Women’s health remains underfunded despite significant needs. Faced with the decline in investments, citizen mobilization and crowdfunding are becoming levers for innovation.
While women represent more than half of the world’s population, less than 1% of global health research and development spending is devoted to pathologies that directly concern them. This imbalance is naturally found in the investment world: less than 2% of global venture capital funding is directed towards femtech, this sector born just a decade ago to designate technologies, services and products dedicated to women’s health.
And yet, the needs are immense. Endometriosis, now widely publicized, has helped to make visible a deeper delay in taking women’s health into account. Because behind this pathology hide many other subjects that are still too silent: uterine fibroids, which affect up to 70% of womenbut also disorders linked to menopause or chronic gynecological bleeding. Often trivialized and insufficiently studied, these pathologies continue to suffer from a lack of therapeutic innovations adapted to patients’ expectations.
This situation is not only medical. It is also cultural, economic and historical. Because health innovation has historically been built around three major drivers: the health emergency, the scientific curiosity of researchers and the economic potential identified by the industry. However, women’s health issues have remained on the periphery of these dynamics for a long time.
But those days are over. Because the momentum that is emerging today no longer comes only from laboratories or investors: it is now driven by civil society itself.
Increased visibility in the media, increased speaking out on social networks, success of podcasts like Bliss Stories, associative and community mobilization… Women no longer simply want to be treated: they want to be heard, represented and fully involved in decisions that concern their health.
This mobilization today goes beyond the simple awareness-raising stage. It is gradually redefining the way in which citizens participate in medical innovation. Traditionally, patients were mainly associated with clinical trials or considered as passive beneficiaries of the treatments developed. From now on, associations, collectives and communities also become players in visibility, influence and sometimes even acceleration of certain innovations.
The emergence of Chief Patient Officer positions within certain pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies illustrates this transformation. Likewise, the growing participation of patient associations in the deliberations of the High Authority for Health (HAS) or the rise in power of “patient experts” testify to a profound change: patients are no longer just recipients of medical innovation; they are increasingly participating in defining its priorities and adopting new practices focused on their real needs.
Because the difficulties remain numerous. According to the fundraising barometer published by In ExtensoFrance experienced a marked contraction in health financing in 2025, with a drop of 13% in the amounts raised and 23% in the number of operations compared to 2024. At the same time, investors are increasingly focusing their strategies on projects deemed mature and therefore less risky.
In this context, crowdfunding stands out as one of the new drivers of health innovation. While traditional investors focus on the most mature projects, citizens choose to directly support the solutions they consider a priority. And this dynamic is accelerating. According to theEuropean Community Capital Landscape 2025European crowdequity continues to progress: 354 successful campaigns in 2025 and 279 million euros raised from 68,800 investors. Life sciences once again constitute the leading sector financed this year, while France has established itself as the most active market in Europe.
These figures reflect a profound evolution: citizens no longer just want to benefit from medical innovation. They now want to contribute to its emergence, accelerate projects responding to long-neglected needs and participate more directly in the transformation of the health system.
For too long, women’s health has remained a blind spot in medical innovation. But behind the rise of femtech there is perhaps a broader transformation: a more collaborative health innovation, more connected to the real needs of patients and more driven by the communities themselves. Tomorrow, major medical advances could arise from the priorities that citizens choose to support.
