{"id":28386,"date":"2025-10-28T12:42:34","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T10:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ivir.nl\/?post_type=vo_events&p=28386"},"modified":"2025-10-28T13:13:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T11:13:49","slug":"ivir-lecture-series-14november2025","status":"publish","type":"vo_events","link":"https:\/\/www.ivir.nl\/nl\/agenda\/ivir-lecture-series-14november2025\/","title":{"rendered":"IViR Lecture Series: Regulating Femtech: Addressing Regulatory Gaps in Women\u2019s Health Technologies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Law for Health and Life<\/mark><\/a> (UvA) and IViR are pleased to announce that
Dr. Catriona McMillan<\/mark><\/a>
will give a lecture entitled

Regulating Femtech:<\/mark><\/a><\/strong>
 Addressing Regulatory Gaps in Women\u2019s Health Technologies<\/mark><\/a>

on Friday 14 November 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>

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The proliferation of femtech\u2014technologies designed to monitor, manage, or enhance aspects of women\u2019s health\u2014 poses novel challenges for contemporary regulatory and legal frameworks. Operating at the boundaries of medical devices, consumer products, and digital platforms, many femtech innovations fall into the gaps between existing law and regulation. Using contraception and fertility-focused femtech by way of example, this talk examines how regulatory systems in the UK (drawn from EU frameworks such as the GDPR and EU MDR) regulate, or fail to regulate, femtech products and the sensitive personal data they generate. It argues that prevailing approaches to classification, risk assessment, and consent are ill-suited to the hybrid and data-intensive nature of femtech, leaving both consumers and innovators exposed to uncertainty. The analysis highlights the need for reflexive and intersectional regulatory approaches to fill these gaps that prioritise, rather than ignore, risks femtech poses to women\u2019s health and wellbeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catriona (Katy) McMillan<\/strong> is a Reader in Medical Law and Ethics at the University of Edinburgh School of Law. Dr. McMillan holds an LLB from the University of Glasgow, an LLM from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a PhD in Medical Law and Ethics from the University of Edinburgh. She joined the Law School in 2018 as a Senior Research Fellow, contributing to the Wellcome Trust-funded project \u2018Confronting the Liminal Spaces of Health Research Regulation<\/mark><\/em><\/a>\u2019. She subsequently secured a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship for her project entitled \u2018Femtech: how should law and regulation respond?<\/mark><\/em><\/a>\u2019.

Her research focuses on the legal and ethical regulation of human reproduction, with particular interests in femtech, including period-tracking applications and digital contraception, contraception, assisted reproduction, embryo research and termination of pregnancy.

She is the author of The Human Embryo in vitro: Breaking the Legal Stalemate<\/em><\/mark><\/a> (Cambridge University Press, 2021) and co-editor of The Cambridge Handbook of Health Research Regulation<\/em><\/mark><\/a> (Cambridge University Press, 2021). 

Dr. McMillan is also Deputy Director of the JK Mason Institute for Medicine, Life Sciences and the Law. From 2021 to 2023, she served as Convenor of the Law Society of Scotland\u2019s Health and Medical Law Sub-Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Practical details:

Date:\u00a014 November 2025
Time:\u00a015:30 \u2013 16:45 CET (Amsterdam)
Place:
\u2013\u00a0IViR Room, REC A5.24, Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, 1018 WV Amsterdam.
\u2013 Online via Zoom (you will receive the Zoomlink via e-mail before the lecture).

Organisers:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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See also the flyer<\/mark><\/a>. Please register below to sign up for this lecture:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n