Femtech companies offer innovative solutions for women’s health issues. Subjects often neglected by conventional medical research and political leaders, observes the weekly Nikkei Asia.
International Women’s Day takes place 67 days into the year 2022. Give or take seven days, this corresponds to the average number of school days “missed each year by young Laotians due to menstrual poverty”, observe Nikkei Asia.
Period poverty means a lack of access to sanitary materials and education regarding menstrual cycles. A situation, which according to the United Nations, affects one in ten women in the world. “A problem particularly present in patriarchal societies like Laos, where menstruation is considered a taboo subject”, writes the weekly.
The Laotian example introduces a long in-depth investigation by the weekly on the recent development in Asia of digital applications or methods intended to help women with their health issues. While these subjects are often taboo, male policy makers are reluctant to address the issue and medical research often neglects female pathologies, the newspaper says.
The survey cites examples of the development of applications or tools to remedy these shortcomings.
So RealRelief launched a reusable sanitary napkin made from an antimicrobial fabric that kills bacteria in thirty seconds. An essential precaution so many women in the poorest regions of Asia do not have access to clean water.
Difficult access
“Even if you wash it in contaminated lake or river water, the fabric washes away harmful bacteria, so you don’t have to worry regarding infection anymore,” explains the director of the company. This product is available in ten countries across Africa and Asia.
A young Vietnamese woman has created an application to describe the stages of pregnancy. A knowledge that she lacked when she herself became pregnant. In India, a young company using connected tools offered access to care and to professionals to manage endometriosis.
But the journalists stress how technological means are not a miracle solution, as Asian women often have less access to these tools and to Internet networks. An additional sign of the discrimination to which they are subjected.
Source
Known as Nikkei Asian Review until September 2020, the magazine Nikkei Asia maintains the same editorial line. A rigorous coverage of Asia which underlines the interest of the Japanese group Nikkei on the
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