Proov has launched its Empower perimenopause testing system, a urine test designed to help women understand and manage perimenopause.
The Empower kit provides women with insights into their hormone levels. The urine test measures four key hormones – follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), oestrogen, luteinising hormone (LH), and progesterone. Users can also download an app for insights into the test results and their hormones.
As women approach menopause, they can experience hormonal imbalances such as increasing FSH levels, oestrogen dominance, and low progesterone. These can cause symptoms like heavy periods, weight gain, and sleep disturbances.
Proov’s CEO Amy Beckley founded the company after experiencing infertility and miscarriages to empower women to have a voice in their healthcare decisions.
She told Medical Device Network: “I saw family and friends going through the same thing I went through, and I realised how big of an issue it really was.”
Beckley emphasised that hormones have a significant impact on women’s daily lives, but they are not educated about them: “We’re not taught anything about them. In fact, we’re taught to ignore them.”
She added that there is a lack of tools and resources available for women to track and understand their hormonal patterns and cycles, which is crucial information for their health and well-being.
Proov prioritised making its hormone testing kit accessible and available directly to consumers rather than gating it behind the healthcare system. Beckley explained that Proov had two options when developing the product – sell it through doctors or make it available directly to customers.
The company chose the direct-to-consumer approach because it saw a gap in the medical system where women were not getting access to information promptly. Beckley said they wanted to “empower women to have this information, when they want it”, without arbitrary time limits. The test is available to purchase on Amazon.
Proov’s flagship test, PdG, measures a metabolite of progesterone. The test secured US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in 2020, following a range of clinical studies to validate the test's accuracy, sensitivity and usability. Once they obtained the initial FDA clearance, Proov was able to build on that approval and launch additional hormone tests, said Beckley.
The company raised $9.7m in a 2021 Series A funding round and is co-owned by music stars Nelly and Ashanti.
Investment in the femtech space is increasing. Just last week, Flo Health became the first fully digital consumer women’s health app to be valued beyond $1bn. Beckley emphasised that the more awareness the femtech market gets, the better the chance of securing investment.
“It’s really hard for investors to get behind the idea of women’s health because they haven’t seen much return from it yet but if there’s more women’s health companies becoming unicorns, that is going to be amazing - then we’re going to see the funding increase,” said Beckley.
