A new report is providing some much needed validation for those in the women’s health industry.
Women’s health has long been under-represented, under-researched and under-funded. About 5% of total healthcare R&D and investment funding goes towards women’s health. But a shift is taking place as research shows that increasing investor dollars are starting to flow into women’s health, and not just reproductive health, according to a report released this month from consulting firm PwC. Which means a wholesale modification of the very categories that define women’s health — traditionally thought of only as reproductive health and women specific-conditions such as menopause or endometriosis — is in order.
The traditional definition of women’s health only represents a $195-205 billion market, according to PwC. But there are medical conditions that affect women differently — like asthma, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and mental health. Then there are conditions that affect women disproportionately, including Alzheimer’s, autoimmune diseases and migraines.
When this broader definition is considered that includes a woman’s entire life cycle through all its varied stages, the women’s health industry represents a $430-440 billion global market across pharmaceuticals, devices and diagnostics, providers, payers and consumer health solutions, according to PwC.
And this is projected to reach $600 billion by 2030, and that’s “if we do nothing,” according to Glenn Hunzinger, PwC’s health industries leader.
“If we continue to have a focus, I could see those opportunities getting much wider and much bigger,” he said in an interview.
Investors, advocates and entrepreneurs were encouraged by the report’s call to action.
“What I especially appreciated is the push to reframe both the definition and the opportunity,” said Margaret Malone, partner at Flare Capital Partners. “Women’s health has historically been boxed into reproductive care and often talked about as an equity category. But in reality, it spans the full life cycle and includes high-prevalence, high-cost conditions (CVD for example) that the system hasn’t addressed well.”
What is driving market growth
PwC’s report notes that growth in women’s health is largely driven by unmet need, demographic shifts, regulatory changes and clinical innovation.
For example, women’s oncology is expanding due to advances in early detection and precision medicine, while menopause is growing due to updated guidance on Hormone Replacement Therapy. The FDA removed black box warnings on HRT products in November. In addition, anxiety and depression rates are rising, particularly tied to life stages like pregnancy and menopause. Pharmaceuticals are also projected to grow up to 10% annually due to innovation in women-specific treatments.
That increased market size is also reflected in growing investments in women’s health.
Between 2020 and 2025, about $60 billion from private equity, venture capital and corporate investment went into core women’s health segments. Early investment focused on fertility and reproductive care, but capital is diversifying into other areas. Menopause is currently one of the fastest-growing segments for investment, with 13% annual growth. There is also a growing focus on cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative disease as more people start to recognize how these conditions differ by gender.
Opportunities for future growth
Looking ahead, PwC stated that it sees three opportunities to advance the women’s health space:
1. Scaling integrated care platforms: Women’s healthcare delivery is very fragmented, creating opportunities to consolidate providers into larger platforms and integrate services across OB/GYN, fertility and specialty care. This includes digital front doors and centralized diagnostics infrastructure. Improving efficiency by deploying AI is also a “competitive differentiator.”
2. Expanding underserved segments: Conditions like menopause, endometriosis and pelvic health have traditionally “lacked dedicated care pathways and sustained innovation,” per the report. There’s an opportunity to grow these areas with non-hormonal therapies, midlife care models, education-first platforms and insurance-covered virtual services.
3. Building and scaling infrastructure for women-specific care: Tools like diagnostics, patient data systems and AI that tailor screening, monitoring and treatment “represent foundational infrastructure plays” for women’s health, the report said.
“The patient and the consumer are demanding this now. You can feel the tidal wave and the bubbling up happening. And I think that’s a huge opportunity for people to step up and own that area in many different ways, on the business model, because there’s a huge demand out there for it, but … a fragmented supply side of it. So we see an opportunity to invest, to create companies that are specific,” Hunzinger said.
What more needs to be done
For many in the women’s health industry, the PwC report is reassuring. However, while the report reaffirms the need to expand the women’s health market, experts agree that there is more to be done in creating better data infrastructure, expanding preventive health and increasing investment.
“While the report emphasizes innovation in areas like oncology, menopause care and digital health, we cannot lose sight of the power of preventive care. Routine cancer screenings and immunizations remain among the most effective tools to improve women’s health outcomes, yet they are still too often deprioritized in broader healthcare conversations,” said Millicent Gorham, CEO of the Alliance for Women’s Health and Prevention.
She added that more attention needs to be paid to obesity, which affects one in three American women and is linked to more than 200 serious health conditions.
Malone of Flare Capital Partners stated that the PwC report offers a thoughtful lens around women’s health, but added that more needs to be done, including having a higher bar for clinical evidence and expanding research.
“We need more and better data,” she said. “Women have historically been underrepresented in research, and we still lack robust, longitudinal datasets across many conditions. Without that, it’s harder to build, validate, and scale truly effective solutions. We need really smart people who can stitch together this data or build the model to collect this data more effectively.”
Another healthcare venture capitalist argued that reimbursement models need to improve in order to advance the women’s health market.
“One of the reasons that I think women’s health companies have struggled a bit to flourish is that there’s just not the same level of reimbursement that you might see in cardiology or oncology, where the investment dollars seem to be a little bit more [fleshed out],” said Ellen Herlacher, partner of LRVHealth.
One women’s health CEO called for more investment, particularly in later-stage companies and the public sector.
“While it is exciting to see capital begin to flow in a more meaningful way into women’s health, it is still a fraction of the investment in other economic sectors,” said Sarah O’Leary, CEO of Willow. “The burden of transformation is heavy on women’s health innovators. We’d like to see more late-stage investment, as well as investment in the public sector and broader health system change, to create the scaffolding to really unlock the potential in women’s health.”
For many women’s health entrepreneurs, digital health is stepping in to fill gaps left by traditional care systems.
“To truly advance women’s health, we need continued investment in sex-specific research, better diagnostics, and care models that span a lifetime, not just isolated life stages,” said Monica Cepak, CEO of women’s health startup Wisp. “The opportunity isn’t just about market size, it’s about building systems that genuinely address the gaps women face every day.”
Photo: kate_sept2004, Getty Images