% are exclusively breastfeeding. Many women struggle with breastfeeding given insufficient milk supply, pain, issues with latching, and critically, inflexible work schedules or childcare arrangements. In the ideal world, all women would be able to breastfeed given the well-documented health benefits for their child….but alas, the world is infrequently ideal and we need best-in-class solutions for when the best-laid plans of babies and women go oft awry. I am currently learning more about this space and recently interviewed the founders of Sugarlogix, a company focused on recreating the enzymes found in breast milk to develop a more nutrient-dense formula.
2. Maternal Mental Health — I have seen interesting research coming out of Dartmouth on the impact of maternal stress on neonatal health, including a fascinating discussion on how trauma physically passes from one generation to the next in-utero. This research complements existing reporting on maternal mortality and the fact that African-American, Native American and Alaska Native women are about three times more likely to die from causes related to pregnancy, compared to white women in the United States. I would pay particular attention to startups that provide affordable access to mental health professionals and prenatal and postnatal doulas. Existing companies like Maven Clinic currently provide specialists in both of these areas in addition to lactation support and back to work counseling. While companies and digitally-enabled services that democratize access to mental health support for expecting mothers are critical, there are structural issues in the American medical system that need to also be addressed, which I discuss more below.
3. Urinary Tract Support — UTIs are the number one most common infection behind the common cold. 25% of all infections reported by females are UTIs and 60% of women will get one at some point in their life. This issue transcends socioeconomic status and is often misunderstood as an infection that only results from sexual activity despite a variety of factors being at play. Once you have a UTI, you are very likely to get another one…about 80% of infections are actually reinfections. Antibiotics are typically prescribed to manage UTIs but given the high reinfection rate, antibiotic resistance becomes a factor. Uqora, a company based in San Diego, CA, has created 3-product UTI alleviation and prevention suite. Uqora’s products are backed by third party research and you can learn more about how their specific products work here. Additionally, they are currently pursuing to clinical trials to continue to build the research around UTI alleviation and prevention. You can check out my interview with founder & CEO, Jenna Ryan in my post on femtech.
4. Post Natal Support — Apparently ABC and the Oscars think scenes of real life postpartum moments are too graphic for U.S. viewers….despite the fact that their large female viewer base is likely all too familiar. I am really excited about companies like FridaMom and Bodily. Both develop products designed to help new mothers in the early days following the birth of their babies with products like peri-wash bottles, an inflatable cushion to make sitting bearable, mesh undies, giant maxi pads, belly bands, and breastfeeding support items. FridaMom products are available on Amazon and on the FridaMom site, and Bodily products are available on the Bodily site. I see amazing potential for these companies especially if they can eventually partner with hospitals to provide some of these items gratis to women during their stay.
5. Maternal Mortality Information Collection and Sharing — As mentioned above, there are many underlying issues in the healthcare system and U.S. society that enable prejudice to flourish in the way patients receive care. I believe an important space for investment will be the tracking of maternal mortality and information sharing around hospital treatment. A recent example of this? Irth — a mobile application that “recognizes that implicit bias is a significant barrier to fair treatment for all.” Irth operates similar to yelp and enables users to provide reviews on how they were treated at hospitals. Sharing these experiences is an important step in eliminating the bias in care that has been directly linked to the high black maternal mortality and black infant mortality rates. Beyond empowering patients with information, the data asset created by Irth provides hospitals with qualitative data on the care that they are providing to different groups.

Happy to discuss further. You can reach out to me at madeleineahernlivingston@gmail.com.