Latest news with #AmericanCollegeofObstetriciansandGynecologists
Forbes
13 hours ago
- Health
- Forbes
This Femtech Startup Is Fixing Postpartum Care
Mother feeling postpartum depression with baby in her arms. Many women suffer from postpartum blues ... More after giving birth. In fact, it is estimated that 50-80% of mothers suffer from the "baby blues". 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 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.
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Planned Parenthood ‘defunding' threatens women's health beyond abortion
Planned Parenthood stands to lose a huge portion of its federal funding under President Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' which could result in the closure of up to 200 clinics, according to the organization. Not only will many Americans lose access to abortion care if those clinics close, but millions of people treated by the provider may delay or go without primary health care. 'It's going to pretty devastating if that happens,' said Nisha Verma, senior adviser of reproductive health policy and advocacy at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. 'The health care system is already struggling to take care of patients.' A provision in the massive policy and spending package signed on July 4 bans health care providers who perform abortions and receive more than $800,000 in federal reimbursements from getting Medicaid funding for one year. Planned Parenthood sued the Trump administration this week over the measure, arguing that its clinics make up most of the impacted entities. A federal judge approved its request to temporarily pause the Medicaid funding cut for two weeks. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) declined to comment on the lawsuit. Massachusetts District Judge Indira Talwani, who issued the injunction, will hear arguments on July 21 on whether to extend the pause further. Planned Parenthood officials argue that if Medicaid funding is withheld, the resulting elimination of health care services, staff layoffs and health center closures will 'dire and compounding' consequences on the nation's public health, according to the lawsuit. Most of its Medicaid reimbursements are for health care services unrelated to abortion,since the procedure is covered by the joint state and federal program under limited circumstances like cases of rape, incest or if the pregnancy endangers the life of the pregnant person. Planned Parenthood has offered sexual and reproductive health care services since its founding in 1916 and sees more than 2 million people a year throughout its nearly 600 clinics across the U.S., according to an analysis from the health care policy nonprofit KFF. Those services include cancer screenings, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment and 'well-woman exams,' which are general annual physical exams that take reproductive health into account. If Medicaid reimbursements are banned for a year, what will suffer is its clinics' ability to provide preventative and primary health care procedures, Planned Parenthood officials said, which will shake the country's primary care landscape. 'It's going to exacerbate the chaos of the fragile reproductive health care infrastructure [and] disrupt access to care like birth control screenings, cancer screenings and other important and essential preventative sexual and reproductive health care services,' said Karen Stone, vice president of public policy and government relations at Planned Parenthood. In many communities, particularly in rural areas, Planned Parenthood member clinics are the only place where Americans with Medicaid can receive sexual and reproductive health care. If those clinics disappear, it's unclear where those patients would turn for care. Stephvonne Steele, a 25-year-old eligibility specialist in Florida, knows firsthand how essential Planned Parenthood clinics are in some communities. Steele needed to see a gynecologist for a yeast infection in 2020 and when she called a doctor's office, she was told she could not be seen for months. The infection worsened to the point where she stopped being able to sleep, and she turned to her nearest Planned Parenthood clinic, which booked an appointment for her to see a provider within 24 hours. 'I would have been in trouble without being able to go there,' she said. Even if there are other providers nearby, that does not mean that they will be able to accommodate the influx of patients that once used to rely on Planned Parenthood, said Alina Salganicoff, senior vice president and director of women's health policy. Many private OB-GYN offices, for example, do not take Medicaid due to the program's low reimbursement rate. And like Steele, many Americans struggle with long wait times for doctors' appointments, in part, due to a growing physician shortage. The U.S. is facing increasing shortages of both primary care physicians and obstetricians and gynecologists. The Association of American Medical Colleges anticipates the country will have a shortage of 20,200 to 40,400 primary care physicians by 2036. And about 3,000 fewer OB-GYNS will be practicing in the U.S. by 2030, according to a 2021 report from HHS. One option for Medicaid patients is to visit a federally qualified health care center (FQHC), which is a community-based health care provider that receives federal funding to provide primary care. But FQHCs, Verma said, are not equipped to serve the volume of patients that Planned Parenthood does. Planned Parenthood health centers served 1.6 million — or 33 percent — of the 4.7 million people looking for contraception care in 2020, according to an analysis from the Guttmacher Institute. FQHCs would need to increase their capacity by 56 percent — or by an extra 1 million patients — to meet the need for contraception care alone met by Planned Parenthood, the analysis found. Delaying preventative care like cancer screenings or avoiding emergent care like STI treatment is going to make Americans sicker, Verma stressed. Conditions like cervical cancer can be prevented with regular pap smears, and many STIs, if left untreated, can cause serious health problems like infertility, organ damage, or even death. She predicts that if more Planned Parenthood clinics close, more Americans will be stranded in 'health care deserts' and suffer more progressive diseases. 'Some people don't really realize how many people go to Planned Parenthood for some of their routine care,' Verma said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
12-07-2025
- Health
- The Hill
Planned Parenthood ‘defunding' threatens women's health beyond abortion
Planned Parenthood stands to lose a huge portion of its federal funding under President Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' which could result in the closure of up to 200 clinics, according to the organization. Not only will many Americans lose access to abortion care if those clinics close, but millions of people treated by the provider may delay or go without primary health care. 'It's going to pretty devastating if that happens,' said Nisha Verma, senior adviser of reproductive health policy and advocacy at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. 'The health care system is already struggling to take care of patients.' A provision in the massive policy and spending package signed on July 4 bans health care providers who perform abortions and receive more than $800,000 in federal reimbursements from getting Medicaid funding for one year. Planned Parenthood sued the Trump administration this week over the measure, arguing that its clinics make up most of the impacted entities. A federal judge approved its request to temporarily pause the Medicaid funding cut for two weeks. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) declined to comment on the lawsuit. Massachusetts District Judge Indira Talwani, who issued the injunction, will hear arguments on July 21 on whether to extend the pause further. Planned Parenthood officials argue that if Medicaid funding is withheld, the resulting elimination of health care services, staff layoffs and health center closures will 'dire and compounding' consequences on the nation's public health, according to the lawsuit. Most of its Medicaid reimbursements are for health care services unrelated to abortion,since the procedure is covered by the joint state and federal program under limited circumstances like cases of rape, incest or if the pregnancy endangers the life of the pregnant person. Planned Parenthood has offered sexual and reproductive health care services since its founding in 1916 and sees more than 2 million people a year throughout its nearly 600 clinics across the U.S., according to an analysis from the health care policy nonprofit KFF. Those services include cancer screenings, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment and 'well-woman exams,' which are general annual physical exams that take reproductive health into account. If Medicaid reimbursements are banned for a year, what will suffer is its clinics' ability to provide preventative and primary health care procedures, Planned Parenthood officials said, which will shake the country's primary care landscape. 'It's going to exacerbate the chaos of the fragile reproductive health care infrastructure [and] disrupt access to care like birth control screenings, cancer screenings and other important and essential preventative sexual and reproductive health care services,' said Karen Stone, vice president of public policy and government relations at Planned Parenthood. In many communities, particularly in rural areas, Planned Parenthood member clinics are the only place where Americans with Medicaid can receive sexual and reproductive health care. If those clinics disappear, it's unclear where those patients would turn for care. Stephvonne Steele, a 25-year-old eligibility specialist in Florida, knows firsthand how essential Planned Parenthood clinics are in some communities. Steele needed to see a gynecologist for a yeast infection in 2020 and when she called a doctor's office, she was told she could not be seen for months. The infection worsened to the point where she stopped being able to sleep, and she turned to her nearest Planned Parenthood clinic, which booked an appointment for her to see a provider within 24 hours. 'I would have been in trouble without being able to go there,' she said. Even if there are other providers nearby, that does not mean that they will be able to accommodate the influx of patients that once used to rely on Planned Parenthood, said Alina Salganicoff, senior vice president and director of women's health policy. Many private OB-GYN offices, for example, do not take Medicaid due to the program's low reimbursement rate. And like Steele, many Americans struggle with long wait times for doctors' appointments, in part, due to a growing physician shortage. The U.S. is facing increasing shortages of both primary care physicians and obstetricians and gynecologists. The Association of American Medical Colleges anticipates the country will have a shortage of 20,200 to 40,400 primary care physicians by 2036. And about 3,000 fewer OB-GYNS will be practicing in the U.S. by 2030, according to a 2021 report from HHS. One option for Medicaid patients is to visit a federally qualified health care center (FQHC), which is a community-based health care provider that receives federal funding to provide primary care. But FQHCs, Verma said, are not equipped to serve the volume of patients that Planned Parenthood does. Planned Parenthood health centers served 1.6 million — or 33 percent — of the 4.7 million people looking for contraception care in 2020, according to an analysis from the Guttmacher Institute. FQHCs would need to increase their capacity by 56 percent — or by an extra 1 million patients — to meet the need for contraception care alone met by Planned Parenthood, the analysis found. Delaying preventative care like cancer screenings or avoiding emergent care like STI treatment is going to make Americans sicker, Verma stressed. Conditions like cervical cancer can be prevented with regular pap smears, and many STIs, if left untreated, can cause serious health problems like infertility, organ damage, or even death. She predicts that if more Planned Parenthood clinics close, more Americans will be stranded in 'health care deserts' and suffer more progressive diseases. 'Some people don't really realize how many people go to Planned Parenthood for some of their routine care,' Verma said.
Health Line
24-06-2025
- Health
- Health Line
How Long Does It Take to Get Pregnant?
How long it takes to become pregnant depends on your age, health, and family history. It can take up to 1 year for some people to conceive. A fertility specialist may be able to offer guidance. Most people in their 20s and early 30s are able to get pregnant within 6 months to 1 year, but this can vary from person to person. Your chance of pregnancy is about 1 in 4 in any single menstrual cycle, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Factors that affect conception Your likelihood of conceiving depends on a few factors, including your: age health family and personal medical history when you have sex Those with ovaries and a cervix have the best chance of getting pregnant in their 20s, when you have the largest number of healthy eggs. As you age, fertility naturally declines, and your egg supply diminishes. The ones that remain also aren't as healthy, so it might take you longer to conceive. Sperm quality also diminishes as you age. By age 40, the chance of pregnancy in any menstrual cycle is 1 in 20. Remember to take care of your health if trying to conceive It's important to take care of yourself when trying to conceive. Adopt a healthy lifestyle and balanced diet, and avoid: alcohol smoking recreational drugs You might also want to begin taking a daily prenatal supplement or vitamin, but speak with a health expert first. These lifestyle changes may help you increase your chances of getting pregnant and having a healthy pregnancy. How to tell if you're pregnant A skipped period is one of the most common signs of pregnancy. But if your cycles tend to be irregular, this may not be the most telltale sign. Other indicators of pregnancy may include: headache spotting weight gain changes in blood pressure vomiting heartburn constipation cramps back or hip pain depression insomnia breast changes If you want to confirm a pregnancy, the most reliable method is to have a blood test from a doctor or use an at-home pregnancy test, which are available at most drug stores. Infertility 's role in conception According to the National Infertility Association (or RESOLVE), infertility affects 1 in 6 people of reproductive age globally. Sometimes there's an obvious cause of infertility, like a physical problem with reproductive organs. In other cases, the cause is unknown. You should consider speaking with a fertility specialist about infertility: if you're 35 or younger and have been trying to get pregnant for a year if you're over age 35 and have been trying for more than 6 months If you know you have a health condition that affects your fertility, speak with a reproductive health expert sooner.
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Too many women 'grin and bear it' when getting an IUD. I helped write new pain management guidelines to change that.
Millions of American women have had an IUD (a tiny T-shaped contraceptive device) inserted into their uterus. Many of them likely walked into their doctor's office with a bit of anxiety, not knowing what exactly the procedure would feel like: Would it be just a pinch or would it be incredibly painful? (There is no shortage of viral horror stories.) Also, would your doctor take your pain seriously? Up until recently, there wasn't a standard of care for IUD pain management. Women are often told to pop over-the-counter pain relievers before coming in for the procedure, even though they don't always control the pain. Any pain relief beyond that has been up to the woman's doctor or hospital, and depended on what options they had available. That's changing thanks to new guidelines on pain management for IUD placement issued by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists last month, which follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's updated guidelines in 2024. ACOG called out the 'urgent need' for doctors to acknowledge and treat patient pain and added that patients should 'have more autonomy over pain control options for their health care.' Genevieve Hofmann is a nurse practitioner who coauthored the new ACOG guidelines. In this interview with Yahoo Life's Rachel Grumman Bender, Hofmann explains why IUDs can be painful for some, why any fears shouldn't scare people off from getting this highly effective contraceptive and how these pain management guidelines are an important step in the right direction. IUDs are really one of the most effective birth control methods out there. We call them LARCs, or long-acting reversible contraceptives. Hormonal IUDs are over 99% effective at preventing pregnancy, and nonhormonal IUDs are equally effective. What's nice about hormonal IUDs is that we also use them to manage a lot of gynecologic conditions, such as heavy menstrual bleeding and painful periods. However, patients are coming to us and saying, 'I do not want to have this horrible experience with getting an IUD. How can we manage this?' I've been in practice for a little over 20 years and [when I started out], we would tell people to take some ibuprofen beforehand and try to do some distraction techniques while we're putting it in. There's a lot of grin and bear it in gynecology and in women's health. It's really challenging for us as providers to give people an accurate assessment of what they're going to experience with IUD placement. I've seen people who have had IUDs placed where it was like, That was not terrible, and then all the way to That was the worst pain that I've ever had in my entire life and I had a natural childbirth. There's a very large range of how people experience pain as well as anxiety. So I think as a provider, the guidelines really put the onus on us to help people anticipate the pain and have that conversation about what they can expect. Sometimes they won't know until they're in the throes of it, and so it's about being prepared with some pain options in anticipation that it could be a really painful and uncomfortable procedure for them. IUD insertion requires the placement of a speculum, which sort of holds open the vagina in a way that's not normal. So having a speculum in the vagina is not really comfortable. Then there's the procedure itself. A lot of times, we have to manipulate the position of the uterus, and we do that sometimes by putting a clamp on the cervix. It's this sort of sharp instrument that takes a little 'bite' out of the cervix to hold it in place. So that tenaculum placement can be very painful. IUDs are placed in the uterus, which is a muscular organ. To do that, you have to go through the cervix, which is the opening to the uterus. The cervix can be very tight, especially if someone has not had a vaginal birth. And so getting through that cervical opening can be really painful for some. The uterine body itself has some nerves, so something going into the uterus is just crampy and painful — it's a very deep, visceral pain that is hard to explain to people if they've never had any kind of instrumentation in the uterus before. We also have a really large nerve called the vagus nerve that goes through the cervix; so people can also have this kind of vasovagal-type response when we manipulate the cervix, which makes people feel really terrible too. It makes you feel like you're going to pass out and you get hot and you feel like you're going to throw up. And sometimes people feel like they have to poop and that is a really uncomfortable feeling as well. So there are many different aspects that cause pain. But not everyone's going to feel that way. As a provider, I don't want to scare people out of getting this really effective birth control method or way to manage heavy menstrual bleeding. So [it's about] finding that balance between giving people the information they need so they can feel, OK, I'm going into this with my eyes open, but also not terrifying and scaring people away that they say, Yeah, I'm never ever gonna do that. I always say it's like going to a restaurant. You're going to tell 25 people when you have a terrible restaurant experience. But if you have a great restaurant experience or a mediocre restaurant experience, you don't really tell anybody. So, I think there's a lot of people who do great with their IUD insertion and really manage it well, but they're not as vocal about it as somebody who's had a really awful experience. What the evidence for the guidelines really demonstrated was that using some sort of topical lidocaine, which is a numbing agent, on the cervix was beneficial compared to a placebo or compared to other distracting techniques or ibuprofen and other pain medications. Many of us have been offering better pain management options in the last several years compared to maybe what was happening 10 or 25 years ago. We know from the evidence that anxiety tends to worsen pain. I think providers will give anxiolytics [medications to treat anxiety], so telling patients to take a little bit of Xanax or some Ativan to help with the anxiety. And I do think people are using localized lidocaine, whether that's in a gel or a spray or putting in an injectable lidocaine through a paracervical (nerve) block. I think that is becoming much more typical. There's also IV sedation. The other big thing that comes out of these guidelines is that we as providers owe it to our patients to have a discussion about some options that are available to them. So, it's really having the conversation, guiding patients to make the best decisions for themselves and then hopefully being able to find some interventions that you can do in your clinic safely and effectively to give people some options. I hope that these guidelines get the conversation started in a way that we're meeting people where their needs are ... that they feel heard and can access things like IUDs that are really highly effective ... and that we believe patients when they say, 'This was really painful.' Or, 'I had a really terrible experience last time I did this.' [We should] trust them to know their bodies and say, 'OK, here are the things we're going to do to hopefully try to improve that experience this time.' So I hope that's what comes out of it. Patients need to feel like they're in a space where they can advocate for themselves and be heard. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
