Jan 96 min read

⌚The Role of Wearables in Women's Health in Asia

Updated: 6 days ago

The advent of wearables and IoT (Internet of Things) technologies has revolutionised healthcare, offering personalised insights and facilitating proactive health management. For women, these innovations play a pivotal role in monitoring key health metrics and addressing gender-specific health concerns. While the femtech industry in Asia is just beginning to incorporate wearables as solutions, there is an untapped market beyond the categories of menstrual cycle tracking and pregnancy monitoring.

Examples of women’s health tracking using wearables:

Menstrual Cycle Tracking: Tracks menstrual cycles, ovulation, and symptoms, supporting fertility planning and understanding hormonal health.
Pregnancy Monitoring: Devices monitor maternal and fetal health during pregnancy, tracking metrics such as fetal heart rate, maternal blood pressure, and contractions.
Sleep Patterns: Sleep quality significantly impacts hormonal balance and mental health. Wearables provide detailed analyses of sleep stages, duration, and disturbances.
Heart Rate Variability: Offers insights into stress levels, fitness, and overall cardiovascular health, which impact anxiety, postpartum depression and overall mental health.
Pelvic Floor Health: Devices focus on strengthening pelvic floor muscles, aiding women recovering from childbirth or dealing with conditions like incontinence.
Chronic Disease Management: Devices monitor glucose levels, blood pressure, and other metrics to manage conditions like diabetes and hypertension.

Women’s Health Tracking is Mainstream

As two of the biggest brands in the fitness and health tracking space, Apple and Garmin, have been prioritising women’s health over the past few years, exploring topics ranging from menstrual cycle phases to hormonal health.

The Apple iPhone, iPad and Watch is able to track menstrual cycles, ovulations and symptoms with easy-to-interpret metrics; along with body temperature, heart rate, irregular heart rhythm, blood oxygen level, respiratory rate, and sleep duration.

Apple shared findings from its 2023 Women’s Health Study of 50,000 US-based participants, highlighting the importance of paying attention to menstrual cycles and their connection to overall health, an inclusive voice from the tech leader. Combining wearable technology, user-friendly functionality, and in-depth data analysis resulted in powerful insights, for example:

12% of participants reported a PCOS diagnosis. Participants with PCOS had more than 4x the risk of endometrial hyperplasia (precancer of the uterus) and more than 2.5x the risk of uterine cancer.
5.7% of participants reported their cycles taking five or more years to reach cycle regularity after their first period. Participants in that group had more than 2x the risk of endometrial hyperplasia and more than 3.5x the risk of uterine cancer, compared to those who reported their cycles took less than one year to reach regularity. (1)

Continuing big brand involvement in women's health research through wearables, as part of the joint Women’s Health Research Initiative, in 2023 Garmin Health and Labfront partnered to award a grant for researchers working on women’s health globally, including five Garmin Wearables and one year use of the Labfront platform. (2)

Even to involvement in women's health research, Garmin recognised the importance of health for women. In 2021, Garmin released Lily, its smallest smartwatch, targeting women consumers with a stylish and tech-forward timepiece featuring Menstrual Tracking, Pregnancy and Sleep Tracking, with since added Stress Tracking, Body BatteryTM (energy level management) and Safety (live location tracking with trigger assistance) on compatible devices. (3)

Garmin presents health tracking for women as a way to feel more in control of their health, pairing monitoring with health & wellness content, extending beyond functionality into education and actions to take to improve health.

Global Innovation Using Wearables

Among femtech startups globally, the maternity/pregnancy category sees the most wearable technology solutions. For example, devices like Bloomlife, which monitors fetal heart rate and contractions, empowers women to stay informed throughout their pregnancy. In 2016, Ava launched the first FDA-cleared fertility tracking wearable, a sensor bracelet detecting the five most fertile days of a woman’s cycle in real-time with 90% accuracy by tracking sleeping pulse rate, breathing rate, and skin temperature. Nuvo is a FDA-cleared platform for remote fetal monitoring; and HeraBEAT is a CE certified medical device for fetal and maternal heart rate for use in home and healthcare settings, allowing healthcare providers to have remote monitoring via the HeraCARE platform, thereby, decreasing in-office appointments, capturing more vitals, and improving safety and satisfaction, while saving time. (5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

Patches are a rising trend. Canan Dagdeviren, an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) media lab, has designed a breast ultrasound scanner that can be attached to the breast via a patch. Karolina Afors, medical director at Medherant, identified an unmet need for a testosterone patch specifically for women. Levels of testosterone drop during perimenopause and menopause, so hormone replacement can help to alleviate symptoms. identifyHer launched Peri, a wearable for the torso (rather than limbs) designed to help people track and manage perimenopause symptoms. Another device, Myoovi, uses a wireless transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) machine attached to a patch to combat pain associated with endometriosis and menstrual cramps. (10, 11)

Reducing period pain is a common use for wearables. NuroKor has created a wearable, discreet device delivering multi current technology to alleviate discomfort as severe as what is endured with endometriosis. Other categories using wearables/IoT include: pelvic floor health, with solutions designed by kGoal, JunoFem and Athena Feminine Technologies; iSono Health created the world's first AI-driven portable and automated 3D breast ultrasound scanner; Incora which has designed the first wearable 18 karat gold-over-titanium earring designed to track the menstrual cycle. And the Embr Labs Embr Wave® wristband gives immediate relief from temperature discomfort and improves sleep. (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)

Revolutionising Women’s Health in Asia with Wearables/IoT

The regional femtech industry is rapidly expanding, driven by startups that combine advanced technologies with a deep understanding of women’s unique healthcare needs. Below are three companies at the forefront, delivering innovative, wearable solutions in Asia.

WomenX Biotech (Hong Kong)

WomenX Biotech facilitates the detection of women's diseases including reproductive system cancer and viral/ bacterial/ fungal infections. In Q4 2024, Founder Pui-Wah Choi officially launched the HPV testing menstrual pad, PadX, a non-invasive HPV test with 99.6% accuracy, the highest in the world. The process is to use the pad in the kit, seal it in the enclosed bag and send it to the lab - and as long as it arrives within 30 days to Hong Kong from anywhere in the world, it can be tested. New markets are set for roll-out in 2025. (19)

Biorithm (Singapore)

Biorithm offers the IoT-enabled solution, femom, for pregnancy monitoring. This AI-powered comprehensive obstetrics remote monitoring platform tracks fetal and maternal vitals, allowing healthcare providers to manage patients virtually between in-office appointments. The mobile application engages patients through clinical questionnaires and is connected to patient health devices, such as blood pressure monitors and glucometers. (20)

EloCare (Singapore)

EloCare focuses on the IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) to solve Chronic & Aging Care. This startup started by creating health solutions tailored to menopausal and aging women, with devices monitoring vital signs and providing insights into hormonal changes, bone health, and cardiovascular risks. The wearable in development has a cloud-based dashboard, supporting connected medical devices shared by patient and providers, and web & mobile applications that allow real-time information access, notification and intervention. EloCares received funding in June 2021 as winner of Enterprise Singapore’s ESG Healthcare Open Innovation Challenge. The company was awarded up to $2M SGD in cofunding to develop and deploy its unique research-based solutions in partnership with the country’s leading healthcare providers. (21)

EloCare Founder & Speaker at 2024 Femtech & Women's Health Conference

Conclusion

According to the FemTech Association Asia & Milieu Insight 2024 Report, "Insights into the Femtech Landscape in Southeast Asia", 42% of Southeast Asia femtech consumers using Menstrual Tracking Apps, wearables for cycle tracking may resonate the highest - and is a current gap - in the market, compared to Breast Health Monitoring or Menopause Tracking Apps usage at 8%; and Pregnancy Monitoring or Hormonal Contraception Apps at 7%; and Pelvic Health Devices at only 5%. (22)

The convergence of wearable technology and IoT in women’s health has elevated companies like Biorithm, EloCare and WomenX Biotech in Asia, exemplifying how innovation in wearables and IoT can address diverse health needs across life stages. As the femtech industry grows, collaborations between femtech startups, healthcare professionals, researchers and policymakers will be imperative to ensure widespread understanding, access and affordability of wearables, and how these solutions can support patient health empowerment.

FemTech Association Asia is the region's first and largest specialist advisory and industry network for founders, investors, corporates and ecosystem contributors with a core focus on improving women's health through technology solutions. We currently represent 80+ femtech companies across ten countries in Asia with additional members from overseas.

info@femtechassociation.com

https://www.femtechassociation.com