Women aren’t getting the healthcare they want and need today
After years of underinvestment, women’s health remains stagnant and desperately overdue for advancement. To start, we believe the healthcare system needs to expand its view of what women’s health actually is. Women’s health is more than reproductive health—it encompasses their full body and mind. No one knows this more than the women who feel these disconnects acutely as they pursue care.
Women experience a different healthcare system
3 shifts in how women are managing their health now
These lacking experiences have left women no choice but to take more control over their health and care, adopting new perspectives and behaviors to manage their health. Pharma, providers, medtech and health plans must respond to these shifts in their approach to women’s health.
Shift 1: Women are casting aside societal stigma to embrace their conditions
What this looks like
To better support their unique healthcare needs, women are seeking healthcare organizations that embrace taboo topics. Messaging should focus on helping women overcome stigma and support their healthcare journeys. A new wave of advocacy from governments and healthcare organizations is also helping to raise awareness and combat stigma.
In her words
How the healthcare industry can participate
Lead the conversations on topics that women once felt they had to whisper about. Continue to work to destigmatize women’s health when you:
Shift 2: Women are exploring alternatives in care
What this looks like
Women are turning to alternative care options when conventional options don’t fully meet their needs. What’s driving this? Persistent gender bias, barriers to access, market gaps, historical mistreatment of certain populations and increased skepticism about medication safety and side effects—among other things. Women can and will find their own solutions if they don’t feel heard or cared for, and that might drive them away from traditional doctor’s offices or treatments.
In her words
Opportunities outside of traditional healthcare
How the healthcare industry can participate
There are many opportunities to understand women's unique, unmet needs and to study what treatments are most appropriate for those unique needs, including alternative care. Examples include:
Shift 3: Women are choosing authentic products and experiences
What this looks like
In many households, women control the healthcare-related decision making and spending, leading 80% of the healthcare decisions for themselves and others. If something doesn’t feel right to them, women can influence the whole family’s relationship with healthcare. Women are increasingly attracted to brands that are female-led or designed specifically for women. They also desire products that authentically reflect their diverse experiences.
In her words
How the healthcare industry can participate
You can tailor your solutions for women when you:
The healthcare industry is leaving money on the table by not responding to these changes
Investments in women’s health today tend to focus on reproductive and maternal health, leaving significant white space within broader women’s health therapeutic areas.
Only ~1% of healthcare research and innovation today is invested in female-specific conditions (beyond oncology).
How ZS helps address these shifts
The ZS Women’s Health Expertise Hub partners with our clients across healthcare to advance solutions specifically for women and gender-expansive individuals. ZS defines women’s health as any therapeutic area that affects women disproportionately or differently within their biology, treatment or social contexts. In 2023, we completed more than 700 women’s health projects across therapeutic areas in core women’s health and beyond. We build on not only science but also the impacts on women’s lives, behavior and, ultimately, their health outcomes.
Wherever you are in your women’s health adoption journey, we can collaborate with you. Here’s how ZS can help you address the shifts in how women are managing their health:
Cultural intelligence+
We identify emerging and immediate cultural shifts, as well as how and why these shifts develop over time and link them back to your brand or organizational strategy. Staying on the pulse of cultural trends, technologies and the macro environment helps brands better engage with patients and consumers.
More than a patient holistic market research
We use data to quantify problems and measure the impact of potential and actual solutions. This helps organizations to choose where to invest in research and future innovations. Our research methodology accounts for the full spectrum of women’s healthcare experiences. We create products, services and campaigns that don’t just reach women but speak to them.
Women-centered service and product innovation
In our Women-Centric Design and Innovation Workshop, we customize frameworks to engage and cocreate with women to serve their diverse needs. We involve women in these conversations to understand their daily experiences and their jobs to be done while applying our therapeutic expertise.
Contact us to work together to close care gaps for women.
