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The rising stars of pregnancy apps
One of the fastest growth drivers in feminine health technology is apps. From period-tracking to women’s fitness, online nannies and menopause support, femtech apps are bringing their A-game. The biggest players? Pregnancy apps. With 385,000 babies born every day, pregnancy is big business. Those kinds of figures are hard to ignore and the tech industry is listening.
Engaging with pregnancy apps is becoming a routine part of the maternal experience. There are hundreds of options available, from simple growth trackers to medical advisors, social communities and the answers to any question you could ever think of.
BabyCentre is one of the most popular. It is an award-winning platform with millions of unique users and is, according to Forbes, the best pregnancy tracking app out there.
The user not only gets 3D renderings of their baby’s development in the womb but also access to a social network connected to other expectant women, along with a whole host of related information and resources.
It is available in five languages and any health information is approved by its own Medical Advisory Board and certified by the NHS England Information Standard.
Trackers like BabyCentre make up the bulk of the app market, but they are just one of the options available.
Pregnancy and motherhood can be lonely, so having a group of people to offer support often makes a big difference.
That’s the idea behind Peanut, otherwise known as the Tinder for expectant mothers, which comes in at a respectable number nine on the GoodHousekeeping list of the 18 best pregnancy apps. Peanut enables users to connect with people in the same area who are also going through similar circumstances, be that pregnancy, menopause or motherhood.
It has thousands of users across the globe and Founder and CEO Michelle Kennedy believes they must ensure no woman has to figure it out on their own.
Expectful is another big name on the circuit. The app aims to be a one-stop-shop for affordable, accessible and enjoyable maternal wellness support and boasts specialists in lactation, sleep, nutrition, mental health and fertility.
Within the app are meditations, events such as fitness classes and live Q&As, and drop-in support groups. The app is another of those featured on Good Housekeeping’s 18 best pregnancy apps.
What To Expect hits the top-rated lists for a few publications, including Women’s Health, Cosmopolitan, and Forbes. It is a very popular app that not only offers a weekly pregnancy tracker but also supports users in the first year of parenthood and beyond.
It advises on products, such as car seats and pushchairs, where it links community reviews and puts them into ‘best of’ lists. Ever wondered where the ’16 weeks, the size of a cherry’ comparison comes from? You can thank What To Expect for that.
With Glow, both the user and their partner can use the app to track the pregnancy together.
There are birth stories, bump pictures and product reviews via the community, as well as appointment reminders, and pregnancy stats.
It also links with Apple Health and My Fitness Pal for full integration.
Also highly rated and providing very similar services are the likes of Sprout, Ovia, Hello Belly and The Bump.
Ultimately, the app a user chooses comes down to personal preference, whether that be the services it provides, the interface or content type.
Why are they so popular?
Pregnancy is a complex time. It brings excitement and fear bundled together with babygrows, nurseries and week-by-week fruit comparisons – and it is a multi-million-pound industry.
And while questions may be raised over marketing to women at a uniquely vulnerable time of their lives, the fact remains that knowledge is power – and that’s what pregnancy apps are sharing.
The breadth and depth of support pregnancy apps offer blow traditional healthcare out of the water. Most are either free with ads or have a subscription fee, which is a small price to pay for access to an extensive support network on demand.
With an ever-increasing user base, apps have the potential to change maternal care and experiences of pregnancy for the better.
Given their popularity and the rising number of users, there is a very real potential for traditional healthcare to adopt or recommend apps into routine care. Bridging the gap between technology and health information would have an enormous impact on the provision of healthcare.
For some users, apps may be more accessible than traditional healthcare. For others, they may provide a community of people going through the same experience. And for others, they can offer answers to questions they may have.
An EU committee has backed a report warning of systemic inequalities in women’s health research, diagnosis and treatment across Europe.
The European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality approved the report, which was initiated by Renew Europe.
Women remain under-represented in medical research and clinical trials.
Around 72 per cent of drug trials do not provide data separated by sex and gender, while only five per cent of global research and development funding is dedicated to women’s health.
The report was led by Renew Europe rapporteur Billy Kelleher MEP of Fianna Fáil in Ireland.
It calls for greater investment in women’s health research, stronger inclusion of women in clinical trials and gender-sensitive diagnostics and treatments, particularly for endometriosis, menopause and cardiovascular disease.
Kelleher, first vice-president of Renew Europe, said: “Women’s health remains one of medicine’s biggest blind spots.
“When research, clinical trials and medical data fail to reflect women’s experiences, the result is poorer diagnosis, treatment and care.”
The report also calls for improved access to sexual and reproductive healthcare, including follow-up to the successful European Citizens’ Initiative “My Voice, My Choice”.
Its recommendations include better support for women’s physical and mental health and access to high-quality care throughout pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period, free from discrimination.
It also highlights additional healthcare barriers faced by LGBTQI+ people and women in marginalised communities or vulnerable situations.
Kelleher said: “This report is about closing those gaps and ensuring that women’s health is recognised as a core measure of the quality and fairness of our healthcare systems.”
By placing women’s health higher on the political agenda, the report aims to support the implementation of the EU Gender Equality Strategy and shape future European health policies.
A final vote by the European Parliament is expected in September 2026.
Women’s Health Week Europe 2026 has released its full programme ahead of the October event at The Emirates Stadium in London on 7–8 October, with 700+ senior decision-makers and 80+ speakers confirmed across what will be the organisation’s most ambitious edition to date.
For the first time, the event will run across two dedicated stages, each built around a distinct set of questions facing the women’s health industry.
The Global Stage takes on the macro forces shaping the sector: where capital is flowing, how AI is transforming diagnosis and treatment, the gender data gap, wearable technology, stigmatised markets, and the policy landscape across Europe.
Confirmed speakers include Merete Clausen (EIF), Frida Polli (MIT), Nichole Young-Lin (Google), Alison Cave (MHRA), Emily Darlington MP, Kerry Buckley (Boots), Tim Davis (LSEG), Henriette Hessen (Verdane), Hillary Ball (Atomico), and Christine Hockley (British Business Bank).
The Scale Stage runs in parallel, focused on execution: how to navigate regulatory approval pathways, survive the valley of death, build the evidence stack that wins payers and partners, implement AI into a women’s health business, and position for acquisition. Sessions include a reverse pitch format, in which corporates and investors pitch to founders, and a founder’s guide to getting acquired.
The programme also includes two Pitch competitions, one per day, across the Consumer & Tech and Medical Devices & Therapeutics categories, with 16 finalists competing on the mainstage in front of the full delegate audience.
Every session is case study-driven, with speakers selected on the basis of having lived the problem they are on stage to solve.
Women’s Health Week Europe 2026 takes place 7–8 October at The Emirates Stadium, London. The full programme is available now.
View the 2026 programme here
Pre-agenda pricing ends 26 June
Tickets are currently available at pre-agenda pricing, with savings of up to £600 off standard pricing. The deadline is midnight on Friday 26 June. After that, prices go up.
Secure your place: https://wplatform.co/summits/womens-health-week-europe-2026?utm_source=advocacy&utm_medium=ext_email&utm_campaign=whw-europe-26-femtech-world#tickets
Also at The Emirates: Women’s Sport Summit 2026
The day before WHW Europe, on 6 October, The Emirates Stadium will also host the inaugural Women’s Sport Summit, a dedicated one-day event bringing together 400+ attendees from across sport, business, and investment. Focused on the commercial side of women’s sport, the Summit covers the full sports cycle: money, product, and market. Where women’s sport means business.
Most IVF add-ons lack reliable evidence, with benefits either absent or inconclusive, the largest review of its kind has found.
More than 70 per cent of IVF patients in the UK, Australia and New Zealand reportedly pay for one or more additional treatments.
However, researchers found that most of the procedures, medicines and techniques had no effect on fertility or were backed by limited or low-quality evidence.
Unproven add-ons can also lead to false hope, greater financial strain and unnecessary medical procedures at an already difficult time for patients.
Dr Sarah Lensen, of the University of Melbourne, said: “In many countries, infertility care is largely provided by private clinics where IVF is highly commercialised, and some add-ons are extremely expensive.
“Our review finds a lack of evidence that most of the IVF add-ons we assessed provide any benefit to patients. Unproven add-ons can lead to false hope, greater financial strain and unnecessary medical procedures at what already can be a very difficult time for patients.”
Researchers said concerns have grown in recent years about potentially untrustworthy randomised controlled trials in reproductive medicine, including studies of IVF add-ons.
The team set out to review the effectiveness and safety of 10 commonly offered add-ons using trustworthy studies.
Researchers initially identified 157 potentially eligible randomised controlled trials but excluded 72 because of concerns about their reliability.
Randomised controlled trials compare treatments by assigning participants to different groups, helping researchers assess whether an intervention causes a particular outcome.
The team combined data from the remaining 85 trials in a meta-analysis, which brings together findings from several studies.
The review found no effect on fertility or inconclusive evidence for seven of the 10 add-ons examined.
These included acupuncture, which involves inserting thin needles into points on the body, and corticosteroids, medicines that reduce inflammation and suppress immune activity.
Endometrial receptivity testing was also not backed by reliable evidence. The procedure involves taking a sample from the lining of the womb to examine patterns of gene activity.
Another add-on was intralipid infusion, which delivers a fat-containing liquid into the bloodstream.
Researchers separately examined injections of platelet-rich plasma into the ovaries and infusions of platelet-rich plasma into the womb.
Platelet-rich plasma is made from a patient’s blood and contains a high concentration of platelets, which play a role in healing.
The seventh treatment was pre-implantation genetic testing for aneuploidy, which examines embryos to check whether they have the expected number of chromosomes.
The review found only weak evidence of a possible benefit from three other add-ons.
EmbryoGlue, an embryo transfer medium containing hyaluronic acid, may increase the probability of pregnancy and live birth. However, the evidence on live birth rates was not considered robust.
Endometrial scratching, a minor procedure that deliberately disturbs the lining of the womb, may also increase the probability of pregnancy and live birth.
Physiological intracytoplasmic sperm injection, known as PICSI, selects sperm based on their ability to bind to hyaluronic acid. Weak evidence suggested it may reduce the risk of miscarriage.
Lensen said: “There is widespread misinformation about IVF add-ons with private clinic websites and patient forums on social media – major information sources for patients – often overstating the benefits and omitting the costs and risks of add-ons.
“IVF clinics and clinicians should carefully consider whether it is appropriate to offer unproven add-ons, as their availability is often perceived by patients as implicit endorsement of benefit.”
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