Covid’s Lasting Impact on Women’s Health & Care
Written by Jillian Levovitz and Elizabeth Gordon
As we enter year three of life with Covid, it’s becoming clear that the pandemic’s profound effects on society are significant and lasting. Economies throughout the world continue to battle inflation and are still vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. Educational systems are scrambling to make up for lost time and to close the gaps for children who continue to be behind in reading and math. The World Bank recently reported that global poverty has increased for the first time in ten years and the World Economic Forum estimates a 39-year setback in closing the global gender gap. It’s not surprising that healthcare systems continue to face similar struggles.
Although we are largely past the acute phase of the pandemic, we continue to see substantial challenges with population health and care delivery throughout the world. Covid has had detrimental impacts on every facet of healthcare including health outcomes, healthcare utilization, and access to care. The more we uncover about these challenges, the more we find a disproportionate impact on female health and wellness.
The effects of Covid on population health and wellness can be broken into two categories: direct health consequences of contracting the virus and a broader category of indirect consequences including the aftermath of lockdowns and canceled care.
Health & Wellness
While initially contracting Covid resulted in more severe disease and higher mortality for males, over time we are seeing a shift to a greater health burden on females. Studies have shown that women have higher rates of infection and are more likely to experience ongoing symptoms and health challenges. Long Covid, a condition affecting roughly 20% of Covid patients with significant, lasting, impact on health, quality of life, and productivity, disproportionately impacts females at 9.4% compared to 5.5% of males.
In one study that looked at 1077 female patients roughly five months after experiencing Covid, only 29% said they felt fully recovered. In the same study, over 25% of patients showed significant symptoms of anxiety and depression, 12% experienced PTSD, 17% reported an impact on cognitive function, 46% on physical activity, and 20% were found to have a new disability.
As a result of poor health after Covid, 37% of women who previously reported working full time had either not returned to work or had to make modifications, further compounding the devastating impact the pandemic already had on the female workforce.
Mental Health
The Covid pandemic and subsequent lockdowns also had a profoundly negative impact on mental health throughout the World. In 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the pandemic led to a 25% increase in the prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide with a higher impact on women and young adults. Four out of five healthcare workers on the front lines of the medical profession are women, as are 83% of home health and personal care aides. Nearly two years after Covid, rates of depression, anxiety, and stress in this population remain as high, or higher, than rates at the initial outbreak. Similarly, rates of depression have risen to 34% among pregnant and postpartum women, a 24% increase compared to pre-pandemic levels.
Although we have seen increased access to mental health services through telehealth platforms, a recent survey completed by the Kaiser Foundation found that less than half of women looking for mental health services were able to get an appointment within a month of scheduling care and 40% of patients did not even try to seek care. Patients cited provider availability and costs as the two highest barriers.
Female Reproductive Health
When we look through the lens of female reproductive health, the data is even bleaker. Maternal mortality rates have increased 40% year over year in the US, reaching the highest prevalence since 1965. Black women continue to bear the greatest risk during pregnancy. The UN also reports that disruptions during the Covid pandemic have resulted in 12 million women across 115 countries losing access to contraceptive care resulting in a projected 7 million unintended pregnancies.
Care Utilization & Access
Unfortunately reproductive and mental health services are not the only care verticals continuing to face challenges after the pandemic. Required isolation and cancellation of non-essential health care services caused a disruption in care for many women who require yearly preventive screenings for breast, reproductive, and sexual health care.
Numerous studies have shown that women were more likely than men to delay care during the pandemic. Routine tests and annual check-ups were skipped by 38% of women compared to 26% of men and we saw a drop of 80% in cervical cancer screenings compared to pre-pandemic utilization. Delayed care, especially chronically delayed care has been shown to result in substantially poorer outcomes in both mental and physical health, particularly for older adults.
Throughout winter 2022/2023 there has also been an unusually high prevalence of illness from common viruses with many infections resulting in more severe cases than in past years. This high infection rate is potentially the result of drops in population immunity and less childhood exposure during lockdowns.
Missed care, a less healthy population, and lower immunity have all led to significant increases in healthcare utilization. As a result, many health systems are struggling to maintain access to timely care. In areas of Italy, patients wait as long as two years for non-urgent breast ultrasounds, and in Canada, patients wait an average of six months between referrals and treatment. In the U.S. average wait times to see an OBGYN have increased by 19% since 2017 compared to other specialists whose wait time has only increased by 8% in the same period of time. (It is important to note that this data does not include the 36% of US counties, housing 2.2 million women, that have no maternity care specialists.)
Looking Past Covid
Despite these numerous challenges Covid has also brought some positive changes to the healthcare industry. The need for social distancing led the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to change their reimbursement guidelines allowing for healthcare delivery through virtual means. This has led to significant increases in companies offering telehealth services for a wide variety of conditions and health verticals.
The Covid pandemic has also accelerated the availability and adoption of at-home point-of-care testing. We see many FemTech companies offering novel direct-to-patient screening and diagnostic products that will increase the speed of diagnosis potentially leading to improved outcomes for numerous health conditions.
Lastly, isolation and lockdowns during the pandemic reminded us of the importance of community and sharing experiences with others. We’re encouraged to see many FemTech startups embrace these renewed pillars of health and create vibrant digital communities that offer comfort and support to other females experiencing similar health and wellness challenges.
Companies to Watch
SAYge Link - A global support network for women that facilitates targeted and real conversations based on shared experiences. With peer-to-peer matching at its core, SAYge Link is a dynamic, multi-level support space.
Glooma - Creating an at-home medical screening device that detects breast cancer at an early stage to help avoid more aggressive treatments, surgeries, and preventable outcomes.
myLAB Box - At-home testing-to-treatment kits intended for fertility, female wellness, STI, toxicity, nutrition, diabetes, and vitamin deficiency.
SeekHer Foundation - Dedicated to bridging the gender gap in mental health through advocacy, research, and support.
WaveLife - A digital mental health platform designed for the Gen Z population making science-backed traditional therapy more accessible and engaging.
About the Authors:
Jillian Levovitz, MBA, is an experienced healthcare executive, the Founder, and CEO of OcciGuide, and Chief Strategy Officer at FemHealth Insights where she is responsible for consulting and research projects.
Elizabeth Gordon is a Femtech writer and content strategist, UX copywriter, and Chief Marketing Officer of FemHealth Insights and the FemTech Focus podcast.
