Insight
Women’s health diagnostics: a market in the midst of transformation
By Nina Garrett, R&D director of Abingdon Health

The women’s health diagnostics market is huge. Recent estimates suggest it is worth over US$27b and is expected to grow to over US$50b by 2029.
A number of factors are driving this change notably innovation but also a growing demand for empowerment and the ability for women to manage their own health proactively.
As a contract developer and contract manufacturer of lateral flow rapid tests, Abingdon Health is at the forefront of these changes and Nina Garrett, R&D director of Abingdon Health plc, offers her insight into the female health lateral flow market and what is driving this change.
Did you know?
The first ever lateral flow tests launched commercially were pregnancy tests. They were urine tests that were launched in the late-80s by Unipath in the UK. What is interesting is that it has taken 30 years for the first ever saliva pregnancy test to be launched.
Abingdon Health is proud to be launching SalistickTM in the UK and Ireland on behalf of its Israeli health-tech partner Salignostics Limited.
SalistickTM is far more convenient and offers women an improved user-experience, with high accuracy for early pregnancy detection, by way of its revolutionary and patented saliva technology which allows for saliva to be used as a sample rather than the traditional urine tests. The simple saliva sample collection method enables the testing experience to be shared with a partner.
Pregnancy testing seems a hot bed of innovation currently with for example a number of companies developing reusable or recyclable pregnancy tests to reduce the environmental footprint.
One example is UK-based female-founded fertility wellness brand OVUM which has launched the UK’s first fully recyclable pregnancy test to reduce environmental impact.
It’s not just pregnancy. Innovation is happening across a range of female health areas
It’s not only the pregnancy test market that is seeing transformation. We are also seeing new innovative products being developed in a range of other areas of female health. For example, there are a range of diagnostic technology products being developed to support women through the menopause.
Innovative Swedish/UK female-led company Hormona’s mission is to provide women with the tools and information they need to take control of their hormone health.
Hormona is developing a first-of-its-kind system for weekly hormone monitoring to enable women to gain a greater understanding of their hormone health.
US-based Mira Care has also launched the Ovum Wand that “provides lab-accurate detection of the follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) to predict menopause, evaluate fertility and assist in ovulation prediction”.
What is driving this change?
Within the lateral flow market the barriers to adoption of the technology have reduced significantly following the mass-use of lateral flow tests during COVID-19. Everyone is familiar with the technology and how to use it. This is now driving investment in innovation and female health diagnostics is seeing more that it’s fair share of this focus.
Also, the traditional healthcare models are no longer seen as “fit for purpose” (weeks for a GP appointment in the UK) and these models of care are increasingly being replaced by innovative technology-driven approaches which allow women to manage their health in their own time and in their own way.
We’re also seeing major retailers driving this change, within the UK leading retailers Boots and Superdrug both offering online menopause consultations and HRT treatment and monitoring and support.
Female empowerment is a major catalyst of change
However, within women’s health, there are other factors at play. One of the key drivers is the female empowerment which is driving change and a demand for more improved female health products.
This is being driven in part by female entrepreneurs looking to drive change, and it is encouraging to see these ventures being supported by a venture capital industry looking to support and invest in female-led companies. In addition, influencers are playing a key role in demanding change.
A great example is the work TV celebrity Davina McCall has done in helping women receive evidence-based information and treatment for their perimenopause and menopause.
In addition, female consumers are demanding better products that fit with their lifestyles and their needs. The gender health gap is now recognised as a key issue with both governments and NGOs looking to support innovation and products that close this gap with female health issues being brought to the top of the agenda.
A great start, but a long way to go
It is really encouraging to see the transformation of female diagnostics underway and within the lateral flow segment of the market we at Abingdon Health are actively involved in supporting the development and manufacturing of these products.
We are at the start of this paradigm shift, driven in part by innovation, lower barriers to adoption of this technology and female empowerment, and we believe this will see women increasingly proactive in taking greater control of their own health and wellbeing through the use of new diagnostic products.

News
Condé Nast to close women’s health magazine after 47 years

Condé Nast will close its women’s health publication Self after 47 years, with unprofitable editions of Glamour and Wired also set to shut.
In a memo published on the magazine giant’s website on Thursday, the media company’s chief executive, Roger Lynch, said: “As audience behaviours shift, we have not seen a path for Self to continue in its current form as a digital publication.”
“Going forward, health and wellness content will be integrated into our other brands, including Allure and Glamour,” Lynch said, referring to Condé Nast’s other beauty and wellness titles.
Self, which moved to an online-only format in 2017, still reaches more than 20m people each month.
The publication has also earned significant recognition over the years, including a National Magazine award and a Webby’s People’s Voice award.
The closure is part of a wider set of operational changes across the company. Lynch also announced the end of Wired’s Italy edition, noting that while the brand “remains a strong global brand, the Italian edition has not kept pace with growth in our other markets”.
Condé Nast will also wind down Glamour’s publishing operations in Germany, Spain and Mexico.
Lynch said: “Taken together, Wired in Italy, Self and the affected Glamour markets represent a little over 1 per cent of our overall revenue.
“They also remain unprofitable, and continuing to operate them in their current form limits our ability to invest in the ideas and areas that will drive future growth.”
Beyond editorial changes, the company is also restructuring internally to adapt to technological shifts.
Lynch said Condé Nast would make “changes within our technology organisation, reflecting the rapid advancement of AI and its impact on our ability to innovate and build products faster”, adding: “Teams will be restructured to be more agile and to work more closely with our brands and customers, reducing barriers to execution.”
The latest moves follow a series of transformations at Condé Nast in recent years.
Glamour ended its print edition in 2018, followed by Allure moving to a digital-only format in 2022.
In 2024, music publication Pitchfork was folded into GQ, the company’s men’s style magazine.
More recently, last November, Vogue, one of Condé Nast’s key revenue drivers, announced it would absorb Teen Vogue to create a more “unified reader experience across titles”.
The media industry has been shrinking steadily over the years.
From 2010 to 2017, the industry lost an average of 7,305 jobs annually, according to data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas published in December 2025.
Since 2018, the average number of job cuts in the industry has risen to 14,298 a year.
Insight
GSK ovarian and womb cancer drug shows promise in early trial

GSK said its ovarian cancer drug shrank or cleared tumours in more than 60 per cent of patients in an early trial as CCO Luke Miels pushes faster development.
The company said that in an early-stage trial, Mocertatug Rezetecan, known as Mo-Rez, shrank or eliminated tumours in 62 per cent of patients with ovarian cancer after chemotherapy had failed, and in 67 per cent of those with endometrial cancer.
Hesham Abdullah, GSK’s global head of cancer research and development, said: “Treatment of gynaecological cancers remains a major challenge, with a pressing need for new therapies that offer improved response rates.
“With Mo-Rez we now have compelling evidence of a promising clinical profile.”
GSK acquired the Mo-Rez treatment, an antibody-drug conjugate, from China’s Hansoh Pharma in late 2023 and has trialled it in 224 patients around the world, including the UK, over the past year.
Only a few patients needed to stop treatment because of side effects, the most common being nausea.
It is given every three weeks by intravenous infusion, meaning directly into a vein.
Combined with data from a separate intermediate trial in China, the results have given the British drugmaker the confidence to go straight to late-stage trials, with five clinical studies planned globally in the next few months, including on patients in the UK.
Speaking to journalists before the conference, Abdullah described Mo-Rez as a “key asset” in the company’s growing cancer portfolio.
It is expected to be a blockbuster drug, with peak annual sales of more than £2bn, which GSK hopes will help it achieve its 2031 sales target of £40bn.
A few years ago GSK did not have any cancer drugs on the market, but it now has four approved medicines and 13 in clinical development.
Last year, oncology generated nearly £2bn in sales, up 43 per cent from 2024, with sales of its endometrial cancer drug Jemperli rising 89 per cent.
Insight
Self-employment linked to better cardiovascular health outcomes in Hispanic women

Self-employment is linked to lower rates of high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, poor health and binge drinking in Hispanic women, research suggests.
The findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Ethnicity & Disease, suggest work structure may be related to cardiovascular disease risk among this group.
Dr Kimberly Narain is assistant professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, senior author of the study, and director of health services and health optimisation research for the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center.
She said: “Hispanic women experience a disproportionate burden of heart disease compared to non-Hispanic women. This is the first study to link the structure of work with risks for heart disease among this group of women.”
The researchers examined 2003 to 2022 data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to assess the association between self-employment, cardiovascular disease risk factors and health outcomes for Hispanic women.
The data included 165,600 Hispanic working women. Of those, about 21,000, or 13 per cent, were self-employed rather than working for wages or a salary.
Overall, the researchers found that self-employed women were less likely to report cardiovascular-disease-associated health problems.
They were also about 11 per cent more likely to report exercising compared with their non-self-employed counterparts.
Specifically, they found that self-employed Hispanic women had a 1.7 percentage point lower chance of reporting diabetes, roughly a 23 per cent decline.
They also had a 3.3 percentage point lower chance of reporting hypertension, roughly a 17 per cent decline.
The study also found a 5.9 percentage point lower chance of reporting obesity, roughly a 15 per cent decline.
It found a 2.0 percentage point lower chance of reporting binge drinking, roughly a 2 per cent decline.
It also found a 2.5 percentage point lower chance of reporting poor or fair overall health, roughly a 13 per cent decline.
The relationship between heart disease risks and the structure of work among Hispanic women was not driven by access to healthcare or differences in income, Narain said.
In fact, the decrease in high blood pressure linked to self-employment was nearly as large as the decrease in high blood pressure linked to being in the highest income group.
The study has some limitations.
The researchers relied on self-reported outcomes, which might be less reliable among ethnic and racial minorities and those from a lower socioeconomic background.
In addition, the researchers’ definition of poor mental health does not entirely match the accepted definition in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
They also did not have data allowing them to examine the specific types of occupations held by the women.
The study design also cannot prove any causal relationship between self-employment and cardiovascular disease risk, which is a subject the researchers will explore.
“The next step in the research is to conduct studies that are able to better assess if the structure of work is a cause of higher heart disease risks among Hispanic women.”
Narain said this.
Study co-authors are Lisette Collins, who led the research, and Dr Frederick Ferguson of UCLA.
Grants from the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center-Leichtman-Levine-TEM program and the UCLA National Clinician Scholars Program supported the research.
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