A Complete Guide On Women’s Health App Development 2022

For the last few years, FemTech – which specifically deals with products, services and software

technologies based on women’s health – has become one of the most popular fields of mHealth applications. According to Grand View Research, the global women’s health app market size was valued at USD 2.7 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.45% from 2022 to 2030. This shows that the demand for such apps is strongly growing, and the market still has a lot of niches.

If you are enthusiastic about entering the world of FemTech, this article familiarizes you with various FemTech solutions (women’s health apps), benefits of the women’s health apps, and how to develop a successful women health tracking app. 

1. The Definition Of Femtech 

“Femtech (or female technology) is a term applied to a category of software, diagnostics, products, and services that use technology often to focus on women’s health.” –  Wikipedia.

In other words, Femtech implies using digital technology to enable patients to access applications and use them to address women’s health concerns. Fertility solutions, period-tracking apps, pregnancy and nursing care, women’s sexual wellness, and reproductive system health care are included in this sector. 

2. Growing Market Trend For Women’s Health Apps

Source: Appinventiv

In the last five years, venture capital groups have invested around USD 1 Billion in Femtech, which is quite huge.

Considering the potential impact of Covid-19 on the Femtech industry, there are some great investment opportunities. Appreneurs can turn around the scenario and come up with innovative apps that benefit women’s health. Here are some facts and figures showing why investing in FemTech is beneficial:

• According to Global Healthcare Report, Initiatives for women’s health were vigorously negotiated in 2019. Female health organizations reported a 246% increase in funding due to this. In 2019, deals increased by 25% compared to 2018.
• Artificial Intelligence used in healthcare has been highly funded since 2019.
• According to FemTech Analytics, for June 2021, there are more than 1,500 FemTech companies with USD 16 billion of investment in total. 
• 80% of household healthcare spending was done by women. It suggested a demanded niche in the healthcare industry.
• According to Statista, the global market for FemTech products and services is expected to grow by over USD 60 Billion by the year 2027.

FemTech has given women greater access to information about their health and increased control over their bodies. As a result, the apps catering to women’s health and needs are not just a trend today but a priority.

3. Benefits Of Women’s Health App

Not only women but also doctors and other medical professionals can use the applications to analyze female concerns. Let’s take a quick look at the advantages of women’s health applications:

Benefits of Women’s Health Apps for Businesses

Niche Market Targeting

Women’s health apps provide a fast-growing market. Developers and medical professionals have not yet exploited its full potential. The business’s ability to make money can be improved, and several advantages can be found by focusing on this niche market. Applications for tracking women’s health can be enhanced with a variety of features to meet their specific needs better.

Demand-Driven Technology

Women’s health apps are an in-demand technology. The Femtech apps only began to appear a few years ago. Due to their many features and benefits for the users, they have prevailed in the market and become a great trend. Therefore, developing such an app would be advantageous for developers.

High Return on Investment Rate

The developers may receive a high rate of return by developing an app for various women and offering personalized content. Because there aren’t many apps that cater to women’s needs, developers can charge a lot for premium features, which could accelerate their ability to turn a profit.

Community Helps in Business Expansion

Thanks to women’s apps, women worldwide can now gather and share problems and solutions. Community helps businesses make even more money as they have a global outreach.

Women’s Interaction With Mobile Phones is Higher Than Men

Research has shown that women spend much more time on their phones than men. Therefore, developing a female-focused application can greatly aid companies in increasing their profitability.

Benefits of Female Health Apps for Users

Assists in Controlling and Keeping a Record of Women’s Health

The applications offer information on women’s concerns, such as menstrual cycles, ovulation, fertile days, mood swings, and birth control. Women who are knowledgeable about their bodies can better monitor how their bodies are functioning internally and accordingly make decisions. With these applications, the likelihood of unwanted pregnancies can be decreased. If it is required, the information is also available to the doctors and physicians.

Notifying Potential Diseases and Infections

As Femtech gives women access to real-time data, it also allows them to diagnose potential infections and diseases. Therefore, timely treatment can be given in such cases. Women using health apps always feel at ease as they can receive timely professional advice.

Accessing Healthcare Service Anywhere, Anytime

Before, it can be difficult for women to reach healthcare facilities when they live in rural areas. However, nowadays, healthcare apps have made accessibility simple thanks to digitization. All the healthcare information women need, or even virtual monitoring by doctors, is just a few clicks away. 

Confidentiality is an Unquestionable Benefit

The fact that these apps maintain data confidentiality up until you disclose it is their main benefit. Because of the confidentiality aspect, the liberty of using these health apps is highly appreciated

Monitor Women’s Fitness

Many women use female wellness apps to keep their bodies in shape and stay active. Since pregnancy causes numerous physical changes in a woman’s body, these apps have played an essential role in the journey to regain women’s body shape and size.

4. Top 10 Popular Women’s Health App Types 

Women’s Period and Fertility Tracking App	Breastfeeding App
Pregnancy Tracker Apps	Mother’s Community App
Birth Control Apps	Breast Health Control App
Sexual Self Care	Feminine Hygiene App
Trainer Apps	Online Consultation Apps

Women’s Period and Fertility Tracking App

The women’s period and fertility tracker apps record the monthly period cycle and fertile days. Data such as past period dates, heart rate, body temperature, etc. are stored and examined. These applications forecast the upcoming menstrual cycle, fertile days, PMS, etc. using the previously stored information. Women who wish to conceive and those who want to avoid unintended pregnancies can benefit from this information.

Examples: Flo, Clue, Ovia, Glow, Natural Cycles

Pregnancy Tracker Apps

Pregnant women have found these apps to be helpful guiding support. With the help of these apps, women can get ready for parenthood. Pregnancy tracker apps can be used to monitor growth on a daily and weekly basis. Additionally, the apps are beneficial once the baby is born. They inform the mothers about the child’s development and, if necessary, offer knowledgeable counsel.

Moreover, you can add these features to your app: 

• Lists with meal recipes.
• Lists with medications that aren’t allowed during pregnancy & the risks/side-effects of taking them.
• Physical exercise for pregnant women & others.

Pregnancy tracker apps take care of both pregnancy worries and postpartum concerts.

Examples: Pregnancy Tracker—BabyCenter, Ovia Pregnancy Tracker, Pregnancy & Baby Tracker WTE, The Bump—Pregnancy Tracker, WebMD Pregnancy

Birth Control Apps

Natural Cycles App

When making plans for your baby, you should take utmost care of the most fertile days of your monthly cycle. Those who do not wish to conceive have to pay great attention to these days. Birth control apps notify the user about the fertile days. These apps specifically inform users of the days to steer clear of sexual activity.

The functionality may include:

• Reminders to take birth control pills.
• Side-effect checkers – rashes, changes in discharge, pains, etc.
• A screen for notes, etc.

Examples: Natural Cycles, Ovia Fertility & Cycle Tracking, Clue, Nurx, Hers

Sexual Self Care

These apps assist in maintaining female sexual wellness. Sexual well-being has a strong connection with good mental health. These apps have contributed to improving body image, reconnecting with their bodies, building on relationships with partners, and a lot more.

Examples: Ferly, Dipsea, Emjoy, Lover, Coral, Lovely, Lioness

Trainer Apps

Trainer apps are becoming increasingly popular because they help users form proper exercise habits. These apps track a user’s progress concerning their unique goals. The trainer’s assistance has also helped users regain body shape during the postnatal period.

Examples: Aaptiv, 8Fit, Couch to 5K, P. volve, MyFitnessPal

Breastfeeding App

Many users have been influenced by the breastfeeding apps’ guides, advice, and support. With the aid of these apps, users can find answers to several questions about breastfeeding, which improves the breastfeeding experience of new mothers.

Examples: Lactapp Breastfeeding, MyMedela, Glow, Baby Feed Timer, Breastfeeding Tracker

Mother’s Community App

Mobile generation mothers are the primary target audience for this app. As a part of the community, mothers have the chance to meet and chat with like-minded ones. Therefore, mothers can easily find solutions for the common problems they encounter via various suggestions from the community.

Examples: Peanut, GiftedMom, Zero Mothers Die, WeMoms – Pregnancy and Mother, MAMA

Breast Health Control App

Know Your Lemons App

According to statistics, about 13% of women in the US have developed breast cancer. Even though many women have recovered from this deadly disease, those who have experienced it do not find them at par with other women. Thanks to these apps, women can now take better care of their breast health and prevent breast cancer.

Its functionality can consist of:

• Breast exams and uploads of ultrasound results.
• A change tracker: breast lumps, pains, etc.
• Self-examination guides.
• Cancer prevention and control, etc.

Examples: Know Your Lemons, Keep A Breast, Feel For Your Life, The Daisy Wheel

Feminine Hygiene App

These apps are specifically designed to deliver female hygiene products right at the doorstep of the users. Organic and hygienic products are delivered, such as tampons made without chemicals and naturally made sanitary items.

Example: Nyra

Online Consultation Apps

On-demand doctor apps and online consultation apps benefit women’s health by performing as a virtual clinic. These apps can be used to address any issue that requires medical guidance. These on-demand doctor apps can handle anything, including mental health, sex coaching, meal planning, weight loss, and more.

Example: MDLIVE, Lemonaid: Same Day Online Care, LiveHealth Online Mobile, PlushCare: Video Doctor Visits, Doctor on Demand

5. 05 Steps to Develop a Successful Women’s Health App

Step 1: Study the Competitors

You should conduct a detailed analysis of each rival in the market if you want to produce a distinctive and engaging app. Learn from the success and blunders of the available female health tracking apps. 

The following are some of the top women’s health apps available today:

• Flo Period Tracker, one of the most highly rated health apps (4.8 of 5 rank over 4 million users), allows for tracking over 70 indicators like cramps, discharge, and headaches.
• Clue, 4.8 rank over 2 million users, is a period and ovulation tracker. It owns a calendar format with ovulation predictions and 40 different health symptoms.
• The Natural Cycles monitors your basal body temperature and enables ovulation and fertility prediction.
• Fertility Friend possesses a sophisticated ovulation calculator, fertility chart, and period tracker.
• Kindara provides fertility tracking on user’s data instead of population averages.

Step 2: Features to Include in Women’s Health Apps

Sign Up & Profiles

The registration process should be quick and simple to avoid being “repellant.” You can choose to ask for absolutely no information at first or something standard like a name, phone number, or email address.

To save users’ time and use it as an additional marketing tool, it might be a great idea to offer Social Sign Up, allowing people to sign up using an Apple ID or a Google account.

Medical Profile

Age, weight/height, whether or not they’re on birth control, etc. are certain things you can ask everyone to fill in on their medical profile. Inquiring about the gender and pronouns of users might also be a good idea. Even though people might use your app because of physical needs, they may not identify as women. Therefore, you can consider that in order to create a personal user experience and a friendly, trustworthy, and safe space.

Well-Being & Symptom Check-Ups

You should include daily well-being and symptom check-ups in your app to enable the primary benefit of a women’s health app. 

Start by inquiring about the users’ present state of mind, amount of sleep they got today, libido, discharge, any symptoms, etc.

You can propose adding personalized questions to daily check-ups to address each user better. As a result, you’ll be able to satisfy every user’s needs while offering a personalized experience.

To cover some symptoms that aren’t in the questions and require more details, you can add a separate bar for notes and comments.

Menstrual Cycle Tracking

Menstrual cycle tracking is a common feature of women’s health monitoring apps. The features may consist of:

• Menstrual cycle monitoring & prediction.
• PMS symptom tracking.
• Ovulation calculation.
• Graphs (length of cycle, length & intensity of the period itself, etc.).

Women can also use the calendar feature to conveniently track the length of each cycle, visualize the various phases, and attempt to predict when things will happen.

Forums

You can create forums on various social media and online platforms to develop a warm, trusting relationship with your audience. Medical professionals should control and moderate these forums to prevent users from posting harmful advice. 

To raise awareness on these forums, hosting educational lectures, speeches, or discussions might also be a good idea.

Urgent Help

You can add an “Urgent help” button somewhere on the screen or add a separate screen with the contact information list to assist women in emergencies like sudden or premature labor, pregnancy pains, severe vaginal bleeding, and other urgent health issues that need immediate medical attention.

Push Notifications

Push notifications can be beneficial in several ways if properly set up.

It can be added to:

• Encourage users to perform daily checks.
• Send reminders.
• Send personalized offers.
• Revisit your audience.
• Inform users of upcoming events, such as lectures and other activities.

3rd-Party Integrations

Offer users the option to connect their BLE devices (fitness bands, smart scales, etc.) to the app if you want to enable physical indicators measuring (heart rate, daily steps or running, weight, etc.) and transfer the data into your app.

Such a connection can be made by utilizing an API like Apple’s HealthKit. Undoubtedly, there are certain devices made specifically for women’s health.

Digital Consultation

Women might still have many challenging questions that need answers from a real specialist, even if they have a large built-in group to talk to or a ton of AI-generated health tips. A virtual consultation can help in this situation.

You can collaborate with medical experts who can provide online guidance, suggest treatment regimens, and even dispense medication via voice calls or text messages.

Refer and Earn

This feature in a women’s health app will enable you to extend your user base and give users rewards in return for helping out.

Step 3: The Monetization of Women’s Health App

As we have seen throughout the article, women’s health apps are on the rise with numerous benefits for users, which shows how profitable the category will be in the future. Here are the top 3 ways to help you join the revenue benefits of women’s health app: 

• In-app purchases: Offering a premium version of your app with unique features like profile customization, one-on-one communication with the medical experts, or just an ad-free experience is possible.
• In-app advertisement: Implementing in-app advertisement can be a great way to start generating income. However, consider the ads’ quantity, placement, and duration to avoid annoying users.
• Paid app: You might consider keeping your app paid from the start if you firmly believe in its idea and believe it meets the needs of a niche market. The option can work great in the case of iOS since the revenue count on the platform is much greater than on Android.

Step 4: Test and Fix Bugs

Health apps for women should be tested by women, ideally in the context of real-life situations:

• How long does it take to load or process the data?
• Do users feel at ease using the interface?

These kinds of inquiries can help create a perfect user experience. Additionally, automated tests run by developers during the app development stage will help identify problems and fix them right away.

Step 5: Release and Maintain

After thoroughly testing your app, it’s time to upload it to the App Store and Google Play. You’d better seek advice from an experienced health app development team, as the app submission process can be a little intimidating. Normally, you should allocate at least a week for the app submission process

After your app is available on app stores, keep an eye on it using analytics tools like Google Analytics or Mixpanel. You will need to update the app as new mobile OS versions become available and add more enticing features.

6. Top Things Worth Attention When Developing Women’s Health App 

Data Security

Apps that deal with sensitive user data must have high-level data security. Therefore, you should make users feel safe by letting them know that their data is secure and private. 

To enable security, you can make use of various features:

• Multi-factor authentication: In addition to biometric features like fingerprinting, face ID verification, or voice recognition, this may also include a password, security token, one-time passcode, phone call verification, and personal security questions.
• End-to-end encryption: This type of encryption allows only the sender and the recipient access to their messages. 
• Device fingerprinting: Used to identify users’ devices’ operating systems, screen size, IP addresses, time, location, etc. Users are then informed if any of these parameters change.
• Real-time fraud notifications.

Workflow Automation

Women’s health apps are beneficial for automating certain parts of the workflow. Here are some aspects that you can automate to make the whole process more flawless: 

• Interviewing patients before appointments
• Processing payments
• Clearing up prescriptions. Patients who forget how, what, and/or when to do something can double-check the information in the app.

Mono & Multifunctionality

There are numerous apps available for tracking menstrual cycles, preventing breast cancer, and other health issues that can be arranged into 2 categories:

• Concentrating only on one aspect of women’s health.
• Offering features for a range of purposes combined.

We suggest that if you want to add features for various women’s health issues, make them accessible within one mode but on different screens instead of requiring users to switch modes. That will help your app be more user-friendly.

Educational Content

Many people still hold on to false information prevalent in the women’s health sector. It might be a good idea to include lots of educational content and links to dependable sources of pertinent information in your app to increase the general level of knowledge.

Here are some options for you to refer to: 

• Articles
• Visual content — explanatory videos, pictures, anatomical reviews, etc
• Nutrition plans
• Check-lists
• Audios

We recommend the following tactics to ensure that the content actually reaches users:

• • Displaying the information on the primary screen
  • Setting up push notifications and reminders
  • Creating achievements or offering rewards (in-app points, badges, merch, etc.) for using and engaging with educational content, etc.

7. What Affects Women’s Health App Development Costs?

Estimating cost is necessary to properly set a budget for your project. However, it can be difficult because the cost varies for each project, and you can never be sure of all the pitfalls you’ll face that require financial resources.

However, it would be best if you considered the following factors as they will undoubtedly affect the costs:

• Complexity & number of features
• The technology of development applied
• Third-party integrations
• The development team’s hourly rate