Industries constantly shape the cultural scripts we live by. These messages appear embedded in what gets funded, studied and discussed in boardrooms and newsrooms. When industries underinvest in a problem, they imply what matters and who matters. That messaging—intentional or not—helps set norms about whose well-being we prioritize and whose experiences are sidelined.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the women’s health sector, a field historically marginalized by research funding, corporate investment and public attention.

“For too long, women have been expected to ‘figure it out’ on their own, often without guidance that reflects real-world experiences,” states Jamie Norwood, CEO and cofounder of Winx Health, via email. “Companies in this space must be educators, advocates and translators of clinical insights. Accessibility is being completely redefined. Retail partners like Walgreens are making these [vaginal and reproductive care] products mainstream, while on-demand delivery platforms, like Instacart, Doordash and Gopuff, remove the friction that often keeps people from getting care when they need it most.”

Despite women making up more than half of the global population and playing central roles in family and community health, the research landscape remains skewed. Only about 1% of healthcare research and innovation funding has gone to non-cancer female-specific conditions, according to McKinsey.

The legacy of this underfunding is centuries old. Women were routinely excluded from clinical trials before 1993, and even today, many drugs and treatments lack robust data on how they affect women differently. The absence of sex-based research results in poorer outcomes for women and gender-diverse people.

The Narrative Is Shifting—Thanks To Change Makers

A shift is underway, driven by activists, organizations, philanthropists and executives who refuse to let women’s health remain in the margins. High-profile commitments, from leaders such as Melinda French Gates, have launched targeted initiatives, including a $100 million push to fund underfunded women’s health research, explicitly to address historical blind spots in science and medicine.

When powerful institutions publicly commit major resources to women’s health, it communicates a societal value shift: Women’s health is a priority, worthy of rigorous investigation and innovation.

How O Positiv Health Is Using Data To Break The Silence Around Women’s Health

The State of the Vagina Report is a diagnostic of how women’s health is still treated across the healthcare system. By using one of the most stigmatized, least discussed aspects of women’s bodies as its lens, the report exposes a broader pattern: Silence is not accidental; it is structural.

The findings quantify what many women already know intuitively but have rarely seen validated in numbers:

• One in 3 women wouldn’t tell anyone if they had a vaginal health concern. This statistic reveals how deeply stigma still governs women’s health behavior.
• Forty-seven percent of women have experienced at least one vaginal health concern. Vaginal health issues are not rare; they are common, recurrent, and span every life stage.
• Eighty-five percent of women experience significant physical or emotional period pain, pain that is frequently minimized or self-managed without adequate medical support.

“When we look at the lived experiences of so many women, it becomes clear why trust in the medical system is breaking down,” Dr. Roxanne Pero, OBGYN MD, FACOG, FACLM, IFMCP, shares via email. “We hear countless stories of gaslighting. We see the statistics showing it takes 7–10 years on average to diagnose endometriosis. We watch a healthcare system so overburdened that compassion, listening, and patience are often the first things sacrificed.”

This report marks a first step in reframing silence as a data point, not a personal failing. By putting numbers behind stigma, O Positiv Health transforms what has long been treated as “private” into something that is clearly public, systemic and addressable.

Narratives change when data makes denial impossible.

How Samphire Neuroscience Is Innovating Women’s Health

Samphire Neuroscience, cofounded by neuroscientist Dr. Emilė Radytė, represents a new category of women’s health innovation, one that treats the brain as the central interface through which hormonal change is experienced.

Rather than defaulting to hormone-based interventions, the company focuses on non-hormonal, non-drug brain stimulation to support women during periods of heightened neurological sensitivity. Products like Lutea use the same proprietary, clinically validated technology to deliver gentle, targeted stimulation at specific moments in a woman’s cycle.

Instead of funneling women into rigid diagnostic “buckets,” the company acknowledges that many women experience overlapping cycles simultaneously, including menstruation, perimenopause and postpartum changes.

In doing so, Samphire Neuroscience is helping redefine how women’s health is discussed, studied and supported, shifting the narrative from one-size-fits-all solutions to neuroscience-informed personalization.

“I strongly believe that women are the experts of their own experience,” Radytė shared over Zoom. “Women themselves need to become their own advocates, and unfortunately, be a lot more educated. That comes through owning your own cycle. And by cycle, I mean all cycles that might be relevant for you.”

Beyond Reforming The Narrative: Giving Patients Control Of Their Own Story

Much of the conversation around women’s health focuses on visibility and reforming outdated narratives. Folia Health goes a step further. It is changing who controls the narrative in the first place.

Folia’s platform addresses one of the most common and quietly stressful experiences in healthcare: Walking into an appointment knowing something is wrong, but fearing you will fail to communicate the full picture under time pressure. This challenge is especially pronounced for women, who are more likely to manage multiple conditions simultaneously.

By enabling people to track symptoms, treatments and outcomes as they occur, Folia removes the burden of recall. Patients no longer have to rely on memory or verbal storytelling. Instead, they arrive with structured data that reflects their lived experience over time. The anxiety of “Did I mention that?” or “I forgot to say this happens every third week” is replaced with confidence.

Importantly, while Folia is deeply relevant to women’s health, it is designed for both women and men. Chronic, rare, and complex conditions do not follow gender lines, and the need for accurate, patient-reported data is universal. What distinguishes the platform’s impact on women’s health is its direct address of the gap between what patients experience daily and what is captured in a medical record. Folia turns lived experience into evidence.

Additionally, investors are noticing. The company announced in October a $10.5 million Series A led by S3 Ventures.

“The idea behind Folia is that if you can get everything that you’re experiencing collected as data as you experience it, and then instead of talking through it, just say this is what’s been going on,” Nell Meosky, founder of Folia, stated over Zoom. “Then hand them a graph. Hand them a simple report of what’s been going on. The idea is that a graph is worth 1000 words. It’s so much clearer to them and faster. Then you can actually come up with a solution that works for you.”

The women’s health movement’s progress shows how shifting messaging and priorities can reshape societal norms. When more companies and leaders step up, they reinforce a broader cultural message: that women’s health is fundamental to human wellbeing. That message has ripple effects, influencing public policy and reshaping markets.

“Investing in women’s health now means entering a sector with huge unmet demand, strong repeat-use behavior and clear clinical pathways,” Kate Ferguson, chief of staff at Samphire Neuroscience, stated via email. “There’s a generational shift underway: Gen Z and Gen Alpha expect better science, better technology and better understanding of their bodies. The brands that speak to that expectation will define the next era of health.”

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Updated January 2026: ‘Samphire’ to ‘Samphire Neuroscience’