Fertility app startup unveils devices to sense hormones, basal body temperature

By Aditi Pai
09:08 am
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WelltwigsDigital health startup Welltwigs has unveiled its fertility app, Fertility Monitor, along with two fertility-tracking devices at a TechCrunch event in New York this week.

The company's app tracks a woman's fertility cycle, but also monitors the woman's basal body temperature (BBT) with a product called Thermotwig and hormone levels with a device called Labtwig. Although other companies, including Kindara and Duofertility, have developed basal body temperature monitors similar to Thermotwig, which sense a woman's lowest body temperature, the connected hormone tracker is less common.

Labtwig uses disposable sensors that can be inserted into the device to track the levels of two major hormones related to pregnancy, according to Welltwigs, called Luteinizing hormone (LH) and Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG). The device monitors these hormones by testing a woman's urine and then sends data from the device to the Fertility Monitor app.

The app offers a fertility navigator features that will use BBT and hormone data, as well as other metrics like cervical mucous that the woman can enter manually, to notify the user of the best times for her to conceive. Fertility Monitor also offers a timeline view that helps a woman view her predicted fertility status for that day and upcoming days. 

The app is free to download and now available on iOS, but the two devices (along with a three month supply of test strips) will cost $249 when they launch.

"The vision of Welltwigs is to become a comprehensive tool for women's health," CEO Murtaza Lakdawala said at the event. "With our app, with our sensors, our future sensors, we want to be with women when they are trying to conceive all the way post-pregnancy."

In May 2014, another company, called Cue, unveiled a device that also offers a hormone-tracking, smartphone-connected test. The device, which also aims to provide users with four other lab tests -- influenza, testosterone, vitamin D, and inflammation -- will retail for $300.

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