Future of Fertility_Dr. Elina Berglund: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Future of Fertility_Dr. Elina Berglund: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Abby Mercado:
Hi. I'm Abby Mercado, an IVF mom, former VC investor, and CEO of Rescripted. Welcome to The Future of Fertility, a podcast dedicated to shining a light on the entrepreneurs and innovators who are changing the face of family building. With billions in funding over the past few years, we'll introduce you to the people, the ideas, and the businesses that are changing the fertility industry and in turn, millions of people's lives. The future of fertility is bright. Now let's get into it!

Abby Mercado:
Dr. Elina Berglund is the co-founder and CEO of Natural Cycles. Natural Cycles is the world's first and only app to be certified as contraception, both in the US and in Europe. A Nobel Prize-winning particle physicist, Elina was looking for an effective natural contraceptive so applied her skills to create an algorithm that could accurately pinpoint when a woman is fertile. A mentor of mine, Niko Skievaski, introduced me to Elina. You have to meet the CEO of Natural Cycles, he said. She's brilliant, he said. Elina's mission is to pioneer women's health with research and passion by empowering every woman with the knowledge she needs to be in charge of her health. I am so excited to sit down with you today, Elina. Welcome to the podcast!

Elina Berglund:
Thank you, and thank you for having me!

Abby Mercado:
Amazing. Well, so first off, where are you? Where where are you? Where do you live?

Elina Berglund:
Well, since COVID, I now live in Connecticut, one hour from Manhattan. I used to live on Manhattan before COVID.

Abby Mercado:
Very, very good. And where are you from originally?

Elina Berglund:
I'm from Sweden.

Abby Mercado:
Amazing. I love, I love Sweden and in particular, Stockholm. It's one of my favorite places in the world, it's so beautiful.

Elina Berglund:
Yeah, Stockholm is beautiful. We lived there before we moved to New York for about five years. So we, we still have an office there, and that's just like, the biggest office is still in Stockholm.

Abby Mercado:
There you go. Amazing. Well, like I said, I'm pumped to have you on the pod today. So let's start off by having you tell us a little bit about yourself. And I'd love to kind of end on a note as a, as a founder that's raised millions and millions in capital, there's, your bios all over the place, but I would love to hear kind of one fun fact about you that few people know about you.

Elina Berglund:
Yeah, definitely so, well, I, I'm a physicist, I'm a particle physicist. I actually wanted to be a physicist since I was about five years old and got obsessed by the stars and like black holes and universe. And I'd always wanted to study physics and do physics. And then I did my PhD in particle physics and then a postdoc at CERN, which is also when we found the Higgs particle that led to a Nobel Prize in physics for the theoreticians that predicted the Higgs particles existence like 60 years ago. And that was like the most incredible experience. It's like, really hard to describe to be part of something so big, but it was very exciting. But it also made me, for the first time in my life, saying, like, okay, what? What's next? Because now I feel like I cannot top this in physics. And they were anyway shutting down the experiment for a couple of years, so I was like, for the first time in my life thinking like, if I don't do physics, what would I like to do? So like.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah, I can only imagine. I actually, so I read there was a pretty long New York Times piece that I believe is linked to your LinkedIn profile, so of course I read it, and I kind of I read through that the ultimate goal of a physicist is to know something that no one's ever known before. So I can only imagine what that, that feeling must have been like for somebody who had wanted to be a physicist since they were five years old.

Elina Berglund:
Yeah, totally. And there's a picture of me pouring champagne in this New York Times article, which I think is a little bit funny on the day we discovered the Higgs particle. So we did have champagne, all the teams.

Abby Mercado:
Because it was well deserved. Can you tell us a little bit about just in layman's terms, so this Higgs particle, often called the God particle, just like summarize it. Pretend like you're talking to a five-year-old.

Elina Berglund:
Yes. So basically, the most fundamental, tiny, tiny building stones of our world and our universe is what is called elementary particles. And, you know, some of them probably like the electron and the photon, but there are more of them, and some of them have mass and some of them don't. So like the electron has a little bit of mass and the photon is completely massless. And what gives them mass is the interaction with the Higgs boson. And the Higgs boson was also the last particle that was predicted but hadn't been discovered yet at this point, and this was 2012. So like, if we would find this Higgs particle, it was kind of solidified the theory behind the, what we call the standard model of particle physics, because we had already found all of the other particles. So that was kind of a very big milestone, whether we would have found it or excluded it, because then something must have been wrong with the theory, and that's also exciting, but that didn't happen.

Abby Mercado:
That's, I mean, that's amazing. ... You know, it's, it's one of those things where this is so, it's just, it's so incredible what, what you and your team did. But anyway, kudos to you. It's, you know, and things, thanks are kind of breaking that down, down for the listeners, so. Okay, so, so back to, back to this discovery kind of cementing what was, what had been theorized about and hypothesized about and all of the things. So you said, all right, well, I can't go much further in the field of particle physics, there's nothing else left to do, what do I do next? So kind of take us back.

Elina Berglund:
Yeah. So. Well, it was, it was an intense summer, 2012, because it was also the summer where we, when we got married, my husband and I. So it's now ten years ago, so we just celebrated our 10th anniversary.

Abby Mercado:
Congrats.

Elina Berglund:
So like, thank you. So it was like the Higgs discovery and one month later our wedding and then honeymoon. So we were of course discussing quite a bit on the honeymoon, like because he's also a physicist, not a particle physicist, but a different kind of physicist. So we were discussing like, oh, okay, if we don't do physics, what would we do? And a few months earlier, I had been looking for a natural birth control method myself because I knew we wanted to have kids in a few years, and I used to have the hormonal implant and it was time to take it out but didn't want to put in a new one because I thought like, it's good to give the body a break from hormones before getting pregnant, so I start ovulating again, etc..

Abby Mercado:
How did you know that? How did you know that it was good to give the, like back in 2012, I feel like nobody would know. We still don't know enough about this. Like, how did you know that, data point?

Elina Berglund:
Well, I guess I didn't know, but that was what I thought I had, had also, like ten years earlier when I was a teenager, struggled with the birth control pill. When I was 15 or so, I tried the pill, I hated it, it completely changed me, and so I stopped taking it. And at that point, I had gone, I went to the library and I started reading up about like how the menstrual cycle works and like when you're fertile and not fertile, and I tried, I read about the method of like analyzing your cervical mucus to see when you're fertile. And I try that as like a 17-year-old, but it was way too complicated and difficult. So at some point I gave up and tried the hormonal implant, but then when it was time to take the third one out, ten years later, when I was 28, there was like a whole new technology, there was the Internet. I, myself was a scientist, I could read research articles. I didn't have to go to the library anymore, but I was a little bit facing the same problem that I, I wanted to have a natural birth control method, and there was no obvious option out there. There was nothing that was like very effective and easy to use. And so but I did start reading up on the research about that the body temperature changes throughout the menstrual cycle, something that I actually didn't know at all. So I was like, wow, now I can actually measure my temperature and figure out when I'm ovulating. But I realized quite quickly that the traditional way of doing it by hand was, didn't take into account many things. Like, for instance, I was just coming off hormonal contraception, so I wanted to take that into account, I wanted to take previous cycles into account, I wanted to make this like statistically sound and fail-safe. And I also realized that I'm the perfect person to do this because.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah, you're like, okay, this makes sense, I'm a scientist and I have a good subject myself.

Elina Berglund:
Exactly. So because particle physics is really a lot about infinite of data and algorithms and analyzing data. So this is,, this was my and still is my core skill. So I started applying it to myself. But then when we sat there on our honeymoon and discussed it, then my husband had the idea of, oh, we should make this because I started like using it just for myself. And he said, we should make this available for all women and couples out there because you know, many couples are looking for non-hormonal contraception or need help trying to get pregnant. This kind of stuff solves both problems. And I was like, yeah, that is so true, this is what I'm going to do. It was really like an epiphany.

Abby Mercado:
That's awesome. Wait, paint a picture for us. Where were you on your honeymoon?

Elina Berglund:
We were in a ..., which was beautiful. So I'm actually, when I'm telling the story, I'm actually picturing us because we were in a hot tub with.

Abby Mercado:
There you go!

Elina Berglund:
A view of the sea discussing this, so this is what I pictured.

Abby Mercado:
Every, every founder story has a interest to it, obviously. And it sounds like this was a, this was a really memorable moment between you and your partner, which is amazing. So is, is he particularly enterprising, like he, I guess, was he the person who was like, we should build a business out of this? And you're like, yeah, I can do that. Like, how did, you know, as, as two scientists is that, I don't know. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Elina Berglund:
Yeah. So he actually studied physics and started doing research because he wanted to discover something that he could then make into a company. So he had always wanted to become an entrepreneur, which is something I had never thought about, I just wanted to do physics, right?

Abby Mercado:
Yeah.

Elina Berglund:
And he always used to pitch me all sorts of ideas. He had a new idea every week, and I kind of like half listened to them and thought that was maybe not the best idea or trying to be a bit supportive, but.

Abby Mercado:
Sounds like every marriage effort.

Elina Berglund:
Yeah. But when he, when, when it came to this idea, Natural cycles, for me it was not so much about becoming an entrepreneur or running a business. It was like, I need to build this product, I need to do this research, I need to give this to women who need this product, so it was very different than everything else he proposed.

Abby Mercado:
I love it. So assuming you took some time off kind of after Higgs, you had just gotten married, you were on your honeymoon, you conceptualized this business. What, what did the research look like? How long did it take? And what did you do after you had kind of planned out what you needed to plan in order to build a new product that the world had never seen?

Elina Berglund:
Yeah. So, yeah, a few months after one honeymoon, we both quit our jobs in physics. He took a management consultant job where he learned about, because none of us had really worked in a company before, so, so we didn't really know much about it. So he wanted to learn like about how to run a business. And meanwhile, I sat at home alone in our apartment and yeah, worked on the algorithm, the app, everything. And I thought, you know, if nothing comes of this, at least I'm learning how to code an app and that must be useful. I can, I can maybe go work at Google if this doesn't work out. But it took then, yeah, it took about one and a half years until we, we released or launched the first version of the app, which I completely built myself. And then it kind of, it was not like a big bang type of launch because we were one and a half person team, and also I was.

Abby Mercado:
Thank you, by the way, for the big bang reference, only from a particle physicist.

Elina Berglund:
I didn't even think of that. But we kind of like, with that we got our first funding and then we could hire a small team and then we could start doing more clinical studies and, and improve things from there. But now, ten years later, it's still not, we have an amazing team and we have published 14 clinical studies and we're regulated as a medical device for birth control and fertility planning, and in most of the Western world. But it's still like it's still hard work, of course, as you know.

Abby Mercado:
Of course.

Elina Berglund:
But it's also very exciting.

Abby Mercado:
Amazing. So so give us a breakdown of kind of everything that goes into Natural Cycles like the product as it, as it stands today. I think like what I'm interested in and learning about is like all, all of the different components of a woman's menstrual cycle. So like, what were you taking into account as you thought through this algorithm?

Elina Berglund:
Yes. So the temperature changes throughout the menstrual cycle because after you ovulate, the hormone progesterone increases in your body and warms the body. So your temperature is higher after ovulation than before. So with the temperature measurement, you can tell where you are in the cycle, not just for measuring once, but because everyone's temperature is different, but from continuously measuring it. But there's also, of course, a lot of other things that affect temperature, it can fluctuate for, from a bunch of reasons. So that's why it's really important to have a solid algorithm that can separate, like what is due to the menstrual cycle, what is due to something else. And in the beginning and still today, women measure with a thermometer in their mouth when they wake up in the morning as a proxy for the basal body temperature, which is your lowest temperature point during the night, which is the most stable value because during the day it also depends on what you're doing. But last summer we got a new FDA clearance that you can use Natural Cycles in conjuncture with wearables, so measuring during the night on the skin and also then taking heart rate into account. So actually only four weeks ago or a month ago, we launched a collaboration with the Oura Ring, which measures temperature on your finger as you sleep.

Abby Mercado:
I saw that collaboration, yeah, congrats on that. And I feel like there, there's just so much momentum behind wearables. And, so was it, was kind of the, the research such that I mean, to put this super simply, I'm probably oversimplifying it. But like you can, you're, the temperature that is found in your mouth is the same as the temperature that is found in your finger, and if not the same, maybe helping the algorithm come to the same conclusion?

Elina Berglund:
Yes. In the end, what we really want to measure is like the, the body temperature. If we could have something sensor far in the body, that would be the best. But that's hard to do. And in the end, though, like the absolute value for us is less important than the trend. So your skin temperature is lower than your oral temperature, but measuring with the Oura Ring on the skin is actually very stable over time. So we made a clinical study for that FDA submission that showed that the temperature from the Oura Ring is as stable as the one from the mouth, so it's as good as input into our fertility algorithm.

Abby Mercado:
Got it, so cool. That was basically what I was getting at, although you put it so much more eloquently than I did. Okay, so, so you're taking into account temperature. Like what? What else is, is Natural Cycles taking into account and why does it matter for a woman cycle?

Elina Berglund:
So the, our fertility algorithm also, of course, takes into account menstruation just to know when the cycle starts basically, it can optionally also take into account luteinizing hormone test known as ovulation test, which measures the hormones that peaks like a day or two before ovulation. This is especially useful if you're trying to get pregnant, so the app then tells you which days to take such a test so you don't have to take so many tests because this is like you pee on a stick so the thermometer you can use for years. But it's such a sticky thing, basically only use one. So you don't.

Abby Mercado:
I remember taking like ten a day and being like, this was really necessary. Oh, my gosh.

Elina Berglund:
No, not really.

Abby Mercado:
I wish I known you.

Elina Berglund:
But yeah, it's, yeah, I know some of our users, they go all in and they take several days as well, even if they don't have to.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah.

Elina Berglund:
And it's interesting. I also love measuring things with my body, like COVID test, for instance. It's so fun to take COVID tests. I take them all the time.

Abby Mercado:
Oh my gosh! Said no one ever, .... I don't think it's fun to take COVID test, but I guess that's how we differ. I'm sure we have a lot in common, both as female founders and CEOs, but that is where we differ really now.

Elina Berglund:
I feel like that was like a pregnancy test, it tells you something about your future.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah. Too funny.

Elina Berglund:
But yeah. And then it can now also takes with the Oura Ring integration takes into account heart rate but not as a ways to measure fertility necessarily, but rather a way to measure your lifestyle. So what we've known is that if you drink a few glasses of wine, for instance, that evening before, it can affect your temperature, but it affects your heart rate much more. So if we see like a peak in your heart rate one night, it can be alcohol or stress. And then we know how much it will have affected the temperature, and then we correct the temperature to kind of take into account your, what you did the, the night before, and it gives it even more stable temperature data.

Abby Mercado:
Got it. Okay, so that I read on your website that's kind of like, you have kind of a different success rate for somebody who uses the app versus uses the app perfectly. So is that kind of how you would describe an example of someone who might use the app perfectly? It's like, okay, I have a glass of wine, Natural cycles.

Elina Berglund:
No.

Abby Mercado:
No? Okay.

Elina Berglund:
So, but indeed, as you say, like every birth control method has a perfect use effectiveness and a typical use effectiveness. And for Natural Cycles, the, the typical use effectiveness is 93% effective, which means that 7 out of 100 women get pregnant per year for any reason. The perfect use is 98% means that you can still measure however or forget to measure, that doesn't matter, you still count as a perfect user for us, what matters is if you actually use protection when the app tells you to do so, that's the ....

Abby Mercado:
Got it.

Elina Berglund:
... first perfect too, ....

Abby Mercado:
Okay, okay. Thank you for breaking that down. I should have read that more closely on your website.

Elina Berglund:
Oh, no, is this a good thing to explain because many people, it's very different like, for instance, if you if you're on the pill, there are many things you can do to not count as a perfect user. You can forget the pill, of course, but you can also, for instance, eat grapefruit and you can be sick and vomit and or have diarrhea, so like many things to keep track of, but with Natural Cycles, the only thing in the end that really matters is that if you use protection when the app tells you it's a red date, you're, you might be fertile today or not.

Abby Mercado:
So, why? How are you, the, okay, so I should share this, so I am, I'm Catholic, and so when my husband and I were married, we went through natural family planning and that is basically you are temping is what we call it in the Catholic Church. And, you know, it's a recognition that your temperature matters. So what, how, how are you the first person to say, let's actually put this into an algorithm, like let's write code that supports this? Like, what were you like running up against anybody else doing this? I know there's a handful of folks who are, and companies, who are doing this now, like, tell us about your experience kind of with with early competition or lack thereof.

Elina Berglund:
So we're definitely the first to, to get a clearance as a medical device for, as a contraceptive, digital contraceptive method. But there were other algorithms out there like, and I would like what, yeah, what is an algorithm, it can be very simple thing so like this thing where women do the, they look at the if the last three temperatures were above the five before it's also some kind of algorithm it's just not very good to one.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I'm like sitting with my priest, like measuring my temperature, you probably heard stories like these, so.

Elina Berglund:
Yeah, so, so there were also other algorithms that other companies have, I I just noticed that they weren't very good. So that's why I felt like here I can really make a difference. And also, I think we definitely have, I'm very sure that today that we have by far the best algorithm and also by far the best validated algorithms since we've now done huge amounts of very big clinical studies to, to show that.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah, it seems like a huge differentiator for you all. Like obviously it's not only a business, but it's very much a business that is has been started and is run by a scientist. So I'm sure that that obviously makes all the difference in research, like you've been doing research your whole life. So yeah, yeah.

Elina Berglund:
And also I'm very happy because we have a whole team of data scientists, and many of them actually are also particle physicists and several of them I worked with on the Higgs discovery. So I'm, I'm not unique in Natural Cycles to have been part of the Higgs discovery, there are many of us.

Abby Mercado:
Oh, that is so cool! I did not know that. That's fantastic.

Elina Berglund:
I am very happy that I still get to work with them. Not all of them, of course, but some of them, and it's been a lot of fun.

Abby Mercado:
That's wonderful. Okay, so, now that we've talked a lot about the science, which I super appreciate and I know our listeners have too. Tell us about, okay, so you founded the business in 2013, right?

Elina Berglund:
Yes.

Abby Mercado:
Okay, so back in 2013, as a direct-to-consumer everything, was, let's just say it was different. We might not have all been on Instagram, not all on TikTok, like how did you, how did you reach the consumer? And in turn, how did you kind of prove out that traction to your investors?

Elina Berglund:
Yeah, it was different. I think one thing we're, we went against the stream, but it proved to be useful now, and I'm happy we did, is that we from the start charge for the product. So at that point, all the apps were supposed to be free like, like Facebook, and I think many period trackers still, still are, and they tried to monetize in other ways. But we said from the start, like, if this is supposed to be a contraceptive method, it's better to charge for it because, you know, there's some commitment involved in, and we know then that our consumers are also our customers. We don't have to sell their data, we don't have to monetize with ads and other ways. But investors were very much skeptical, like, should you really charge for this? You'll get much more users if you don't charge for it. And I think today this makes so much sense. So I'm happy we were bold and charge for it from the start. There was no TikTok, but there was Facebook, so like I remember the first, first when I was the only employee and did everything myself. I also read the Facebook ads to try it out, so yeah.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah.

Elina Berglund:
That's part .... not ... too much.

Abby Mercado:
No, that, that's, that's really interesting. And I certainly commend you for your bravery in the face of those investors being like, no, this is, you know, and we say like, okay, you were kind of facing a world where apps are free. But truly, it really is that commitment to use your app. Like it, it does require commitment and it requires like an external device, right? Like you have to have this thermometer. So, you know, if somebody is not paying for it, they, are they really appreciating it for the value that it actually has in their, in their health? So I commend you for that, for sure.

Elina Berglund:
Oh, thank you.

Abby Mercado:
So you, you mentioned kind of other, other ways of thinking about, other, ways that other companies kind of in your same sphere might have been thinking about monetization strategies. And I just like I want to go right there. So, you know, there have been apps in the past that have sold data, that's how they monetize, you know, all of that. And I think that we're kind of in this, this new world, at least in the US, of how we think about data and privacy for women. So I guess in light of the recent Dobbs ruling, why does Natural Cycles matter? Like how are you all protecting the data of women today?

Elina Berglund:
Yeah, this is a huge deal for women's health in general and of course also for natural cycles. I feel like it's now more important to, than ever, to really like distinguish different companies in different products. And we have always felt like that, we're quite different because we were not a free period tracker, we're a medical device for birth control, and part of the medical device process is to really care about data privacy. There are a lot of regulations, that's part of that already. Then we're also a European company, so we comply with GDPR, which is very strict regulations. Now, though, with the Roe v Wade being overturned, we felt like we have to go even one step further. So we're now working on an anonymous mode in the app such that, not even we have Natural Cycles ourselves, could potentially identify a user and that's to protect us and our users for a potential subpoena one day. We haven't ever received one, but to be super safe, we want to, if we would receive such a subpoena, if we don't have access to, to the data ourselves or know which user has what sensitive data, there's nothing we can give out to the authorities either, so this is something we're working on right now.

Abby Mercado:
When, when will that be live?

Elina Berglund:
Hopefully later in the fall?

Abby Mercado:
That's amazing. I'm sure that, I know as a, as a woman like that just gives me like I almost like kind of heaved a sigh of relief just then knowing that, that that is even possible for women in America. So I am hugging you from here in Colorado, so thank you so much for, for doing what you're doing for women in America. It's incredibly important to all of us.

Elina Berglund:
Thank you. Yeah, it's really, now it's really even more important than before, I feel.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah. So, so tell us, like, what, what, what's next for Natural Cycles? Like, how do you, you know, as often the job of the CEO is defined as threefold, so you're responsible for the strategy, the people who can carry out that strategy, and of course, the money to pay those people who will then carry out that strategy. So that's kind of how I describe just generally the role of a CEO. How do you, how are you thinking about strategy going forward and just, just what Natural Cycles looks like in the future?

Elina Berglund:
Yeah, we have, as always, incredibly, a lot of things, exciting things going on. So anonymous mode is one big focus right now as well as the Oura Ring that we, we've just launched, but we're also working on our own wearable and our own improvement to the thermometer as well. So this hopefully will come out in, in some months. And then also, you know, doing even more cool research and bringing women's health forward in general when it comes to, to research. And hopefully, one day, we also want to tackle menopause and we think the wearable is a big part of that because we feel like if you're tracking your, your menopause journey, it's probably too much to ask to measure your temperature every morning. Well, it's definitely worth it for, if you want to avoid pregnancy or you want to get pregnant. So we hope that for menopause, since it's such a long journey that takes many years, tracking things with a wearable is the solution.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah, it's, I love seeing just the more and more startups in the menopause space, you know, kind of tackle, tackle issues there. I remember distinctively seeing a book in my mom's bookshelf called The Silent Passage, and it's just, it's I think it's a pretty popular book on menopause. But I remember kind of, and in retrospect, she and I have talked a lot about women's health, you know, just in the future. And she often notes that that's really all she had was that book, that was, that was there not more. So it's good to know that you're, you're kind of extending the life of, of Natural Cycles for, for users whose menstrual cycle is pausing. So yeah, that's, that's really exciting. So a question about, I know that, that Natural Cycles right now is kind of focused on planning and preventing pregnancy, in terms of people who might not have straightforward cycles, do you have any solutions for helping them, helping people identify problems with their cycles, etc.? We have crazy stats. Like one in ten people have PCOS, one in ten women have endometriosis, a lot of our community members at Rescripted where we're helping them with, with those things, those disease states. So how, how are you helping the patient that, or the person that might not have, have the perfect bill of menstrual health?

Elina Berglund:
Yeah, we, we have a lot of users with PCOS, especially because Natural Cycles detects ovulation in the temperature data, we have a lot of PCOS users that are either trying to get pregnant or thinking of trying to get pregnant at some point in the future because those are actually the women that we help the most. If you have a super standard regular cycle, then it's much more straightforward. And we've noticing that many of the women that have been diagnosed with PCOS, they do still actually most of them do still ovulate. It's just really not trivial to see for many to see when and how often, but they do, which then gives hope that they can get pregnant one day or when they want to. So we, we definitely are very fond of our PCOS users, and we get quite a bit of feedback from them on how we, we help them achieve pregnancy, which is, which is great.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah, that's awesome. Well, Elina, this has just been an awesome conversation and I've just so enjoyed chatting with you. I have one more question that we ask for all of our, we ask all of our participants on this podcast, and that is what is one thing that you would rescript when it comes to fertility, the fertility industry? What's, what's the one thing that you would change, that you would reframe that, that is really wrong that you want to fix with this industry?

Elina Berglund:
Well, I think this could be a great opportunity to touch on the woman's fertile window. I mean, you and probably all the listeners to this podcast is aware that women are only fertile six days out of your cycle, and also there are really only three days where you have significant fertility. But so many women and girls still don't know that. And I think a big part of that is because women are still told today or girls in school that, oh, yes, you're fertile every day of this cycle, so don't even look at the boy, like kind of fear-mongering them out of, instead getting to know their body and not being scared of their body. So I would rescript that.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah, basically, like what is the cycle? How does it work? What are the phases? Yeah, sex ed is broken, we definitely, we definitely agree with that, so. Well, where can people, where can people find you? Where can people find Natural Cycles if they, if they want to learn more?

Elina Berglund:
You can always go to NaturalCycles.com, there you can learn more about our product. But also we have a great blog called Cycle Matters, where we write about all things about women's health. Also, we have about 400,000 followers on Instagram where we have really educational and also fun content around everything related to, to women's health, so you can check us out there, too.

Abby Mercado:
Amazing. Amazing. Well, thank you again, Elina. Again, this was an absolute joy. I really look up to you as a founder and thank you for what you do and looking forward to talking to you again soon!

Elina Berglund:
Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.

Abby Mercado:
Of course.

Abby Mercado:
Thank you for tuning in to the Future Of Fertility. We hope you leave here feeling empowered about all of the exciting innovations taking place in the fertility space. If you like today's episode and want to stay up to date on our podcast, don't forget to click subscribe. To find this episode, show notes, resources, and more, head to Rescripted.com, and be sure to join our free Fertility Support Community while you're there.

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