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Could femtech offer creative solutions for women seeking abortion care?
With one in four women accessing abortion during their lifetimes, we examine if femtech’s interest in fertility could provide options for abortion aftercare
Femtech is taking on the fertility market by providing options for women who have been disappointed by the care already on offer. One of the ways in which it excels in considering all areas of fertility however controversial or difficult. This includes discussions on discharge health, miscarriages, depression and the difficult subject of abortion care.
The demand for abortion care is rising thanks to the pandemic and also, new laws such as the Texas restrictions passed last year. A study by researchers at the University of Texas found that requests by people in the state to an international humanitarian organisation, Aid Access rose by almost 1,200 per cent the same week that Senate Bill 8 went into effect.
When it comes to offering care options, femtech is perfectly positioned to offer help to women considering their options. It can offer communication with healthcare professionals via telemedicine links and platforms with detailed care or education options. It may also offer ordering options for pills, therapies or pain medication through virtual reality stores or clinics. All of which allows women to make their own decisions, at home, with loved ones and feel supported.
So what are the ways in which femtech companies are approaching abortion care?
Women First Digital on Whatsapp
Women First Digital (WFD) is not just a predominately female-run platform for safe abortion information but also offers contraceptive, sexual and reproductive health advice. The platform recently released a WhatsApp bot extension for Ally, which was the world’s first-ever abortion virtual assistant. It connects women across the globe to accurate information on abortion care or services.
The biggest benefit of using WhatsApp chatbots in healthcare is the immediate reach. It can be used by consultants for everything from reminding patients to take their medication on time to providing health data. It also reaches patients in their own environment to empower them to take control of their own healthcare. It allows women to make informed decisions with information on demand, as needed and furthers communication with experts in the field on offer through the app.
WhatsApp also provides complete protection to the data and identity of all parties through two-factor authentication, end-to-end encryption, and business verification.
Tisha Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director of WFD said: “Women First Digital inhabits the intersection between technology and reproductive healthcare with eHealth platforms intended to minimise barriers, improve reach, and strengthen women’s decision-making power. That’s why we’re excited to announce the expansion of our HowToUse chatbot Ally to WhatsApp, a tool that will help more women access the information they need to create opportunities for better lives.
On WhatsApp, the Ally bot has the potential to reach women on a device and application they frequently use and give them quick, tailored, and easy-to-understand information with safety and discretion.”
The chatbot, Ally, has had over 35,000 conversations with roughly 30,000 unique users from around the world through both the home site and Facebook messenger since March 2020.
“In the past five years, WFD platforms have had more than 13 million site visits with users from over 180 countries helping to reduce the rate of unsafe abortions and broaden contraceptive awareness. Ultimately, we work every day towards a world in which all women have access to sexual and reproductive health services that are safe, reliable and individually tailored,” concludes Gopalakrishnan.
Hey Jane virtual Clinic
Hey Jane offers ‘modern abortion care, without the clinic’ according to their website which looks similar to wellness sites. They are currently only operating in certain parts of the US such as New York or Illinois with their pills by post platform. Women who are pregnant up to ten weeks can log in, chat with a licensed provider through text or video depending on a person’s preferences and request an unmarked box of pills delivered at home.
The care does not stop with just the pills but creates a community where women can chat. Often abortion is not discussed due to stigma or religious beliefs or pressure, so the community can be crucial to women going through it alone.
The platform was created by the co-founders, Gaby Izarra and chief executive officer, Kiki Freedman. The company raised $2.2m in a funding round and saw its customer growth increase by 300 per cent between Q1 and Q2 of 2020. The founders believe that currently, abortion care is too difficult to access in terms of logistics, financial constraints, and from a stigma and emotional perspective.
Abortion pills by post
Covid changed a lot about the way that we approach healthcare including telemedicine and appointments over the phone. One way in which it changes the abortion care industry in the UK is that it made pills available for the first time by post by the NHS. Abortion law was amended in 2020 to allow women the right to take the pills at home during the lockdown.
However, Maggie Throup, the public health minister, confirmed on Thursday that women seeking to terminate a pregnancy by taking the two pills involved at home would lose that right at the end of August. However, Wales has announced it will make the move permanent citing the reduction in numbers accessing NHS care. Doctors, midwives, pro-choice groups and abortion providers in the UK have voiced opposition to this move requesting that the pills by post scheme be kept.
If this is introduced in August, tech may have even more of a part to play in helping women to access their options.
Read more: Why are femtech companies embracing the wellness industry?
Ovarian cancer cells quickly activate survival responses after PARP inhibitor treatment, and a lung cancer drug could help block this, research suggests.
PARP inhibitors are a common treatment for ovarian cancer, particularly in tumours with faulty DNA repair. They stop cancer cells fixing DNA damage, which leads to cell death, but many tumours later stop responding.
Researchers identified a way cancer cells may survive PARP inhibitor treatment from the outset, pointing to a potential way to block that response. A Mayo Clinic team found ovarian cancer cells rapidly switch on a pro-survival programme after exposure to PARP inhibitors. A key driver is FRA1, a transcription factor (a protein that turns genes on and off) that helps cancer cells adapt and avoid death.
The team then tested whether brigatinib, a drug approved for certain lung cancers, could block this response and boost the effect of PARP inhibitors. Brigatinib was chosen because it inhibits multiple signalling pathways involved in cancer cell survival.
In laboratory studies, combining brigatinib with a PARP inhibitor was more effective than either treatment alone. Notably, the effect was seen in cancer cells but not normal cells, suggesting a more targeted approach.
Brigatinib also appeared to act in an unexpected way. Rather than working through the usual DNA repair routes, it shut down two signalling molecules, FAK and EPHA2, that aggressive ovarian cancer cells rely on. FAK and EPHA2 are proteins that relay survival signals inside cells. Blocking both at once weakened the cells’ ability to adapt and resist treatment, making them more vulnerable to PARP inhibitors.
Tumours with higher levels of FAK and EPHA2 responded better to the drug combination. Other data link high levels of these molecules to more aggressive disease, pointing to potential benefit in harder-to-treat cases.
Arun Kanakkanthara, an oncology investigator at Mayo Clinic and a senior author of the study, said: “This work shows that drug resistance does not always emerge slowly over time; cancer cells can activate survival programmes very early after treatment begins.”
John Weroha, a medical oncologist at Mayo Clinic and a senior author of the study, said: “From a clinical perspective, resistance remains one of the biggest challenges in treating ovarian cancer. By combining mechanistic insights from Dr Kanakkanthara’s laboratory with my clinical experience, this preclinical work supports the strategy of targeting resistance early, before it has a chance to take hold. This strategy could improve patient outcomes.”
Nighttime temperatures during pregnancy may be linked to a higher chance of an autism diagnosis in children, a recent study suggests.
The research tracked nearly 295,000 mother-child pairs in Southern California from 2001 to 2014 and linked warmer overnight temperatures with higher risk in early and late pregnancy.
Children of mothers exposed to higher than typical nighttime temperatures during weeks one to 10 of pregnancy had a 15 per cent higher risk of an autism diagnosis.
Exposure during weeks 30 to 37 was linked to a 13 per cent higher risk.
Lead author David Luglio, a post-doctoral fellow at Tulane University, said: “A key takeaway is that we identified specific windows when a mother and her developing child can be most affected by exposures to higher nighttime temperatures.
“This is critical and hopefully can help mothers prepare accordingly.”
The study is described as the first to examine how temperature may affect fetal neurodevelopment, the process by which a baby’s brain and nervous system form during pregnancy.
Extreme temperatures linked to increased risk were classified as above the 90th percentile, meaning 3.6°F hotter than average, and the 99th percentile, 5.6°F above average.
The association held even after researchers accounted for factors such as neighbourhood conditions, vegetation and fine-particle air pollution.
The study could not account for other factors such as access to air conditioning. Researchers did not find the same association with daytime temperatures, potentially because people spend more time away from home during the day.
“Heat waves are becoming more frequent, and people may only think of the dangers of daytime heat exposure,” said Mostafijur Rahman, assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Tulane University.
“These results indicate a strong association between high nighttime temperatures during pregnancy and autism risk in children and show that we need to think about exposure to heat around the clock.”
The study did not examine how higher temperatures at night might affect prenatal development, though Luglio said it is possible that warmer nights disrupt sleep for pregnant mothers.
Previous research has suggested insufficient sleep during pregnancy may be linked to a higher risk of neurocognitive delays in children.
“Extreme heat exposure during pregnancy has been linked to a range of adverse health outcomes, including prenatal neurodevelopment delays and complications with an embryo’s development of a central nervous system,” Luglio said.
“The goal of our study was to specifically explore the link between prenatal heat exposure and autism diagnoses for the first time.”
Kindbody has launched a fertility platform integrating AI with clinical care and patient support for employers and health plans.
The platform will enter a pilot with select Kindbody employer clients in 2026, covering over three million lives, ahead of wider availability in 2027.
Building on the company’s clinical model, the platform aims to improve outcomes and cost efficiency across family-building journeys. It connects Kindbody-owned clinics, partner clinics and an integrated clinical app.
The app offers virtual care across conception, pregnancy and reproductive health, extending through the menopause transition.
Launch features include updates in medication management, third-party reproduction, adoption, pregnancy, men’s health and global programme design.
David Stern, chief executive of Kindbody, said: “With our next-generation fertility platform, Kindbody is redefining what comprehensive, intelligent and affordable family-building care looks like for employers, health plans and patients.
“By unifying best-in-class clinical care, AI-driven intelligence and whole-person support, we are making it easier and more cost-effective for more people to build the families they envision.”
Kindbody has expanded access via its national network of IVF centres, including IVIRMA, Inception Fertility and Ivy Fertility.
A new Fertility Medication Portal is designed to streamline authorisations so medicines can be dispensed on time, giving patients visibility from prescription to coverage, pharmacy fulfilment and delivery tracking.
Through KindMan, men’s health education, digital resources and integrated clinical care are expanding, including hormone management programmes.
Services cover andropause (age-related testosterone decline), erectile dysfunction, low testosterone and other male reproductive conditions.
Specialist fertility care includes semen analysis, diagnostic testing, male hormone panels, genetic testing, surgical sperm extraction and sperm cryopreservation.
Launching in the second quarter, a pregnancy support app will act as a digital companion for expecting and new parents, with resources, interactive tools and clinical assessments to identify social drivers of health and mental health needs during pregnancy and beyond.
Kindbody’s physician-led menopause programme provides consultations with board-certified obstetricians and gynaecologists to diagnose, treat and manage menopausal symptoms, including hormone replacement therapy where appropriate, with support from nutritionists, mental health therapists and pelvic floor specialists.
AI and analytics will be embedded across the care journey. An AI care navigator will guide employees from benefit activation through intake, triage and scheduling.
Tools will track benefits and treatment plans, showing coverage and expected out-of-pocket costs at each step.
AI-supported scribing will assist clinicians with documentation, and a predictor tool will estimate a patient’s likelihood of having a baby across different treatment paths.
In 2027, Kindbody plans a savings model for eligible large employers that it says will guarantee lower total fertility spend while improving clinical efficiency and patient experience.
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