Why Erectile Dysfunction Gets Funded and Women’s Health Gets Dismissed
Capital follows what it values. When investors call women’s health “CSR,” they reveal a billion-dollar blind spot.
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A few months ago, I sat across from a well-respected investor, someone who manages billions.
We were talking about early-stage health innovation, and I mentioned a femtech founder raising capital to scale her diagnostic for endometriosis. He nodded, paused, then said:
“I just don’t see women’s health as an investable category. It feels more like corporate social responsibility.”
I looked at him and asked, “Do you think erectile dysfunction falls under CSR too?”
Silence.
It’s a familiar kind of silence. The kind that says: I’ve never had to think about this before.
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The Story of Two Conditions
Erectile dysfunction affects around 30 million men in the U.S.1 Endometriosis affects an estimated 190 million women globally2. One condition became a multibillion-dollar industry. The other became a punchline or worse, a mystery doctors routinely dismiss.
In 1998, the FDA fast-tracked Viagra’s approval in six months3. By 2000, it was already a USD $1.5 billion market4. Meanwhile, it took 20 years for endometriosis to even begin entering the venture discourse and even now, most diagnostics still rely on invasive surgery or take years to confirm5.
This isn’t about science. It’s about story. It’s about what we code as urgent and what we cast as female inconvenience. And when that story gets baked into capital strategy, it becomes infrastructure.
What Capital Says Without Saying It
When investors say women’s health feels “too political,” “too small,” or “too CSR,” they are revealing a bias so normalized it’s invisible. What they mean is:
“This makes me uncomfortable.”
“I don’t have a category in my model for this.”
“I haven’t seen anyone else back it yet.”
What they are really saying is: I don’t see it as a system worth solving. That is not a gap in the market. That is a blind spot in the mindset.
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Markets Are Not Neutral
Here’s what the numbers say:
Erectile dysfunction:
→ $3.7 billion global market and climbing6
→ Over 100 drugs in development7
→ Covered by insurance, normalized in ads, backed by Big Pharma8
Endometriosis:
→ 7–10 years average time to diagnosis9
→ Fewer than 20 venture-backed companies in the U.S.10
→ Zero standard-of-care innovations since the 1990s11
→ Still framed as a “women’s issue,” not a medical crisis
How did we get here?
Because markets don’t emerge in a vacuum. They reflect what the system values and what it’s been trained to ignore. Viagra wasn’t just fast-tracked.
It was celebrated as a public health breakthrough.
Menopause? Still whispered about.
Fibroids? Still racialized.
Hormones? Still taboo.
Endo? Still blamed on stress.
The Real Risk Isn’t Femtech. It’s Capital Bias.
This isn’t a call for charity. It’s a call for sharper capital logic. Women’s health is:
Demographically massive
Clinically underserved
Culturally shifting
Technologically ripe
Infrastructurally neglected
In other words, it’s a classic mispriced asset. The kind smart capital should be all over. But instead, too many investors are still asking: “Is this really a market?” When they should be asking: “Why haven’t we built this market yet?”
The Personal Is Structural
I used to think this was about data. If we could just show the market size, the disease burden, the unmet need, surely capital would follow. It didn’t.
Because this isn’t just about information. It’s about what the capital system is calibrated to see as value. And what it still doesn’t. I have colleagues who have sat in rooms where men debated prostate cancer deal flow for 45 minutes, then waved away uterine cancer as “a bit niche.”
I have watched smart allocators nod through longevity pitches that never mention women’s aging biology. I’ve seen menopause startups dismissed as “wellness” while ED drugs are coded as “medical necessity.” It’s not just what’s missing. It’s what’s assumed.
What Needs to Change
If you are an allocator, family office lead, healthcare investor or just someone curious about what gets funded and why here’s what I want you to know:
Medical categories are made.
They are shaped by politics, power, and language. Don’t assume what exists is what matters.
Women’s health isn’t niche. It’s a suppressed system. Its invisibility is historical not logical.
The market is moving. Are you?
We are seeing early traction: menopause platforms, pelvic tech, hormone monitors. The smart money is moving early. The rest will be playing catch-up in five years.
Why I’m Writing The Billion Dollar Blind Spot
These conversations are why I am writing this book. It’s not just about women’s health. It’s about how capital gets built and who gets erased in the process.
It’s for anyone who’s ever walked into a doctor’s office, known something was wrong, and been told it’s nothing. It’s for anyone who wants their capital to shape the future, not just mirror the past. And it’s for every founder, allocator, or outsider who’s been told their experience is niche.
It’s not niche. It’s half the world. And the next billion-dollar category starts here.
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Coming This Month:
🎧 Blindspot Capital: The Podcast
Formerly FemmeHealth Founders, our podcast relaunches this summer under a sharper lens and a bolder name. Blindspot Capital explores the undercurrents shaping health innovation from the deals that stall to the systems that silence. This season, we speak to the people shifting what gets seen, funded, and scaled. Confirmed guests include:
Ida Tin (Clue, FemTech Assembly) on founding the femtech category
Lisa Suennen (Venture Partner & Healthtech strategist) on how institutional capital moves.
Sabrina Johnson (CEO Daré Biosciences) on what it takes to build a publicly listed women’s health company
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I write weekly at FemmeHealth Ventures Alliance about capital, care, and the future of overlooked markets. If you are building, backing, or allocating in this space, I’d love to connect.
Disclaimer & Disclosure
This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, investment, legal, or medical advice, or an offer to buy or sell any securities. Opinions expressed are those of the author and may not reflect the views of affiliated organisations. Readers should seek professional advice tailored to their individual circumstances before making investment decisions. Investing involves risk, including potential loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
National Institutes of Health. (2022). Erectile dysfunction. MedlinePlus. https://medlineplus.gov/erectiledysfunction.html
World Health Organization. (2022, May 31). Endometriosis. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/endometriosis
FDA Access Data. (1998). NDA 20‑895/S‑001, Viagra approval documents. https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/nda/98/020895_S001_VIAGRA.pdf
CNN Money. (1998, May 22). Deaths spur Viagra probe. https://money.cnn.com/1998/05/22/companies/viagra/
Nature. (2024). Understanding endometriosis underfunding. https://www.nature.com/articles/s44294-024-00048-6
Fortune Business Insights. (2024). Erectile dysfunction drugs market. https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/erectile-dysfunction-drugs-market-102550
Research and Markets (June 2025) Retrieved from Erectile Dysfunction Drug Pipeline Analysis Report 2025
Karlowicz, K. A. (2009). Direct-to-consumer advertising for erectile dysfunction drugs. Urologic Nursing, 29(4), 214.
PMC. (2022). Endometriosis is undervalued: A call to action. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PMC9127440/
Thank you for writing this as I literally lay in bed 36 hours out of a procedure to finally treat my endometriosis. I honestly don’t think we can get the visibility on women’s issues until they have women and uterus owners on these boards and in these discussions in a greater number. One person on the board is nothing but 3, 4, 5, 7 are what we need to see to give this discussion the visibility and importance it needs. It always been those with these problems that have been forced to do the work. And it’s no surprise when all current medical projects lean to male needs and advancements because throughout history the male body and concerns have been the most focused on. We’re just now studying female response to heart attacks and strokes seriously and realizing the differences. There is so so so much work needing to be done and it’s sadly going to have to be queer and female led startups that get things moving.
Thank you Maryann for another great article that flips the script and points out the blind spots of the society we live in. You astutely wrote, "Capital follows what it values." I would extend this to say that capital does not see what it does not value. Through awareness of our blindspots we can begin to see more fully.