Aka Why there should be more FemTech solutions focussed on college-age students:
College-aged women are one of the least-serviced demographics when it comes to women’s healthcare, yet they are also the age range that would make most sense to target first. It is the age when many conditions first manifest:
- Half of young women – between the ages of 16-24 – in Australia reported a mental health disorder in 2022
- Most women with PCOS commonly present with symptoms by the end of their teenage years or early 20s.
- It takes 7.5 years on average for endometriosis to be diagnosed. The average age of endometriosis diagnosis is between the ages of 25-35 – so roughly between the ages of 18-28 years old. One has to wonder if part of the reason it takes so long to diagnose is precisely because it more often manifests in young women?
- Patient-reported age of discovery of vaginismus is most commonly noted between the ages of 10 and 19 years old.
- Half of STDs occur between the ages of 15 and 24.
- Dysmenorrhea (painful periods) are most common in women between the ages of 20 and 24 years.
The list goes on – and yet there is a scarcity of solutions targeting these issues and this demographic.
Furthermore, college-age women are often also uprooted from their traditional care ecosystem; start making reproductive choices that form the basis for their later lives and when they want to better understand the complexities of being sexually active.
It is also an age that lends itself well to trying out new solutions as they embark on their health journey. And yet thus far it has been dramatically neglected by the healthcare ecosystem.
One has to wonder if this will change with the generational shift that is occurring. Younger women more open than previous generations to discuss their reproductive health, leading to stronger urges to refuse the status quo and seek solutions to remedy their pain-points.
We’re certainly hard at work to make that the case. Interested in joining us / finding out more ? Apply to become a FemTechnology Ambassador at your university.
Shoot us an email at: contact@femtechnology.org with your name, the university you go to and 3 lines about why you would like to be our on-campus ambassador.