A wave of femtech innovators may finally bring balance.
Among them is Elina Berglund, co-founder and CEO of Natural Cycles, the worlds leading birth-controlapp.
Berglund is a Swedish particle physicist and entrepreneur.
In the same year, she co-founded Natural Cycles alongside her husband.
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The move from physics to entrepreneurship wasnt an easy decision, Berglund says.
It all started when she was seeking an active, hormone-free contraceptive method for herself.
She then realised that there was a huge unmet need for such a product worldwide.
Natural Cyclesalgorithm(initially developed by Berglund herself) analyses the temperaturedatato confirm and predict ovulation.
This way, users know when to use additional birth-control protection without needing to depend onhormone-based methods.
Using the same process, users can also plan pregnancy.
Our users get to know their bodies and understand whats going on inside.
Securing sufficient data on female health is critical to restoring balance.
One way data can contribute is by measuring the effectiveness of treatments.
Another key benefit of the data is increasing awareness over the female body and health.
She adds that this knowledge can also enable prevention, and provide insights on conditions including PCOS and menopause.
App users have also expressed concerns.
Another aspect is establishing the right processes that ensure data protection.
Its also about the business model, Berglund adds.
Were a subscription-based app so we dont need to monetise data.
This combination is also showing tremendous potential in multiple healthcare applications, ranging fromdisease predictiontodiagnosisandtreatment.
Natural Cycles uses several machine learning algorithms, the main one being the fertility algorithm.
It then confirms ovulation using temperature data to pinpoint the windows end.
Its only outperformed by contraceptive implants and intrauterine devices (IUD).
Eline Berglund is speaking at this yearsTNW Conferenceon June 20-21 in Amsterdam!
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Story byIoanna Lykiardopoulou
Ioanna is a writer at TNW.
With a background in the humanities, she has a soft spot for social impact-enabling technologies.
