Using an iPhone to Get Knocked Up Faster

The bedroom has long been a place for statistics, wildly optimistic though they may be. Now a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup is bringing data into the bedroom for the purpose of helping couples get pregnant.
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The bedroom has long been a place for statistics, wildly optimistic though they may be. Now a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup is bringing data into the bedroom for the purpose of helping couples get pregnant. Ovuline offers a smartphone-powered service that tracks a slew of body signals to tell women almost exactly when they are ovulating, giving better odds of conceiving in less time. “The fallacy is that it's very easy to get pregnant, but the average time to conceive is four to six months,” says Ovuline CEO Paris Wallace. “Our average time is two months.”

It’s a smart idea that plays into the quantified-self trend, in which you track calorie counts and activity levels every day to stay healthy. While daily step counts are helpful for overall fitness, for women who want kids, ovulation is the thing to track. That’s especially true for the increasing number of women who are holding off having kids until they're older, when conception is statistically less likely.

Every day during their march toward pregnancy, Ovuline members are prompted to answer a series of questions about key markers of fertility, including basal body temperature, cervical mucus, ovulation test results and mood. The company then takes that data, compares it to other Ovuline users and clinical guidelines, and churns out personalized recommendations to help you get pregnant faster.

Though you can easily find simple fertility calendars online or in most mobile app stores, Ovuline is differentiating itself by amassing a collective pool of data and using machine learning to find patterns. Those patterns help the company continuously fine-tune its fertility recommendations based on what really works, Wallace says. For example, if Ovuline determines you may be ovulating (based on the ovulation test it told you to take), you’ll get a reminder to have sex.

That pool of data also plays a major role in Ovuline’s pregnancy-tracking tool, which is currently in private beta. Throughout their nine-month term, women can enter their weight, blood pressure, mood, and other metrics and get pregnancy-specific daily recommendations from Ovuline. For instance, you might get a suggestion to eat more if you’re not gaining enough weight for the baby, or be told to exercise if you’re feeling irritable.

Ovuline will also use the data to watch for dangerous pregnancy conditions, like preeclampsia, which often don’t have physical symptoms. “If a woman enters her blood pressure into the pregnancy tracker, we would take notice of dangerous spikes and tell her to see her doctor,” Wallace says.

Along with a website and iOS app (shown above right), which shows your self-reported fertility information, Ovuline also sells a “smart fertility kit” with his and hers vitamins, sperm-safe lubricant, ovulation tests, pregnancy tests, and a thermometer – everything you need to get pregnant aside from the male and female ingredients. The kit costs $50 for a one month supply, though you can buy the same supplies from the drugstore and still input your data into Ovuline.

A basic membership to Ovuline is free and includes a fertility health dashboard. For a one-time $50 fee, you'll get Ovuline's iPhone app, access to a team of doctors who can give specific fertility advice, and more in-depth health tracking. Ovuline will even refund your money if you don't get pregnant within six months. On Monday, Ovuline raised $1.4 million in seed money from Launch Capital, LionBird, and Techstars CEO David Cohen.

The days of women getting pregnant without data and apps aren’t gone, but it’s easy to imagine “quantified pregnancies” becoming the norm. After all, my iPhone-toting generation already records our innermost thoughts, pictures of breakfast, and social moments online – why not our ovulation cycles?