How data collection can change fertility treatment now and in years to come

Cecilie Hvidberg Jakobsen, wawa fertility founder, tells FemTech World why data has the power to change fertility treatment. 

The prevalence of infertility is more common than most people would think. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), this global health issue is affecting millions of people of reproductive age worldwide. Available data suggests that between 48 million couples and 186 million individuals have infertility globally.

A report published in 2016 in the Oxford Academic journal suggested that one in eight women aged 16–74 years had experienced infertility, defined by unsuccessfully attempting pregnancy for a year or longer.

Cecilie Hvidberg Jakobsen has seen the devastating emotional and psychological consequences of infertility among her friends, after she struggled herself with pregnancy loss.

“I was so confused that no one was speaking about this subject when actually, so many people suffer from infertility and have to pause everything in their lives to put all of their energy into treatment,” she tells me.

“After a lot of research, I found out that infertility was actually the biggest chronic disease in people in the reproductive age and the biggest problem, as in many other parts of the women’s health tech sector, was the very big data gap.”

Cecilie experienced pregnancy loss herself

Along with her co-founder, Barbara Saouma, Jakobsen has launched wawa fertility, a Danish app designed as a personal assistant that offers medical and mental health support for fertility patients. “We spoke to around 250 couples, fertility clinics and pharma companies and we found out that the only right way [to close the data gap] was to empower women, because they are the only ones who have all the knowledge about the process that they’re going through,” the founder says.

“Our app is handling everything for women and couples going through fertility treatment, from diagnostics, all the way to the live birth of a child.

“We are helping them understand the treatment that they’re going through, what is happening in the diagnostic process, how to pick the right clinic, what questions to ask their doctor and how to prepare for different procedures.”

The amount of data collected helps founders like Cecilie to personalise insights and offer tailored advice. While wawa does not use personal data and complies with data regulators, the founder explains that collecting so much information will be beneficial for many generations to come. “That data can help us do better research, and come up with better fertility treatments,” she says.

“Many women experiencing infertility or pregnancy loss, like myself, don’t want anyone to suffer from this in the future. Right now, the numbers that we’re looking at are saying that more than half of people are going to need help getting pregnant in the future.

“I really want to do something about it,” Jakobsen continues. “If my kids are going to need fertility treatment, I definitely want to make sure it’s going to be an easier journey than what I experienced and I feel like a lot of the women are thinking the same.”

An integral part of that is understanding the infertility symptoms. wawa’s research found that more than 80 per cent of women going through treatment suffer from mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety.

Cecilie says that: “Women have no clue what they’re going through. They have no clue if they’re taking the right medication the right way because most of the clinics are very busy and don’t have the time to give the right information to patients.”

Wawa offers medical and mental health support, such as writing therapy and daily check-ups, as well as financial advice that can help people navigate their fertility journey more easily.

“The app is research-based,” the founder points out. “So, everything is made by experts we’ve been working with from psychologists to gynaecologists and fertility experts. That was very important for us because as a woman, becoming pregnant is your number one wish, and we wanted to create an app based on real research and backed by people in this sector.”

                                                                wawa uses AI to support patients and improve treatment

Considering a significant increase in fertility apps, I ask Cecilie what makes hers different. “I think what makes wawa different is that it is data-driven and everything you put into it will give you feedback immediately. So, we are making sure that we are empowering women at a personal level and give them insights on how they can improve their treatment. We are here to handle everything, so they can try and relax in some way, because our aim is to make the very hard journey just a little bit easier.

She adds that: “We’re also focusing on things that would help reduce the time of the treatment, making sure that women are not experiencing hyperstimulation, for example, and trying to create more transparency between doctor and patient.”

Wawa’s aim is going global and with enough data, the team are hoping to reduce fertility treatment and symptoms and minimise the use of medication.

“We are also hoping to make fertility treatments more accessible,” Jakobsen says. “Right now, in Europe alone, 25 million people are suffering from infertility, but we’re only treating 10 per cent and that is because it’s too expensive and way too tough. Our big mission is to change that in the future.

“Currently women can’t even learn from their previous cycles because much of the information collected  is still on paper. This is why we want to own our own data and make sure that we use it to improve fertility treatment. More importantly, we give women the chance to forever have access to their own data and everything else they need within the app.”

For more info, visit wawafertility.com.