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Digital Health and FemTech: AI Tools Built for Women’s Care

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6 minute read 06 Feb 2026
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AI and FemTech are transforming women’s health with tools built for real needs, from diagnostics to personalised care

In brief

  • AI and FemTech are closing gaps in women’s health with tools built for real needs, from diagnostics to personalised care and remote trials.
  • Ireland is emerging as a FemTech hub, driven by female-led startups, policy support, and growing investment in digital health innovation.

1. Health tech is waking up to women

As per the World Health Organization, women spend 25% more of their lives in poorer health than men, despite living longer. That figure reflects decades of underinvestment, limited data, and care systems that rarely accounted for sex-specific realities.

Change is long overdue and is finally happening, at speed.

Today, digital health tools are rapidly responding to the reality that women aren’t small men and it’s no longer one size fits all when it comes to medicine, treatment and support. AI is a powerful force in surfacing patterns that were previously missed or simply disregarded.

The momentum is clear in the tools being built, the funding being raised, and the systems being re-examined. Ireland is contributing through deep tech startups, policy support, and a growing network of female-led innovation.

How EY can help

2. Designed by default: the male template in medicine

So what’s changed? Clinical trials and diagnostic systems have long reflected a narrow view of the body, one shaped by male physiology and reinforced by regulatory decisions. In 1977, the FDA excluded women of childbearing age from early-phase trials, a policy that held for until 1993.  To this day women are largely underrepresented in clinical trials.

Assumptions about hormones and reproduction continue to influence trial design, leaving female health patterns comparatively in the dark. Precision medicine has brought new tools, but the underlying data still leans toward male norms, skewing how symptoms are interpreted, how diseases are defined, and how treatments are developed. The consequences are visible for women where care often arrives late, misses the mark, or fails to account for how illness is actually experienced by women.

 

This is a legacy that has to be addressed. 

 

3. Tools that work for women.

The fix begins with tools women can use. Digital health is finally being built around female realities - biological, social, and systemic. The most promising innovations are those that respond to how women actually experience health, illness, and care. So far, these include:

  • AI systems that detect overlooked symptom patterns and interpret scans with sex-specific nuance
  • Cycle-aware apps that track hormonal rhythms, sleep, pain, and chronic conditions over time
  • Remote trial platforms designed for women balancing caregiving, shift work, or limited mobility
  • Digital twins that simulate treatment outcomes for women excluded from traditional trials due to pregnancy, comorbidities, or age

These examples are already in use, and they’re evolving fast, driven by data, demand, and teams of motivated female founders, scientists and innovators.

A standout example: Hertility, founded by EOY finalists Deirdre and Dr. Helen O’Neill, delivers a 360-degree view of women’s health through advanced technology, comprehensive diagnostic testing, and expert medical guidance. Dr. Helen said:

“Hertility was born out of a need for preventative, personalised and dedicated expert healthcare across a woman’s hormonal lifespan. Our next-generation at-home diagnostic testing, telemedicine, treatments, prescriptions, and clinical services provide advanced insights into reproductive health, fertility decline, and the onset of menopause, as well as the diagnosis of 18 conditions with 99% clinical accuracy. I am proud to say that our patent-pending diagnostic tool, GYN-AI, reduces diagnosis times for some conditions from nine years to seven days.”

Ireland is leading the way in new technology development in this space. For example, Amara Therapeutics is developing a new patient-enabled platform for female urinary symptoms. Aveta Medical is developing a non-hormonal treatment for women affected by genitourinary syndrome of menopause. OnaWave is using digital tech and biomarkers to tackle endometriosis.

Dr. Tanya Mulcahy

Director of Health Innovation Hub Ireland (HIHI)

4. Ireland’s Femtech builders have broken ground

Beyond MedTech, a different kind of health innovation is catching fire in Ireland. Startups are working on fertility, menopause, postpartum care, and chronic conditions that have long been sidelined. These aren’t speculative ventures. The solutions being produced and delivered are grounded in clinical realities and shaped by the women most affected.

The Health Innovation Hub Ireland’s FemTech Innovation Call has brought forward a cohort of companies that are building with depth, many led by women, many working in areas where conventional medicine has consistently underdelivered. The joint report from HIHI and University College Cork adds weight to their work, calling for targeted investment, policy reform, and a national strategy that treats women’s health as central to how care is designed and delivered.

Femtech represents one of the most exciting frontiers in healthcare and economic innovation. We’re already seeing strong momentum from Irish companies developing solutions for women’s health, but this remains largely uncharted territory. The opportunities are significant, not only to strengthen Ireland’s world-leading MedTech sector, but to close critical gaps in women’s healthcare. The recent HIHI/UCC Femtech in Ireland Report sets out the case for enabling and accelerating this important area of innovation.

Dr Tanya Mulcahy PhD

Director Health Innovation Hub Ireland.

5. Money is moving towards a Ms’d opportunity

Funding is beginning to reflect the kind of work that has been happening quietly for years. FemTech raised $2.6 billion globally last year a 55% increase on the previous year. Ireland is part of that picture, with growing interest in tools that support menopause, mental health, and chronic conditions. Wearables and personalised health technologies are being backed for what they offer: ways to track and respond to health experiences that haven’t been well supported, if supported at all.

The scope of Femtech continues to expand. Diagnostics, chronic disease management, and AI-led platforms are drawing attention from biotech and pharma. Despite representing just 2% of health tech VC, FemTech’s projected market value exceeds $103 billion by 2030.

This movement is steady. It follows the work, the persistence, and the attention to detail that has defined much of women’s health innovation.

The recent HIHI / UCC report is of immense importance. It is the first time that a true evidence-based review of FemTech in Ireland has been conducted and provides an excellent base from which to build not only great FemTech companies but encourage the whole FemTech ecosystem

Emily O’Sullivan

Partner & EHR Lead, EY Ireland

6. Systems shape outcomes

What gets built and who it reaches is shaped by more than innovation. Data privacy rules, public health infrastructure, and regulatory decisions all influence how tools are designed and where they land. In Ireland, policy is being reconsidered in parallel with new health technologies. There’s space to bring these strands closer together, so that the systems supporting care reflect the realities of those receiving it.

These systems shape who gets seen, who gets treated, and how care is delivered

While 19 of the top 20 Lifesciences companies have a base in Ireland, employing over 100,000 people, the Irish Government is working on the country’s first Lifesciences Strategy. The aim of the strategy is to ensure that this important sector remains competitive and that government adopts a coherent and ambitious approach to future opportunities.

Ronan Glynn

Partner Business Consulting, EY Ireland

Ireland: A FemTech Hub in Practice

The infrastructure is already supporting real work. In 2024, Health Innovation Hub Ireland launched its first FemTech Innovation Call. Eleven companies were selected—focused on fertility, menopause, postpartum care, and chronic conditions like Parkinson’s in women. Seventy-three percent of applicants had female founders. Several were deep tech. These teams are building tools shaped by clinical need and lived experience. The foundation is strong: MedTech capability, policy support, and a growing network of women leading the work.

7. Global Implications and Bumps in the Road Ahead

The digitalisation of women’s healthcare is unfolding across geographies and contexts. From maternal monitoring systems in local clinics to AI-powered diagnostics in major hospitals, the potential to improve outcomes is tangible.

But progress depends on more than technology. And, the future of Femtech has challenges to face:

  • Sensitive data collected by FemTech apps raises valid concerns around privacy and surveillance.
  • Regulatory clarity is still lacking in many jurisdictions, especially for tools focused on women’s health.
  • Investment flows remain uneven, with female-focused solutions receiving a fraction of overall health tech funding.

Addressing these issues requires shared effort. Governments, startups, researchers, and corporates all have a role to play in shaping innovation that is clinically relevant, ethically sound, and widely accessible.

Ireland is part of this wider movement with work that is distinct in its pace and precision.

8. A woman’s work is …. rewriting healthcare.

Across Ireland, the work is steady and specific with researchers gathering data, founders building tools, and clinicians testing new approaches. Importantly, policymakers are listening. FemTech now sits firmly within a wider pattern of healthcare design shaped by lived experience and clinical need.

The work is quiet, deliberate, and grounded in the realities of care. But, there is speed and urgency too. Women’s healthcare is being built in real time. Ireland has the potential to be a leading light in a movement that support a better standard of care for half the population.

End

EY is contributing to women’s health innovation through internal programmes like the Women in Tech initiative and the EY STEM App, and through external partnerships that support inclusive trial design and ethical AI in healthcare. To learn more or get involved, reach out to the EY Health team or explore the Women in Technology programme.

Summary

AI and FemTech are transforming women’s health by addressing long-standing gaps in research, diagnostics, and care. Digital tools now reflect female biology and lived realities, from cycle-aware apps to remote trial platforms and digital twins. Ireland is emerging as a hub for this innovation, with female-led startups, policy support, and growing investment driving progress. Funding momentum and a projected $103 billion global market signal that women’s health is becoming central to healthcare innovation.

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