“We are in a position to do something about this, and relatively quickly” - how The Lowdown is tackling the data gap in women’s health
“We are in a position to do something about this, and relatively quickly” - how The Lowdown is tackling the data gap in women’s health
A growing number of FemTech startups are helping to fill the research gap
Women spend 25% more of their lives in ill health compared to men. And one of the factors causing this is a lack of understanding about female physiology and women’s health.
Yet with clinical trials only including women after 1993 and women’s health research still severely underfunded it’s going to take a long time to catch up.
But now, a growing number of FemTech founders are working to fill the gaps in data, research and understanding - by doing it themselves.
Better health outcomes
The Lowdown, founded by Alice Pelton in 2019, is a review platform for women’s health. Originally dubbed the ‘trip advisor’ for contraceptive reviews, it’s since expanded to include endometriosis, PCOS, fertility (and shortly perimenopause too).
Now with more than 6,500 reviews and 2m+ annual website visitors it holds a rich source of data points.
“Through collecting insights on which symptoms, solutions and experiences women are having, we can help more women navigate their reproductive health journeys, and gather insights on critically misunderstood and under researched conditions,” said Alice.
This has inspired The Lowdown to evolve again - introducing a number of broader initiatives to more directly support women’s health research. This includes:
Inviting women to take part in research surveys and focus groups to gather insights for innovators in women’s health.
Spreading the word on public health information and women’s health companies.
Working directly with partners to help recruit women into clinical trials and research studies.
“Our wider vision now is to be the research platform for women's health. We want to ensure that women’s voices will be represented in research, leading to better health outcomes for women.
Protecting communities
Key to the new vision was that The Lowdown community told the team they wanted to help.
In a community survey conducted in December 2023, 80% of Lowdown users said they would either love to participate in research, or would like to, but have questions about how it works. And 62% of the community said that the main reason they want to participate is so the next generation of women have better healthcare than we have now.
So, was Alice surprised at this level of interest?
“Yes it did surprise me. I have definitely noticed more of our community feeling let down by the existing healthcare system over the last five years, and more frequently talking about the impact of this lack of research on their lives. In the UK I think things like the government's Women's Health Strategy being announced in 2021, and Davina's documentary on menopause in 2022, has given credibility and accessible airtime to these issues.“
A win-win for women’s health
The Lowdown is part of a growing group of FemTech startups working to fill the research gap.
Clue also invites its users to take part in studies and research. Approximately 80% of its users also consent to use their data for research purposes and in particular Clue uses de-identified data to help better understand menstrual and reproductive health. Recent research collaborations have included how COVID-19 impacted menstrual cycles, experiences of heavy bleeding and how menstrual cycles impact mood and behaviour.
Natural Cycles recent research has included how the moon affects the menstrual cycle and whether summer daylight hours increased ovulation rates.
Wild.ai empowers female athletes with personalised, data-driven suggestions. It previously found that only 6-8% of sports research is conducted on women so now partners with organisations including Adidas and Oura to change this.
Contraceptive guidance platform Adyn is hoping to collect data sets from its users and identify medically actionable results
So why are more and more FemTech start-ups taking the lead in this area? Alice continued:
“I think this is for two reasons. Firstly, thanks to our customer bases and communities, Femtech startups are much more aware of which research gaps exist in the first place. As the Founder of The Lowdown, it's difficult to ignore thousands of women contacting you or telling you they're experiencing a 'new' problem or side effect.
Secondly, we are in the position to do something about this - relatively quickly. Either through surveys, studies or analysis of existing datasets, we can move much quicker than large organisations to fill those gaps.”