This Femtech Startup Is Fixing Postpartum Care
One in five new mothers in the U.S. experiences a postpartum mood disorder. Up to 10% develop thyroid dysfunction. Women with gestational diabetes face a 50% chance of developing Type 2 diabetes within five years. And those with hypertension during pregnancy are seven times more likely to face heart disease, the leading cause of women's death.
Yet after childbirth, standard lab testing all but disappears, despite the fact that the first 40 days postpartum will shape the next 40 years of a woman's health, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Trellis Health aims to change that with the first at-home postpartum lab test, launching today. The $239 kit tests more than 30 biomarkers, including hormone, thyroid, nutrient, inflammation, and metabolic levels—all from the privacy of home, with results delivered in three to four days.
It's a product designed not just for medical accuracy, but for the lived reality of new moms—filling a critical postpartum care gap in the U.S. healthcare system.
Postpartum Lab Test Built For The Realities of Motherhood
Trellis Health Tasso Device
Estelle Giraud, CEO and co-founder of Trellis Health, didn't set out to become a femtech founder. She holds a PhD in population genetics, spent years in academic research, and helped build Illumina's U.S. precision medicine business into a $400 million division. But it was her IVF pregnancy—and a brush with postpartum preeclampsia—that inspired her to innovate in the women's health sector.
'I'm a healthcare optimist,' she said. 'The future is hyper-personalized, digital-first, and it's not that far away. But no one was building the infrastructure to get us there.' That realization led to the creation of Trellis Health, a women's health startup focused on giving patients control over their data and care.
Its platform serves as an operating system for family health, integrating hospital and provider records into a unified timeline and offering 'care in your pocket' through asynchronous chat with certified nurse-midwives.
The company's new lab test builds on that platform with a physical product designed for ease, comfort, and access. The test uses a Tasso device—a painless, stick-on patch that draws blood in 10 minutes from a woman's upper arm. There's no need for a clinic visit, no fear of needles, and no childcare coordination required.
'We built this for exhausted new moms,' Giraud explained. 'She shouldn't have to juggle naps, car seats, and 12 vials of blood to get care.'
The test screens for more than 30 biomarkers tied to maternal health, including anemia, thyroid and hormone function, vitamin D, and signs of inflammation. Results are returned in three to four days, empowering women to walk into their six-week postpartum visit with real data—and fundamental questions to ask.
During pregnancy, women are tested for dozens of conditions at regular intervals. But once the baby arrives, those metrics disappear—despite clear risks to maternal health. 'We test hundreds of biomarkers during pregnancy. Then we test nothing. That's a healthcare failure,' said Giraud.
Conditions like postpartum anemia, undiagnosed thyroid disorders, and vitamin deficiencies can mimic or exacerbate postpartum depression, fatigue, anxiety, and long-term metabolic disease. But because they're rarely measured, they often go untreated.
'I had gestational diabetes and this is easier than my CGM [Continuous Glucose Monitoring]—the whole process was simple and so straightforward,' said Amara Bell, a Trellis Health customer and postpartum labs beta tester. 'This was my second pregnancy, and it's been game-changing for me to have everything in one place and not have to log into multiple portals and screenshot things to take to my different providers.'
Trellis Health aims to change that—not just by offering an affordable test, but by reshaping how postpartum care is delivered and who controls the data.Funding Femtech: Overcoming Bias In Venture Capital For Women
Despite the clear need, raising capital for a femtech startup remains a challenge. Giraud was often told pregnancy was 'too niche'—a 'life stage' unlikely to lead to a scalable business.
Her response? 'Everyone is here because someone was pregnant. That's not a niche.'
Trellis Health's mission is bigger than postpartum: It's about building a consumer healthcare platform that supports people through all life stages, starting with one of the most overlooked.
Venture Capital For Women Founders Still Lags BehindWomen startup CEOs receive just 14% of venture capital and often face questions about risk and responsibility—focused on prevention—while men are asked about scale and growth, a more promotion-oriented framing. This dynamic, documented by researcher Dana Kanze, shapes who gets funded—and how much. 'Male founders expect funding. Female founders expect skepticism,' Giraud said. 'We need to flip that script.'
She succeeded by telling a confident, data-driven story—and by seeking out investors who already understood the market. Today, 80% of Trellis Health's cap table is women, including solo GPs and mothers who have lived through the postpartum experience themselves. 'Representation matters,' said Giraud. 'These women didn't need convincing—just data.'
'After the birth of my daughter, I struggled to get answers about my own health in the postpartum period,' said Genevieve LeMarchal, General Partner at Suncoast Ventures. 'Trellis is addressing exactly what I wish had existed—accessible, clinically relevant testing designed for new mothers. It's a smart and highly needed innovation that has the potential to transform postpartum care at scale for mothers.'
Importantly, men are also on the cap table. Research reveals a troubling paradox: While female investors are more likely to back female founders, startups that raised their first round exclusively from women VCs were half as likely to secure follow-on funding. Attribution bias plays a role—subsequent investors often assume that female-led funding was driven by gender, rather than merit.
Trellis Health is marketing directly to women, selling its lab kit for $239, which is eligible for HSA/FSA reimbursement. Without a massive advertising budget, the company is relying on a more powerful force: word of mouth. 'Women are hungry for a village,' said Giraud. 'They rely on peer recommendations—and they trust each other more than institutions.'
Community networks, pregnancy forums, and postpartum support groups are driving early traction. With a medical advisory board backing its content, Trellis Health is leveraging trusted information and user experience to create momentum beyond traditional marketing.
Closing The Postpartum Health Gap Through Data And Trust
Women control 80% of healthcare spending, yet their postpartum needs remain routinely overlooked. What Trellis Health is doing isn't just filling a gap. It's redefining care. 'There's never been a moment in history with this much frustration, this much unmet need, and this many women willing to drive change through their dollars,' said Giraud.
Her startup is betting on a future where at-home diagnostics, consumer healthcare platforms, and women's health innovation are no longer outliers—but the norm.
Trellis Health's new postpartum lab test is more than a product. It's a signal that postpartum care finally matters—and that women, not institutions, are leading the charge.
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