It’s refreshing when we get to interview a company that is fearlessly and unapologetically devoted to advocating for female topics that have been neglected. Let me introduce you to, EVVY.
I want to start off with a statistic that founders Priyanka Jain and Laine Bruzek of EVVY shared at the beginning of our interview: All treatment before 1993 was not required to be tested on a woman. Meaning that before 1993, it was believed that because women are smaller than men, they only needed a smaller dosage or treatment…. Let that sink in.
The gender health gap is real, but luckily for us women, EVVY is here to bring voice and knowledge to the female vagina with their at-home Vaginal Microbiome test.
“Our mission is to close the gender health gap by discovering and leveraging overlooked biomarkers in the female body — starting with the vaginal microbiome. We envision a world where everyone with a vagina is in control of their own health through personal data, accessible research, and empathetic care.”
Here is a dive into our conversation with EVVY…
We would love to hear the background and inspiration behind EVVY:
“I always say, you know, every woman I think has their own journey of feeling misunderstood, misdiagnosed, underdiagnosed at the doctor’s office. And I think, you know, for myself, it manifested as always feeling like doctors were being like, are you sure you’re drinking enough water? Maybe you’re just stressed. And it was so frustrating feeling like no one was ever using data to help me understand what might be going on with my own body.
Doing research we found that women are still diagnosed on average four years later than men across over 770 diseases. Researchers put five times the amount of money into researching erectile dysfunction then they do PMS. Even though ED only affects 19% of men and PMs affects 90% of women. My takeaway was like, wow, there’s so much off the female body that we don’t understand.
How can we actually leverage those unique data sets or aspects that exist in a female body to help us better understand our own bodies while also helping our providers that are diagnosed and treat us?”
How EVVY is changing the game:
“The problem is that for a lot of women, when their vaginal microbiome gets disrupted, or you get into a place where there are pathogens that start to take hold in your vagina a lot of the solutions that were being sold aren’t actually useful. When you take something like antibiotics, you’re kind of wiping out everything. So you have to be extra vigilant about making sure you’re promoting that good bacteria.
A lot of what we’re hoping to do is help women better advocate for themselves at the doctor’s office and help them be the experts on their body. So they can go in feeling confident about this is what I’m feeling, and this is actually what’s going on.”
What does the at-home Vaginal Microbiome test do?
“Our simple, at-home vaginal microbiome test tells you what bacteria are present, why it matters, and what you can do about it.
EVVY’S test helps you understand your symptoms and risks for critical health challenges. They then offer support for a customized wellness plan based on your results. This allows you the power to stop spending money on treatments that don’t work and learn what actually helps balance your microbiome overtime.”
Words of Wisdom: Advice from the founders
Priyanka shares that: “We learned this lesson from Heidi Rosen, she came to speak to one of our classes- how can you do 90% of the work so that the people that you’re asking to the next 10% really want to go out of their way to help you.”
Laine reminds us that: “I think part of it just for other entrepreneurs out there is remembering the fact that you care about the problem and that you’re someone who’s experienced it. You have ideas about how to make it better and that alone qualifies you to try to make it better. I think in healthcare, especially, it can be really scary to try to change something if you’re not either a veteran of the system or you’re not a doctor. But I actually think it would actually benefit from more people just coming at it from a consumer perspective and saying “here is how I wish it had been better for me.”
We are so grateful to speak to such incredible entrepreneurs who are truly bringing light to the gender health gap and empowering women to take control over their health. Check EVVY out here and explore how you can improve your vaginal microbiome health one test at a time.
Morgan is a student at the University of San Diego majoring in Business Administration and minoring in Entrepreneurship. Not afraid to run a 10k or test out a new product for review, Morgan is our go-to for all things spirituality, health, wellness, and the hottest spots to check out in Denver and San Diego. Also a podcast junkie, Morgan can always recommend a killer listen ranging from the newest data on MDMA research to ways we can begin understanding the microbiome.