PayPal founder Max Levchin has launched Glow today to help women get pregnant. Glow is a a fertility tracker that uses data analytics and published information on ovulation cycle forecasts to help advise a woman on the best times for a woman to get pregnant.
Fertility/infertility represents a $5 billion market and an area that affects 1 in 5 women trying to get pregnant, Levchin said today at the DII conference. Insurance companies, however, categorize treatments for infertility or just problems getting pregnant as an elective procedure, with costs that can be in the $30,000 range.
How Glow works
Users must enter in personal details about their menstrual cycles, their body temperatures and other habits to inform the Glow app. According to Levchin, the app adjusts to the individual as she logs more and more data. Glow then gives the user — and her partner, if he or she opts to use a version of the app — insight into her fertility window. When the moment is right for conception, the app gives the user and her partner an alert.
In a publication by Lauren Goode of All Things Digital she says Levchin’s goal, ultimately, isn’t just to help women get pregnant. He believes arming the average citizen with data about his or her health will ultimately cut down on health care costs in the long run. He said he plans to eventually apply this financial model to other areas of health.