How many healthy, young women discuss fertility with their OBGYNs at their routine check-ups? Many OBGYNs and primary care doctors spend considerable time counseling patients about contraceptives and preventing pregnancy, but how often do we think about the flip side? Maja Zecevic, PhD, MPH, was in her late 20’s when she was first faced with considerations relating to fertility. Her journey led her to found Opionato, the world’s first digital fertility clinic. Currently, infertility can be a confusing and frustrating topic to address. Am I fertile now? Is my fertility declining? Is there an ..read more

Anyone who meets Surbhi Sarna knows she’s a woman who gets things done. I had the pleasure of first meeting Surbhi in 2015 at the Fogarty Institute, where she was building a start-up with one goal in mind: improving women’s health by helping detect ovarian cancer earlier. As every OBGYN knows, early detection of ovarian cancer has proven to be a difficult goal to achieve. Despite numerous studies trying to use biomarkers and ultrasound screening techniques, a reliable, effective, and efficient solution remains evasive. Surbhi was only 13 when she was diagnosed with a complex ovarian cyst and ..read more

The basic technologies used on Labor & Delivery units are, in a word, ancient. Given my passion for innovation in the L&D space, you can imagine how much I love this week’s featured Women’s Health Innovator: Bloomlife. With a major update to our old-school contraction monitors, Bloomlife is ushering in a new age of pregnancy monitoring and peace of mind. Traditional Monitor Much to the chagrin of modern-day mothers, hospitals hook up their laboring patients to giant contraction monitors called tocometers or tocodynamometers. These cumbersome machines were invented in 1971, and little ..read more

This week I am happy to introduce you to Materna and its CEO Mark Juravic. Materna is a women’s health start-up in the San Francisco Bay Area that is focused on creative solutions for pelvic pain. Materna had its start at the Stanford Biodesign program. While a student in the program, Mark began working on Materna’s childbirth device (Materna Prep) to prevent maternal tearing and pelvic muscle injuries during childbirth. Mark explains, “The root of the problem seemed to be biomechanical in nature, and there weren't many people working to solve such a big problem. That is what inspired me to g ..read more

Dr. Amy Baxter knows about treating pain of all kinds; she is a double boarded pediatric emergency physician. From routine childhood vaccinations to major trauma in the emergency room, Dr. Baxter has seen it all. She's also taken treating pain to the next level by inventing multiple non-invasive solutions. Many women experience pain on their fertility and pregnancy journeys, from injections for IVF to low back pain during pregnancy. Fortunately, Dr. Baxter's company Pain Care Labs is there to help women with all of these issues. Dr. Baxter quit practicing medicine in part to try to inject som ..read more

I am pleased to introduce you to genneve and founder Jill Angelo for the first edition of our new series featuring the incredible innovators making strides in women’s health! As many of you know from personal experience – either from your own or your patients’! – menopause is no joke, and navigating this transformational period has its ups and downs. Up to this point, women have had to rely on Google search and WebMD for answers on menopausal health. And we know that women are searching for answers to menopause symptoms, because there are 4 million monthly Google searches! Jill has researched ..read more

I am excited to introduce to you a new series of articles featuring innovative women's health technology companies. When I was practicing as an OBGYN resident, I had no way to learn about the incredible men and women who dedicate their lives to developing novel technologies-- digital tools, medical devices, and drugs-- to serve my patients. It has been my great privilege in my role as CEO of Elm Tree Medical to meet the awesome "Makers" who invent and develop the technologies that will help us and our patients in the future. I hope by highlighting these companies and businesspeople, I can ..read more

By Eva Martin, MD of Elm Tree Medical, Inc. The vast majority- 80%- of new OBGYN residents are women, and the proportion of male and female OBGYNs is quickly shifting to majority female. Now, women OBGYNs hold 57% of faculty positions. So, as women take over the majority of positions in the specialty, are they also taking over proportional leadership roles? Are female OBGYNs as likely as male OBGYNs to be given opportunities to lead in women's health? Or, do we still face the same inequalities in the topmost positions as we have in the past? Stay in the Know! Sign up with your email addres ..read more

By Eva Martin, MD of Elm Tree Medical, Inc. Screening for cervical cancer starts at a young age- 21 for most women- which often occurs before childbearing and pregnancy. When we screen women for cervical dysplasia and subsequently treat it, it's easy to get caught up in the primary objective (prevent or stop cancer) and to forget about considerations for long term health, such as the implications for future pregnancy. Since the cervix plays a key role in pregnancy (keeping the fetus safely in the uterus!), it follows that treating cervical dysplasia could affect pregnancy in the future. Re ..read more

By Eva Martin, MD of Elm Tree Medical, Inc. Early pregnancy is one of the most exciting- and nerve-wracking- times for a new mother. Amidst the joy of expecting a new baby are usually worries about whether the pregnancy is healthy and normal. Early pregnancy loss occurs when there is an intrauterine pregnancy either with no embryo or with an embryo without a heartbeat, before 13 weeks. Early pregnancy loss occurs in 15% of clinically recognized pregnancies. Doctors can use levels of the pregnancy hormone hCG and ultrasound to assist in this diagnosis. But how certain is the diagnosis of a ..read more