March 19, 2025 • 31 mins
Dr. Amy Beckley shares her journey from personal infertility struggles to creating an at-home hormone testing platform that helps women understand and advocate for their hormonal health. She explains how women's healthcare often overlooks hormone imbalances until they become severe issues, leaving many suffering unnecessarily.
• Hormones affect every cell in our bodies, impacting everything from fertility to brain function, bone strength, and heart health
• Many women's health issues stem from hormone imbalances that are easily treatable when properly identified
• Traditional healthcare often takes a reactive rather than preventative approach to women's health
• Conditions like PCOS and endometriosis affect 10-12% of women but take an average of 10 years to diagnose
• Perimenopause typically begins in our late thirties, with hormone decline starting well before official menopause
• Progesterone is critically important for mood balance, sleep, and overall wellbeing, yet remains poorly understood
• Self-advocacy and community support are essential for navigating women's health challenges
• The Proov hormone testing platform allows women to track and understand their hormone patterns at home
Visit ProovTest.com to learn more about at-home hormone testing and join their supportive communities on Facebook and Instagram.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
hi, I'm carlene and this is diva.
Tonight I have with me amybeckley and she is a scientist.
I guess we say do we?
Do they call you dr beckley?
I mean, you're a phd or no?
I prefer not to.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know.
(00:24):
Uh, I think it's important totalk about the fact that this
series is devoted to turning 40,life after 40 and just how
women's bodies change because ofyour own personal experience.
So I guess the most importantquestion to ask is what drove
(00:47):
you to take on this?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
endeavor.
Yeah, yeah, Excellent question.
I'm a scientist.
I started my career thinking Iwanted to be like a medical
doctor I don't like the sight ofblood or needles and so I
quickly pivoted to say, OK, well, what else can I do in the
health care field?
That's not patient care.
And so that's where I landed inthe scientist world.
(01:09):
And when I was 29, 28, 29, gotmarried, bought a good house
with two extra rooms and a niceneighborhood where you know the
school I wanted my kids to go toand all that stuff, and thought
, hey, you know, how hard couldit be to have kids?
And it was incredibly hard.
And it was so hard because ofthe way health care was set up.
(01:30):
It's almost like I felt like wewere expected to fail before
anybody would like help us.
It's like you're drowning inyour last breath.
They're like, OK, maybe I'llpull you out of the water.
And that's because women justdon't get the education on any
of this stuff.
We don't get educated about ourhormones, our fertility.
I mean, we're taught one timeof unprotected sex and you're
(01:52):
going to get pregnant, and soyou know, when I went through it
, I had no resources and I wasdiagnosed with unexplained
infertility and told IVF was myonly option because they didn't
know what was wrong with me.
$40,000 later, I have a14-year-old son now, and after
that experience I kind of wentback to the doctor and I'm like
(02:13):
we're going to figure out whyIVF worked.
But I couldn't do it naturally.
And that's when I really gotinterested in hormones and I,
you know, through a series ofevents, found out that I just
had a hormone imbalance and Iwasn't producing enough of this
hormone called progesterone.
And so when you try to conceive, most everything in the world
(02:34):
is all about timing right.
You download some app.
It tells you when your fertilewindow is.
You buy a thermometer, you buyovulation tests and it's like
you got to get the timing right.
Timing right Timing wasn't myproblem.
I could get pregnant, I justcouldn't hold a pregnancy.
And so I started dissecting.
You know, okay, what is thisprocess?
And you have estrogen in thefirst half of the cycle, you
(02:56):
release an egg and then you haveprogesterone in the second part
of your cycle and during IVFthey give you medications to
produce estrogen, they fertilizethe egg for you and then they
give you a bunch of progesteroneto support the pregnancy.
And I said, maybe my body'sjust not making enough
progesterone, Can I havesupplemental progesterone and
that worked, and so I have adaughter who's natural.
(03:20):
She just was with a little bitof progesterone and it was like
$100 pregnancy as opposed tolike $40,000 pregnancy, and
that's what I really gotpassionate about.
We need to have bettereducational tools to tell women
about their bodies so that theycan advocate for themselves.
And so traditional health careyou have to be trying 12 months
(03:40):
or have three miscarriagesbefore you can go in, and by the
time that happens, you're inthis emotional downward spiral
that you just want a baby.
You wanted a baby a year agoand you're just so frustrated
that you just want it now.
And they'll tell you well, IVFis your fastest option, which it
(04:01):
is.
But I wanted to build aplatform that educated women,
and it's not just aboutfertility.
So this hormone imbalance wascausing me to be infertile and
not be able to hold pregnanciesis the same imbalance women go
through in their 40s as theyenter perimenopause.
Building a system thatunderstands the ebb and flows of
(04:24):
the hormones, to dissect whatare good patterns, what are
patterns that could be causingsymptoms, how do you see certain
patterns and correct them intooptimal hormone balance, Because
, for a long time, women haveseen their periods as a crutch
right.
It's heavy periods, painfulperiods, I'm cramping, I just
(04:45):
don't want to go anywhere, seeanybody do anything, and instead
I would love to unlock thissuperpower for her, because when
you have beautiful, balancedhormones, you are more creative,
you are more productive, youare more attractive to your
partners.
It is just an amazing thing,and hormones are not just to get
(05:06):
pregnant.
They help your brain function,your bones be strong, your heart
work, and so I really just wantto create a way to understand
these and help women live wellthrough these stages of their
life.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah, I think you've covered a lot there in terms of
hormones, to begin with, becauseI think at 40, this is when
your body changes right In a waythat, like you said, we don't
really necessarily know.
Like my own personal experience, I ended up in the hospital
because my iron levels were solow and I've been taking iron
(05:44):
supplements not consistently butI was like this is the first
time in my life where it's like,wow, I had to do a blood
transfusion because they werelike can't do anything else.
I was like, please, please, youknow, and they have to do all
the tests and everything.
And it ended up being that Ihave this condition which is
kind of like attacking my red,my hemoglobin, pretty much.
(06:06):
You know what I mean.
So, and a lot of women have this, and it's not a conversation
that we often speak about.
So, listening to you talk aboutyour own journey with
infertility and that's not justthe only thing that women
struggle with it's just like,like you said, it's another
thing where having fibroids isanother problem that women
(06:30):
experience and that can make itharder to have kids.
And then it's like, if youdon't have children, it's the
time crunch, where it's like OK,if you want to have kids now,
like you only have so much timebecause now you're 40.
So now what?
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
So yeah, this is a lot we don't know about women.
Um, we haven't really investedenough time and and money and
resources in women, and you'rein the us.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Remind me again you're in color, said colorado
yeah, you're in colorado and I'mhere in, in, and yeah, it's the
same thing here, you know.
Oh, these are my options.
I got a hysterectomy have yourfour fibroids removed, but
they'll come back, and so I waslike it's like a shock to the
system.
So I'm like maybe I'll get asecond.
(07:17):
There must be other options,right?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
So yeah, yeah, I use this analogy the other day.
Healthcare isn't reallyhealthcare, it's these care,
right?
It's when you already have aproblem and they're trying to
fix the problem.
They're not actually trying toprevent it or cure it in the
most, most times, right, and sowe really want to focus on
(07:40):
health care, right, how do youmaintain a healthy lifestyle?
How do you prevent diseases,prevent these conditions?
And we just, we just don't dothat kind of research.
We wait until it's like such ahuge problem and then come in
with this medical bandaid thatcovers up the issue and we
really need to start thinkingabout how do we correct these
(08:01):
things and have people have abetter health span, not just a
lifespan, but a health span.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah and hearing you talk about like your own journey
.
I'm happy that you're you'reable to have both your children.
You know, um, as a result oflike being determined, you know
like you didn't give up.
So I think, uh, it goes to saythat you're a resilient person
and Jenna like going through.
Yeah, it's very stubborn, right?
(08:28):
You ask my mom?
I'm stubborn.
Yeah, that's what she said.
Yeah, do you think it'shereditary?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
the issues that you were struggling with when it
comes to low progesterone, asyou mentioned, yes, I think
there's some environmental, butthere's also some genetic and
passing from generation togeneration.
So when you have a sperm meetsegg, it's half and half, but the
egg is about this big and thesperm is teeny tiny.
(08:57):
So the sperm only contributesthe DNA component, but the egg
houses everything else, so themitochondria, the metabolism,
everything else.
And we're learning thatmitochondria have their own set
of genetic materials and that ispassed on from mother to child
and that is something that youknow and so that's why we're
(09:19):
seeing, you know, pcosgenerational.
Like mom has PCOS, daughter hasPCOS, because it's a lot of
PCOS.
Pcos is polycystic ovariansyndrome.
It affects one out of 10 women.
It's about 10%, 10 to 12% ofthe population.
On average it takes 10 yearsfor a diagnosis because the
(09:42):
outward facing signs arecompletely can be different
between one woman to another anda lot of times it's brushed off
as like oh, you're just noteating healthy or you have slow
metabolism or whatever.
So some of the signs are oilyskin, acne, hair on the face, on
(10:04):
the abdomen, right weightaround the middle.
These are not always true and alot of times when women get
these symptoms they get on birthcontrol to kind of quiet their
ovaries and the symptoms go away, and so then they're not
actually, they're just maskingthose symptoms, they're not
curing anything, and so whenthey come off birth control to
conceive or whatever, all thesesymptoms come back, and so
(10:28):
that's.
It's.
Very common Endometriosis isalso one out of every eight to
10 women have endometriosis.
Also takes 10 years to diagnose.
It's just we don't have gooddiagnostic tests.
There's no like one criteria,it's not like a single blood
draw.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yep, here you go, you have it or you don't, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
That's the thing.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
I think it's like the amount of testing, but, based
on your research, what you'vecreated, Prove the actual what
would you say.
I guess, from what I've read,it basically gives you a test to
let you know more about yourhormones.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Right, Altogether right, and so it's an at-home
hormone testing platform.
It's got test strips and thenthe companion app that goes with
it and it basically tells youto test your hormones.
So we get all four hormones.
We track it across the cycle.
So you just collect firstmorning, you're in, take a test,
takes 10 minutes, you get thevalues hormone values on the
(11:28):
phone, and then we track theentire cycle and we give you
like this hormonal report cardat the end that talks about
things like, if you're trying toconceive, like your egg reserve
, key hormone ratios, are youovulating?
Do you have enough progesteroneto support pregnancy after
ovulation, and so it's much morein depth than like did you hit
(11:48):
your fertile window or not?
And and we're now seeing thesepatterns where we can see
certain hormonal patterns thatindicate that a woman might
actually have PCOS, mightactually have endometriosis.
We see patterns where we knowwomen are stressed out and it's
affecting their hormonalpatterns, and that's huge
because nobody's ever had any ofthat kind of research before.
(12:12):
It's been like oh, stressdoesn't affect you, or there
hasn't.
You know, it hasn't been like astudy of why it's just like I'm
stressed out, I can't sleep.
Okay, here's some ambien.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
you know that's a band-aid again, yeah, where it's
like there's other ways to dealwith stress, you know, exercise
, diets.
There's so many components tothat, you know, and now we've
become because we'reoverstimulated too with
technology, and so it's likesometimes you need to slow down.
(12:44):
But this is amazing, thoughEverything for us as women.
When you're on your menstrualcycle, your hormones are out of
whack, right, and so it's awake-up call at 40, I think it
is, it's, it's been a blessingand kind of like a oh, all these
other um ailments, all theseother health concerns that we
have to think about, and it'swow, it's yeah, so what you've
(13:07):
done is a lot.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so turning 40.
So I'm going to bring up the Mword, the menopause discussion.
Yeah, menopause typically isfrom 51, 52, and that is like
menopause.
But studies are showing thatwomen starts that hormonal
decline by late thirties, and soby 40, you already have hormone
(13:29):
decline and you're goingtowards that.
And so there's a hugemisconception that, oh, you have
periods still.
You can't be treated formenopause, let's wait till
you're 50.
Menopause is defined as 12months without a period.
So if you've already gone 12months without a period, you've
actually technically been inmenopause for a whole year year
(13:50):
before you have the officialdiagnosis and you're depriving
your yourself of these hormonesthat are causing these symptoms.
So, like, every cell in yourbody has receptors for estrogen
and progesterone, every singleone of them, and when you stop
making them, your body kind ofrevolts and it's like, oh my
gosh, I'm not, I'm not gettingthis hormone, and that's where
you get the hot flashes, thenight sweats, the brain fog, the
(14:13):
anxiety, the inability to sleep, the waking up at 3 am going.
Why am I awake at 3 am?
This makes zero sense, justbecause your hormones are
declining, and so we want tocreate a platform that allows
women to check those hormones.
We want to create a platformthat allows women to check those
hormones, watch them decline,do some kind of intervention,
(14:33):
because we're all going to gothrough menopause.
We don't have to suffersymptoms of menopause.
You know you can replace thehormones you're not making.
You can support them withsupplements until you can't make
them anymore, and so I don'tthink we should just wait till
menopause is here to do anything.
We should take a proactive roleand monitor these things.
(14:55):
You know I'm a huge advocate ofprogesterone.
I think it's the miraclehormone.
It is the happiness hormone, itis the mood balancing hormone,
it is the sleep hormone and,like almost no women know what
progesterone is, they knowestrogen, but they don't know
progesterone.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah, I'm one of those women where I don't know a
lot about progesterone.
I know about my hormones andestrogen itself, because
estrogen and men producetestosterone.
Now, that's what makes mendifferent than women, obviously,
other than their human anatomy,right, but it's, it's very
important to know your body andknow your family history.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah, so women also produce testosterone and it is
very important for women as well.
We just need lower levels ofthe testosterone.
So there's many women thatswear by testosterone
replacement during menopause.
It helps with energy, withfocus, things like that.
The problem with testosteroneis you can take too much of it
(15:57):
and then you start getting thesedeeper voice hair on the face,
like more kind of like male typeof characteristics, but like,
at the right dose, like it's avery powerful thing because it
helps you focus and have energyand muscle tone and everything
else.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Diva Tonight Glamour for your ears.
This is 40, a femaleperspective.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
It's amazing how much you know.
So they say it takes 10,000hours to become an expert at
something.
I feel like if you're at thatpoint.
So this is obviously more thanone conversation, but we're
going to go back to thebeginning, to your life now and
the person that you are.
(16:44):
Who's the advocate for thisprogram?
And you know just your personallife.
Where did you?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
grow up.
I grew up in SouthernCalifornia.
I had actually had really badheadaches, migraines, as a child
and I would basically justcouldn't get up.
I would just be so nauseous andvomiting and had such bad
vertigo that I just couldn't getup.
And all the physicians werelike, yeah, you know, it's just
(17:12):
migraines, Like here's somemigraine medication.
And my mom was like, no,something is not right here.
And so she just kept taking meto different places to get more
and more opinions and answers.
And finally this doctor saidhey, you know, why don't we just
get her an MRI?
Let's just see if there'sanything in the brain causing
this, these issues sitting onthe MRI table.
(17:32):
A doctor happened to walk byand was like who was on that
table?
Because she has got a hugebrain tumor and it is.
It is like basically on thestem preventing the, the fluid
for circulating, and that's whatwas causing me basically the
vertigo and the and the vomiting.
And so I got out.
I went to the waiting room.
(17:53):
There's my mom just bawling,sobbing and wasn't allowed to go
home, had surgery the next dayand thankfully I'm perfectly
fine.
They removed the whole thing.
It hasn't grown back.
But if I hadn't had my mom toadvocate for me.
It could have gotten so bigthat it just would have killed
me, and that's why I reallywanted to go into medicine, so
(18:16):
that I could be that doctor,Because I, you know there's
doctors are human.
Medical professionals are human.
They have a certain history ora certain background.
You know ideology and if youhappen to get a bad one, you
could miss things right.
So I wanted to be one of thegood ones, I wanted to be the
one that could, you know, help,and I don't know if you remember
that, that show house, where itwas like I love house.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yeah, like I'm going to be house the female version
of the house is going to beamazing.
But when I volunteered in an ERand the doctor was like, hold
this hand while I give stitches,I literally almost passed out
and I'm like I'm going to haveto find another career path, and
so that's kind of where thisidea of empowerment and
advocating and trying to haveownership in your healthcare
(18:59):
kind of merged with myinfertility journey and it was
like this is the perfect likemarriage of what I want to do
and how I can kind of give backand do what I want to do.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Yeah, so after med school, like I guess, do more
focused on the science end ofthings, right so?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah yeah, I lived in San Diego at the time and it
was a big biotech hub, a lot ofpharma companies, and I just got
my foot in the door from acolleague, another student, and
I just loved it.
Like so we were, we were justtrying to figure out what drugs
did, to develop better drugsthat doctors would use, right,
and I just I was so fascinatedby this, I loved it.
(19:40):
I just total science nerd love.
Just sitting there with my labcoat, my pipettes and doing
stuff and listening to the radio.
It was, like you know, reallyawesome.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah, you know, I think it's very important that
we find what we're supposed todo in life, and I give kudos to
your mom for being so determinedand not giving up, because when
you're young, you don't havethe voice to speak up for
yourself and someone who's thereto help you, and not everybody
(20:10):
is blessed with parents likethat, and I think it's it's it
says to who you are and yourcharacter and that, despite
everything that has happened,you found the light at the end
of the tunnel, as they say Right.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
So Prov?
You mentioned to me how muchmoney has been raised to create
this fertility test.
You know what I mean.
That's pretty much what it isRight.
What would you say Prov is likeif I were to use the perfect
terminology?
I guess you know what I mean.
It's like a test in a box, butat the end of the day it it's an
(20:47):
important test, the test thatwe don't necessarily think of,
right yeah, yeah, I would sayit's a hormonal full cycle
hormone analysis platform and wedon't just analyze it, but we
try to correct and preventimbalances.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
So, yeah, it's really , it's more than fertility, it's
like hormones hormones,everything, yeah yeah, 80% of
women have hormonal issuesthroughout their life, whether
it's heavy periods, painfulperiods, pms, lack of periods,
menopause, fertility,miscarriage, like they're just
fibroids, like thing you know,yeah, um, so how much is it?
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I mean can, can we uh , because you're in the US, is
it available in Canada?
Speaker 2 (21:30):
uh, yes, online, yeah , okay, great, yeah, so you can
get it in canada.
Um, you have to import it.
Health canada is very strict.
They are, yeah, but you can'timport it yourself.
So you have to pay, like theimport fees, but it's, depending
on what you get, about 90 usdollars and it gives you that
full analysis of the cycle wheresometimes on amazon, sometimes
(21:52):
not depends on how amazon feelsthat day, yeah, yeah,
availability and everything.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
or, like you said, because you have to pay the
import, right, yeah, yeah,everything going on in the world
right now, yeah, yeah, yeah,that's another conversation in
itself, but so the websiteprogfestcom, and I guess, if you
want more information, you cango online and learn more about
(22:22):
hormone therapy andperimenopause, because I'm
pretty sure that there's a lotof women and not only myself,
like I can name a few of mygirlfriends who have had so many
struggles, like you know, goingto the doctor, going to the
gynecologist and another test,trying to figure out what is the
best way to go about it, thebest diet, you know, like do I
(22:44):
see a doctor and a naturopath?
You know what is yoursuggestion as an advocate for
yourself and other women whostruggle with infertility and
also with hormone issues?
What do you say to that?
Because it's challenging.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I always say you have to have a good tribe, a good
community around you, and if yougo to a doctor whether it's a
traditional healthcare setting,or a naturopath or a
chiropractor or health coach orwhatever, and you feel you're
not being listened to, you needto go find somebody else.
You know you're paying somebodyfor that service and if they're
(23:24):
not communicating with you in away that you like, don't go
back.
You'd never go back to arestaurant that treated you like
crap and the food was gross,right.
Same thing with healthcare.
And so always advocate foryourself, find somebody who will
listen, that you feelcomfortable with.
You also need to have acommunity around you.
So infertility, specifically, isreally hard because women don't
(23:46):
want to admit that they'regoing through it at the time,
because it almost feels likewe're less of a woman, like, oh
my gosh, I can't do something sosimple that I was supposed to
be able to do.
I am ashamed, I just don't wantto talk to my family, and so a
lot of people won't tell theirparents, won't tell their
friends, and so those are timesto get in with a community of
(24:07):
people you don't know andsurround yourself with people
that are going through it.
So you know, our pillars areeducation and community as well.
So we have communities onFacebook, both for the
perimenopause, you know, 40 pluswomen and also the fertility
women education.
We don't get this education inschools.
We have free eBooks you candownload, we have emails that
(24:29):
have different blog topics andstuff like that.
So, just you know, even if youdon't need to test your hormones
right now, just having thateducation and that sense of
community is really, reallyimportant, because you're not
alone and you need people byyour side that you can, you know
, cry on their shoulder when youget a negative test, or offer
(24:49):
advice or help you move forwardin your journey.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yeah, no, you're right about that.
It's so important to havepeople that support you in your
journey in life, because there'sa yeah life is too short.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
You're surrounded by crappy people.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Yes, you got that right.
Thank you so much, amy.
I feel like we have to discussmore again because there's so
much that you can share, likeyou know what I mean.
I feel like there's so much tosay about perimenopause and just
certain things in itself.
I mean, obviously, this is justthe beginning, but the fact
(25:28):
that you invested in this, likeyou said.
One question I didn't ask ishow are you able to get the
funding to launch this?
Speaker 2 (25:37):
So I went through my issue.
I found out that I just neededprogesterone and I'm like
there's no way to measure thishormone at home.
I have to like have agatekeeper of a doctor who tells
me I have to be at the point ofdesperation, looking at the
edge of the cliff.
You know we need to have someway to give this information to
women before.
So we actually launched acrowdfunding campaign and just
(25:59):
said you know, if this is a goodproduct, people want this,
they'll buy it.
We raised about $40,000 thatway and we launched the product
that way.
And we launched the product andwe launched on amazon first and
we sold it and like kind oflearned from the community of
like what they liked, what theydidn't like.
It kind of improved the productand then, after about a year of
sales, we went out for kind ofventure funding and was able to
(26:25):
raise money because we alreadyhad enough sales on Amazon that
we were allowed to kind of lookat venture funding and so ask
investors to invest in thecompany.
It's really hard as a womanfounder with a women's health
product to go to the traditionalventure community because they
don't know anything aboutwomen's health.
This is a brand new product.
(26:46):
There's no market.
You're creating a whole newmarket for something, and so it
was really important that we hadsome traction.
First to say, yep, this isproduct that women want, like
you know.
Give us more money and we canbuild and grow and and and build
a, you know, the product thatwe wanted to build, but a lot of
times people don't have that.
It's like the chicken or theegg, you know like.
You need the money to build thething.
(27:07):
You can't have to do the thinguntil you have the money.
And it's like the chicken orthe egg.
You know like you need themoney to build the thing.
You can't have to do the thinguntil you have the money.
And it's like you kind of it'shard.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
But you managed to do it and here we are now, and
it's been how long since youlaunched.
I think it was 2020 from what Isaw.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah, we got FD clearance in 2020.
But we sold, sold.
We've been selling since 2018.
Okay, been seven, seven yearslong time.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Yeah, I heard your interview on a show in 2020 and
you guys were talking about howone before women utility issues,
and so it's.
I mean those numbers are I meanquite a lot like.
I mean it obviously impactsquite a few women more than more
than we know.
You know what I mean, so it'sjust.
I think you're here you're hereto to help women like myself
(27:57):
and any other women.
I think that's their gift tothe world, right?
So?
Speaker 2 (28:01):
yeah, I mean, if I had to suffer through hell and
back to get to where I'm at,someone should benefit from what
I went through no, thank you somuch for taking the time to
share this process.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
I feel like I learned a little bit more about like
myself.
You know what I mean, becausewe have to be our advocate for
ourselves.
Who else is going to do it?
Yeah, no one.
It's like the unspoken thing,thepoken hero.
You know what I mean.
Like you have to, yeah, evenwith mental health.
(28:33):
I think I've had to do that tooin both cases, right?
So if anyone wants to check outyou, um, you on social media,
what's your handle?
Again, I know it's have both,so, yeah, so we're on facebook
and instagram.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Those are our two biggest channels.
So it's p P-R-O-O-V-T-S-T forthe Instagram, for the fertility
, then it's P-R-O-O-V-P-E-R-Yfor the perimenopause.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
One yeah, that's important.
So, like I said, join theFacebook community to talk to
other women you know about umtheir own experiences, because,
uh, community is important andhaving other women have been
through similar experiences, so,yeah, supportive community like
we don't want negativity, likewe chuck negativity at the door,
(29:24):
like I cannot stand redditbecause it is just bitching,
bitching, bitching, complaining,complaining and not very much
like help.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
And so we build this community to be helpful.
Right, like you know, wemoderate it so that, you know,
people make sure they, you know,not moderate it, but, like we
respond to people in thecommunity so they always get an
answer.
We, you know, support them inany way and we make sure that
the comments are not negative orwe kick people off out of the
group.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
but supportive community, not just community
yeah, no, I understand thatthere's uh, there's a lot of
negativity and I'll have to likeclean that out.
So obviously there's a processwith it too, right, but it's
good that you've built that.
You know what I mean a positivewith people who support each
other.
Yeah, yeah, well, thank you somuch.
(30:15):
I'm carlene and this is divatonight with amy beckley.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Thank you so much, yeah thanks so much for having
me.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Yeah, it's been diva tonight with carlene.
We'll be back.
Send us a message on Instagramat diva underscore tonight.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Hi, I'm Carlene and this is Diva.
Tonight I just have to clarifythe correct pronunciation of the
fertility hormone test, whichallows women to test their
hormone levels if they're havingfertility issues.
The correct name is Prove.
(30:55):
Again, it's Prove and you cango online check it out.
It's ProveTestcom about thisamazing product which allows
women to find out exactly whythey're having issues conceiving
(31:16):
.
Many women struggle withinfertility and they're not sure
why, and this test helps figureout what is missing.
So again, it's called Prove,and Dr Amy Beckley created this
product to help women like youwho are struggling to figure out
(31:38):
what's wrong.
hi, I'm carlene and this is diva.
Tonight I have with me amybeckley and she is a scientist.
I guess we say do we?
Do they call you dr beckley?
I mean, you're a phd or no?
I prefer not to.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know.
(00:24):
Uh, I think it's important totalk about the fact that this
series is devoted to turning 40,life after 40 and just how
women's bodies change because ofyour own personal experience.
So I guess the most importantquestion to ask is what drove
(00:47):
you to take on this?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
endeavor.
Yeah, yeah, Excellent question.
I'm a scientist.
I started my career thinking Iwanted to be like a medical
doctor I don't like the sight ofblood or needles and so I
quickly pivoted to say, OK, well, what else can I do in the
health care field?
That's not patient care.
And so that's where I landed inthe scientist world.
(01:09):
And when I was 29, 28, 29, gotmarried, bought a good house
with two extra rooms and a niceneighborhood where you know the
school I wanted my kids to go toand all that stuff, and thought
, hey, you know, how hard couldit be to have kids?
And it was incredibly hard.
And it was so hard because ofthe way health care was set up.
(01:30):
It's almost like I felt like wewere expected to fail before
anybody would like help us.
It's like you're drowning inyour last breath.
They're like, OK, maybe I'llpull you out of the water.
And that's because women justdon't get the education on any
of this stuff.
We don't get educated about ourhormones, our fertility.
I mean, we're taught one timeof unprotected sex and you're
(01:52):
going to get pregnant, and soyou know, when I went through it
, I had no resources and I wasdiagnosed with unexplained
infertility and told IVF was myonly option because they didn't
know what was wrong with me.
$40,000 later, I have a14-year-old son now, and after
that experience I kind of wentback to the doctor and I'm like
(02:13):
we're going to figure out whyIVF worked.
But I couldn't do it naturally.
And that's when I really gotinterested in hormones and I,
you know, through a series ofevents, found out that I just
had a hormone imbalance and Iwasn't producing enough of this
hormone called progesterone.
And so when you try to conceive, most everything in the world
(02:34):
is all about timing right.
You download some app.
It tells you when your fertilewindow is.
You buy a thermometer, you buyovulation tests and it's like
you got to get the timing right.
Timing right Timing wasn't myproblem.
I could get pregnant, I justcouldn't hold a pregnancy.
And so I started dissecting.
You know, okay, what is thisprocess?
And you have estrogen in thefirst half of the cycle, you
(02:56):
release an egg and then you haveprogesterone in the second part
of your cycle and during IVFthey give you medications to
produce estrogen, they fertilizethe egg for you and then they
give you a bunch of progesteroneto support the pregnancy.
And I said, maybe my body'sjust not making enough
progesterone, Can I havesupplemental progesterone and
that worked, and so I have adaughter who's natural.
(03:20):
She just was with a little bitof progesterone and it was like
$100 pregnancy as opposed tolike $40,000 pregnancy, and
that's what I really gotpassionate about.
We need to have bettereducational tools to tell women
about their bodies so that theycan advocate for themselves.
And so traditional health careyou have to be trying 12 months
(03:40):
or have three miscarriagesbefore you can go in, and by the
time that happens, you're inthis emotional downward spiral
that you just want a baby.
You wanted a baby a year agoand you're just so frustrated
that you just want it now.
And they'll tell you well, IVFis your fastest option, which it
(04:01):
is.
But I wanted to build aplatform that educated women,
and it's not just aboutfertility.
So this hormone imbalance wascausing me to be infertile and
not be able to hold pregnanciesis the same imbalance women go
through in their 40s as theyenter perimenopause.
Building a system thatunderstands the ebb and flows of
(04:24):
the hormones, to dissect whatare good patterns, what are
patterns that could be causingsymptoms, how do you see certain
patterns and correct them intooptimal hormone balance, Because
, for a long time, women haveseen their periods as a crutch
right.
It's heavy periods, painfulperiods, I'm cramping, I just
(04:45):
don't want to go anywhere, seeanybody do anything, and instead
I would love to unlock thissuperpower for her, because when
you have beautiful, balancedhormones, you are more creative,
you are more productive, youare more attractive to your
partners.
It is just an amazing thing,and hormones are not just to get
(05:06):
pregnant.
They help your brain function,your bones be strong, your heart
work, and so I really just wantto create a way to understand
these and help women live wellthrough these stages of their
life.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah, I think you've covered a lot there in terms of
hormones, to begin with, becauseI think at 40, this is when
your body changes right In a waythat, like you said, we don't
really necessarily know.
Like my own personal experience, I ended up in the hospital
because my iron levels were solow and I've been taking iron
(05:44):
supplements not consistently butI was like this is the first
time in my life where it's like,wow, I had to do a blood
transfusion because they werelike can't do anything else.
I was like, please, please, youknow, and they have to do all
the tests and everything.
And it ended up being that Ihave this condition which is
kind of like attacking my red,my hemoglobin, pretty much.
(06:06):
You know what I mean.
So, and a lot of women have this, and it's not a conversation
that we often speak about.
So, listening to you talk aboutyour own journey with
infertility and that's not justthe only thing that women
struggle with it's just like,like you said, it's another
thing where having fibroids isanother problem that women
(06:30):
experience and that can make itharder to have kids.
And then it's like, if youdon't have children, it's the
time crunch, where it's like OK,if you want to have kids now,
like you only have so much timebecause now you're 40.
So now what?
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
So yeah, this is a lot we don't know about women.
Um, we haven't really investedenough time and and money and
resources in women, and you'rein the us.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Remind me again you're in color, said colorado
yeah, you're in colorado and I'mhere in, in, and yeah, it's the
same thing here, you know.
Oh, these are my options.
I got a hysterectomy have yourfour fibroids removed, but
they'll come back, and so I waslike it's like a shock to the
system.
So I'm like maybe I'll get asecond.
(07:17):
There must be other options,right?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
So yeah, yeah, I use this analogy the other day.
Healthcare isn't reallyhealthcare, it's these care,
right?
It's when you already have aproblem and they're trying to
fix the problem.
They're not actually trying toprevent it or cure it in the
most, most times, right, and sowe really want to focus on
(07:40):
health care, right, how do youmaintain a healthy lifestyle?
How do you prevent diseases,prevent these conditions?
And we just, we just don't dothat kind of research.
We wait until it's like such ahuge problem and then come in
with this medical bandaid thatcovers up the issue and we
really need to start thinkingabout how do we correct these
(08:01):
things and have people have abetter health span, not just a
lifespan, but a health span.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah and hearing you talk about like your own journey
.
I'm happy that you're you'reable to have both your children.
You know, um, as a result oflike being determined, you know
like you didn't give up.
So I think, uh, it goes to saythat you're a resilient person
and Jenna like going through.
Yeah, it's very stubborn, right?
(08:28):
You ask my mom?
I'm stubborn.
Yeah, that's what she said.
Yeah, do you think it'shereditary?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
the issues that you were struggling with when it
comes to low progesterone, asyou mentioned, yes, I think
there's some environmental, butthere's also some genetic and
passing from generation togeneration.
So when you have a sperm meetsegg, it's half and half, but the
egg is about this big and thesperm is teeny tiny.
(08:57):
So the sperm only contributesthe DNA component, but the egg
houses everything else, so themitochondria, the metabolism,
everything else.
And we're learning thatmitochondria have their own set
of genetic materials and that ispassed on from mother to child
and that is something that youknow and so that's why we're
(09:19):
seeing, you know, pcosgenerational.
Like mom has PCOS, daughter hasPCOS, because it's a lot of
PCOS.
Pcos is polycystic ovariansyndrome.
It affects one out of 10 women.
It's about 10%, 10 to 12% ofthe population.
On average it takes 10 yearsfor a diagnosis because the
(09:42):
outward facing signs arecompletely can be different
between one woman to another anda lot of times it's brushed off
as like oh, you're just noteating healthy or you have slow
metabolism or whatever.
So some of the signs are oilyskin, acne, hair on the face, on
(10:04):
the abdomen, right weightaround the middle.
These are not always true and alot of times when women get
these symptoms they get on birthcontrol to kind of quiet their
ovaries and the symptoms go away, and so then they're not
actually, they're just maskingthose symptoms, they're not
curing anything, and so whenthey come off birth control to
conceive or whatever, all thesesymptoms come back, and so
(10:28):
that's.
It's.
Very common Endometriosis isalso one out of every eight to
10 women have endometriosis.
Also takes 10 years to diagnose.
It's just we don't have gooddiagnostic tests.
There's no like one criteria,it's not like a single blood
draw.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yep, here you go, you have it or you don't, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
That's the thing.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
I think it's like the amount of testing, but, based
on your research, what you'vecreated, Prove the actual what
would you say.
I guess, from what I've read,it basically gives you a test to
let you know more about yourhormones.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Right, Altogether right, and so it's an at-home
hormone testing platform.
It's got test strips and thenthe companion app that goes with
it and it basically tells youto test your hormones.
So we get all four hormones.
We track it across the cycle.
So you just collect firstmorning, you're in, take a test,
takes 10 minutes, you get thevalues hormone values on the
(11:28):
phone, and then we track theentire cycle and we give you
like this hormonal report cardat the end that talks about
things like, if you're trying toconceive, like your egg reserve
, key hormone ratios, are youovulating?
Do you have enough progesteroneto support pregnancy after
ovulation, and so it's much morein depth than like did you hit
(11:48):
your fertile window or not?
And and we're now seeing thesepatterns where we can see
certain hormonal patterns thatindicate that a woman might
actually have PCOS, mightactually have endometriosis.
We see patterns where we knowwomen are stressed out and it's
affecting their hormonalpatterns, and that's huge
because nobody's ever had any ofthat kind of research before.
(12:12):
It's been like oh, stressdoesn't affect you, or there
hasn't.
You know, it hasn't been like astudy of why it's just like I'm
stressed out, I can't sleep.
Okay, here's some ambien.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
you know that's a band-aid again, yeah, where it's
like there's other ways to dealwith stress, you know, exercise
, diets.
There's so many components tothat, you know, and now we've
become because we'reoverstimulated too with
technology, and so it's likesometimes you need to slow down.
(12:44):
But this is amazing, thoughEverything for us as women.
When you're on your menstrualcycle, your hormones are out of
whack, right, and so it's awake-up call at 40, I think it
is, it's, it's been a blessingand kind of like a oh, all these
other um ailments, all theseother health concerns that we
have to think about, and it'swow, it's yeah, so what you've
(13:07):
done is a lot.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so turning 40.
So I'm going to bring up the Mword, the menopause discussion.
Yeah, menopause typically isfrom 51, 52, and that is like
menopause.
But studies are showing thatwomen starts that hormonal
decline by late thirties, and soby 40, you already have hormone
(13:29):
decline and you're goingtowards that.
And so there's a hugemisconception that, oh, you have
periods still.
You can't be treated formenopause, let's wait till
you're 50.
Menopause is defined as 12months without a period.
So if you've already gone 12months without a period, you've
actually technically been inmenopause for a whole year year
(13:50):
before you have the officialdiagnosis and you're depriving
your yourself of these hormonesthat are causing these symptoms.
So, like, every cell in yourbody has receptors for estrogen
and progesterone, every singleone of them, and when you stop
making them, your body kind ofrevolts and it's like, oh my
gosh, I'm not, I'm not gettingthis hormone, and that's where
you get the hot flashes, thenight sweats, the brain fog, the
(14:13):
anxiety, the inability to sleep, the waking up at 3 am going.
Why am I awake at 3 am?
This makes zero sense, justbecause your hormones are
declining, and so we want tocreate a platform that allows
women to check those hormones.
We want to create a platformthat allows women to check those
hormones, watch them decline,do some kind of intervention,
(14:33):
because we're all going to gothrough menopause.
We don't have to suffersymptoms of menopause.
You know you can replace thehormones you're not making.
You can support them withsupplements until you can't make
them anymore, and so I don'tthink we should just wait till
menopause is here to do anything.
We should take a proactive roleand monitor these things.
(14:55):
You know I'm a huge advocate ofprogesterone.
I think it's the miraclehormone.
It is the happiness hormone, itis the mood balancing hormone,
it is the sleep hormone and,like almost no women know what
progesterone is, they knowestrogen, but they don't know
progesterone.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah, I'm one of those women where I don't know a
lot about progesterone.
I know about my hormones andestrogen itself, because
estrogen and men producetestosterone.
Now, that's what makes mendifferent than women, obviously,
other than their human anatomy,right, but it's, it's very
important to know your body andknow your family history.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah, so women also produce testosterone and it is
very important for women as well.
We just need lower levels ofthe testosterone.
So there's many women thatswear by testosterone
replacement during menopause.
It helps with energy, withfocus, things like that.
The problem with testosteroneis you can take too much of it
(15:57):
and then you start getting thesedeeper voice hair on the face,
like more kind of like male typeof characteristics, but like,
at the right dose, like it's avery powerful thing because it
helps you focus and have energyand muscle tone and everything
else.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Diva Tonight Glamour for your ears.
This is 40, a femaleperspective.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
It's amazing how much you know.
So they say it takes 10,000hours to become an expert at
something.
I feel like if you're at thatpoint.
So this is obviously more thanone conversation, but we're
going to go back to thebeginning, to your life now and
the person that you are.
(16:44):
Who's the advocate for thisprogram?
And you know just your personallife.
Where did you?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
grow up.
I grew up in SouthernCalifornia.
I had actually had really badheadaches, migraines, as a child
and I would basically justcouldn't get up.
I would just be so nauseous andvomiting and had such bad
vertigo that I just couldn't getup.
And all the physicians werelike, yeah, you know, it's just
(17:12):
migraines, Like here's somemigraine medication.
And my mom was like, no,something is not right here.
And so she just kept taking meto different places to get more
and more opinions and answers.
And finally this doctor saidhey, you know, why don't we just
get her an MRI?
Let's just see if there'sanything in the brain causing
this, these issues sitting onthe MRI table.
(17:32):
A doctor happened to walk byand was like who was on that
table?
Because she has got a hugebrain tumor and it is.
It is like basically on thestem preventing the, the fluid
for circulating, and that's whatwas causing me basically the
vertigo and the and the vomiting.
And so I got out.
I went to the waiting room.
(17:53):
There's my mom just bawling,sobbing and wasn't allowed to go
home, had surgery the next dayand thankfully I'm perfectly
fine.
They removed the whole thing.
It hasn't grown back.
But if I hadn't had my mom toadvocate for me.
It could have gotten so bigthat it just would have killed
me, and that's why I reallywanted to go into medicine, so
(18:16):
that I could be that doctor,Because I, you know there's
doctors are human.
Medical professionals are human.
They have a certain history ora certain background.
You know ideology and if youhappen to get a bad one, you
could miss things right.
So I wanted to be one of thegood ones, I wanted to be the
one that could, you know, help,and I don't know if you remember
that, that show house, where itwas like I love house.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yeah, like I'm going to be house the female version
of the house is going to beamazing.
But when I volunteered in an ERand the doctor was like, hold
this hand while I give stitches,I literally almost passed out
and I'm like I'm going to haveto find another career path, and
so that's kind of where thisidea of empowerment and
advocating and trying to haveownership in your healthcare
(18:59):
kind of merged with myinfertility journey and it was
like this is the perfect likemarriage of what I want to do
and how I can kind of give backand do what I want to do.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Yeah, so after med school, like I guess, do more
focused on the science end ofthings, right so?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah yeah, I lived in San Diego at the time and it
was a big biotech hub, a lot ofpharma companies, and I just got
my foot in the door from acolleague, another student, and
I just loved it.
Like so we were, we were justtrying to figure out what drugs
did, to develop better drugsthat doctors would use, right,
and I just I was so fascinatedby this, I loved it.
(19:40):
I just total science nerd love.
Just sitting there with my labcoat, my pipettes and doing
stuff and listening to the radio.
It was, like you know, reallyawesome.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah, you know, I think it's very important that
we find what we're supposed todo in life, and I give kudos to
your mom for being so determinedand not giving up, because when
you're young, you don't havethe voice to speak up for
yourself and someone who's thereto help you, and not everybody
(20:10):
is blessed with parents likethat, and I think it's it's it
says to who you are and yourcharacter and that, despite
everything that has happened,you found the light at the end
of the tunnel, as they say Right.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
So Prov?
You mentioned to me how muchmoney has been raised to create
this fertility test.
You know what I mean.
That's pretty much what it isRight.
What would you say Prov is likeif I were to use the perfect
terminology?
I guess you know what I mean.
It's like a test in a box, butat the end of the day it it's an
(20:47):
important test, the test thatwe don't necessarily think of,
right yeah, yeah, I would sayit's a hormonal full cycle
hormone analysis platform and wedon't just analyze it, but we
try to correct and preventimbalances.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
So, yeah, it's really , it's more than fertility, it's
like hormones hormones,everything, yeah yeah, 80% of
women have hormonal issuesthroughout their life, whether
it's heavy periods, painfulperiods, pms, lack of periods,
menopause, fertility,miscarriage, like they're just
fibroids, like thing you know,yeah, um, so how much is it?
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I mean can, can we uh , because you're in the US, is
it available in Canada?
Speaker 2 (21:30):
uh, yes, online, yeah , okay, great, yeah, so you can
get it in canada.
Um, you have to import it.
Health canada is very strict.
They are, yeah, but you can'timport it yourself.
So you have to pay, like theimport fees, but it's, depending
on what you get, about 90 usdollars and it gives you that
full analysis of the cycle wheresometimes on amazon, sometimes
(21:52):
not depends on how amazon feelsthat day, yeah, yeah,
availability and everything.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
or, like you said, because you have to pay the
import, right, yeah, yeah,everything going on in the world
right now, yeah, yeah, yeah,that's another conversation in
itself, but so the websiteprogfestcom, and I guess, if you
want more information, you cango online and learn more about
(22:22):
hormone therapy andperimenopause, because I'm
pretty sure that there's a lotof women and not only myself,
like I can name a few of mygirlfriends who have had so many
struggles, like you know, goingto the doctor, going to the
gynecologist and another test,trying to figure out what is the
best way to go about it, thebest diet, you know, like do I
(22:44):
see a doctor and a naturopath?
You know what is yoursuggestion as an advocate for
yourself and other women whostruggle with infertility and
also with hormone issues?
What do you say to that?
Because it's challenging.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I always say you have to have a good tribe, a good
community around you, and if yougo to a doctor whether it's a
traditional healthcare setting,or a naturopath or a
chiropractor or health coach orwhatever, and you feel you're
not being listened to, you needto go find somebody else.
You know you're paying somebodyfor that service and if they're
(23:24):
not communicating with you in away that you like, don't go
back.
You'd never go back to arestaurant that treated you like
crap and the food was gross,right.
Same thing with healthcare.
And so always advocate foryourself, find somebody who will
listen, that you feelcomfortable with.
You also need to have acommunity around you.
So infertility, specifically, isreally hard because women don't
(23:46):
want to admit that they'regoing through it at the time,
because it almost feels likewe're less of a woman, like, oh
my gosh, I can't do something sosimple that I was supposed to
be able to do.
I am ashamed, I just don't wantto talk to my family, and so a
lot of people won't tell theirparents, won't tell their
friends, and so those are timesto get in with a community of
(24:07):
people you don't know andsurround yourself with people
that are going through it.
So you know, our pillars areeducation and community as well.
So we have communities onFacebook, both for the
perimenopause, you know, 40 pluswomen and also the fertility
women education.
We don't get this education inschools.
We have free eBooks you candownload, we have emails that
(24:29):
have different blog topics andstuff like that.
So, just you know, even if youdon't need to test your hormones
right now, just having thateducation and that sense of
community is really, reallyimportant, because you're not
alone and you need people byyour side that you can, you know
, cry on their shoulder when youget a negative test, or offer
(24:49):
advice or help you move forwardin your journey.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yeah, no, you're right about that.
It's so important to havepeople that support you in your
journey in life, because there'sa yeah life is too short.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
You're surrounded by crappy people.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Yes, you got that right.
Thank you so much, amy.
I feel like we have to discussmore again because there's so
much that you can share, likeyou know what I mean.
I feel like there's so much tosay about perimenopause and just
certain things in itself.
I mean, obviously, this is justthe beginning, but the fact
(25:28):
that you invested in this, likeyou said.
One question I didn't ask ishow are you able to get the
funding to launch this?
Speaker 2 (25:37):
So I went through my issue.
I found out that I just neededprogesterone and I'm like
there's no way to measure thishormone at home.
I have to like have agatekeeper of a doctor who tells
me I have to be at the point ofdesperation, looking at the
edge of the cliff.
You know we need to have someway to give this information to
women before.
So we actually launched acrowdfunding campaign and just
(25:59):
said you know, if this is a goodproduct, people want this,
they'll buy it.
We raised about $40,000 thatway and we launched the product
that way.
And we launched the product andwe launched on amazon first and
we sold it and like kind oflearned from the community of
like what they liked, what theydidn't like.
It kind of improved the productand then, after about a year of
sales, we went out for kind ofventure funding and was able to
(26:25):
raise money because we alreadyhad enough sales on Amazon that
we were allowed to kind of lookat venture funding and so ask
investors to invest in thecompany.
It's really hard as a womanfounder with a women's health
product to go to the traditionalventure community because they
don't know anything aboutwomen's health.
This is a brand new product.
(26:46):
There's no market.
You're creating a whole newmarket for something, and so it
was really important that we hadsome traction.
First to say, yep, this isproduct that women want, like
you know.
Give us more money and we canbuild and grow and and and build
a, you know, the product thatwe wanted to build, but a lot of
times people don't have that.
It's like the chicken or theegg, you know like.
You need the money to build thething.
(27:07):
You can't have to do the thinguntil you have the money.
And it's like the chicken orthe egg.
You know like you need themoney to build the thing.
You can't have to do the thinguntil you have the money.
And it's like you kind of it'shard.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
But you managed to do it and here we are now, and
it's been how long since youlaunched.
I think it was 2020 from what Isaw.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah, we got FD clearance in 2020.
But we sold, sold.
We've been selling since 2018.
Okay, been seven, seven yearslong time.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Yeah, I heard your interview on a show in 2020 and
you guys were talking about howone before women utility issues,
and so it's.
I mean those numbers are I meanquite a lot like.
I mean it obviously impactsquite a few women more than more
than we know.
You know what I mean, so it'sjust.
I think you're here you're hereto to help women like myself
(27:57):
and any other women.
I think that's their gift tothe world, right?
So?
Speaker 2 (28:01):
yeah, I mean, if I had to suffer through hell and
back to get to where I'm at,someone should benefit from what
I went through no, thank you somuch for taking the time to
share this process.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
I feel like I learned a little bit more about like
myself.
You know what I mean, becausewe have to be our advocate for
ourselves.
Who else is going to do it?
Yeah, no one.
It's like the unspoken thing,thepoken hero.
You know what I mean.
Like you have to, yeah, evenwith mental health.
(28:33):
I think I've had to do that tooin both cases, right?
So if anyone wants to check outyou, um, you on social media,
what's your handle?
Again, I know it's have both,so, yeah, so we're on facebook
and instagram.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Those are our two biggest channels.
So it's p P-R-O-O-V-T-S-T forthe Instagram, for the fertility
, then it's P-R-O-O-V-P-E-R-Yfor the perimenopause.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
One yeah, that's important.
So, like I said, join theFacebook community to talk to
other women you know about umtheir own experiences, because,
uh, community is important andhaving other women have been
through similar experiences, so,yeah, supportive community like
we don't want negativity, likewe chuck negativity at the door,
(29:24):
like I cannot stand redditbecause it is just bitching,
bitching, bitching, complaining,complaining and not very much
like help.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
And so we build this community to be helpful.
Right, like you know, wemoderate it so that, you know,
people make sure they, you know,not moderate it, but, like we
respond to people in thecommunity so they always get an
answer.
We, you know, support them inany way and we make sure that
the comments are not negative orwe kick people off out of the
group.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
but supportive community, not just community
yeah, no, I understand thatthere's uh, there's a lot of
negativity and I'll have to likeclean that out.
So obviously there's a processwith it too, right, but it's
good that you've built that.
You know what I mean a positivewith people who support each
other.
Yeah, yeah, well, thank you somuch.
(30:15):
I'm carlene and this is divatonight with amy beckley.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Thank you so much, yeah thanks so much for having
me.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Yeah, it's been diva tonight with carlene.
We'll be back.
Send us a message on Instagramat diva underscore tonight.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Hi, I'm Carlene and this is Diva.
Tonight I just have to clarifythe correct pronunciation of the
fertility hormone test, whichallows women to test their
hormone levels if they're havingfertility issues.
The correct name is Prove.
(30:55):
Again, it's Prove and you cango online check it out.
It's ProveTestcom about thisamazing product which allows
women to find out exactly whythey're having issues conceiving
(31:16):
.
Many women struggle withinfertility and they're not sure
why, and this test helps figureout what is missing.
So again, it's called Prove,and Dr Amy Beckley created this
product to help women like youwho are struggling to figure out
(31:38):
what's wrong.
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