Why women are using technology to conceive?

The influence of social pressure of parenthood coupled with the high prevalence of fertility problems has increased the propensity to seek fertility treatment among Indian couples over the years. This has contributed to the fast-paced growth of the IVF market in India—from 108 clinics in 2005 to over a thousand in 2015, according to Ernst & Young.However, the complexities of traditional fertility treatments, repeated visits to clinics, and extremely high costs have led to an ever-increasing number of women trying out modern fertility technology. These have significant benefits over old methods with their effectiveness, convenience, and sophistication.

 The ease of tracking fertile days

According to a consumer survey conducted by Inito, almost 72% of women confirmed tracking their ovulation cycles primarily using manual methods. But with changing lifestyles, stress, and age—the variation in cycles has increased and 50% of couples track their ovulation days wrong. This is crucial since the chances of conception are high only during a few days every cycle.

Earlier the two alternatives to manual tracking were regular visits to labs for scans which was both inconvenient and expensive; and using imported ovulation trackers which were not personalized for Indian women fertility conditions.

However, the introduction of homegrown at-home fertility technologies has allowed women to accurately identify all the fertile days and get clear, digitised, and error-free personalised results in the comfort of their home.

At-home hormone testingMeasuring hormones can reveal more than just fertile days. Changing hormone patterns help in diagnosing fertility issues like PCOS, anovulatory cycles, etc. Hormone testing also provides data unique to individual women which in turn can be processed and reviewed to suggest personalized corrective measures.

At-home hormone testing has brought the convenience of lab grade tests at the user’s convenience of home without compromising on accuracy of results. Increased privacy also enables one to overcome the reluctance of taking tests.

Personalized results using AI

Every woman’s cycle is different and controlled by their personal hormone values. About 46% of the cycles vary more than seven days which means that the interpretation of hormone levels need to be personalized. AI not only enables personalized results and insights through real-time data but can also predict small lifestyle changes that can ultimately affect fertility levels.

Provide access to all parts of the country

A 2015 report by E&Y found a significant geographical skew in the distribution of infertility centers with about 55% of fertility treatments being performed in the top eight metro cities.

This is because of an acute shortage of specialist doctors outside the top cities. Owing to this, more and more women from tier 2 and 3 cities are relying on portable fertility monitors because of their easy availability across regions, cost effectiveness and accuracy.