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It’s often the case that women don’t think much about their reproductive health until they have to. Sometimes it begins with an aside from a well-meaning gynecologist — or one’s impatient parents. Sometimes, it’s because a couple is ready to try conceiving and it’s proving harder than they imagined it would be.

A San Francisco-based startup called Modern Fertility wants to educate women about their reproductive health much earlier in their lives, enabling them to become more “proactive” instead of reactive, says co-founder and CEO Afton Vechery, who worked formerly as a product manager at the genetic testing company 23andMe and, before that, at a healthcare-focused private equity firm in Greenwich, Conn.

At both places, she learned a lot about the growing number of companies that are empowering customers with information about their own bodies. She also learned, particularly at 23andMe, about the importance of making that information affordable. Indeed, after shelling out $1,500 for tests run by a reproductive endocrinologist to get a better picture of her own reproductive health, Vechery set out to create similar tests that one needn’t be a Rockefeller to order. Toward that end, an at-home finger-prick hormone test that Modern Fertility began selling today for $199.

The vast difference in price owes to economies of scale, says Vechery. Because there are just 500 infertility clinics in the U.S. and roughly 6,000 endocrinologists — just 2,000 of which are focused on reproductive health — the cost of individual testing has been prohibitively high. Modern Fertility, meanwhile, has “systems and tech and integrations that support a high volume of tests” conducted at the same time, she says, explaining that with volume comes discounted pricing.

Modern Fertility is not analyzing its customers’ hormones. It is using all CLIA-certified labs, including Quest Diagnostics, the 50-year-old, publicly traded clinical laboratory company. “We’re not making new instruments,” says Vechery. “Our differentiation is in access and the information that we provide to women.”

In fact, Modern Fertility is billing itself as more of an educational company than anything else. While it will tell consumers about nine hormone levels related to ovarian reserves and overall reproductive health — which can be important, especially when it comes to considerations around egg freezing — much of what it offers is related to content based on peer-reviewed studies about menopause and when women typically start to lose their fertility.

Customers also receive one optional one-on-one phone consultation with a fertility nurse who won’t give out medical advice but can share more information about which hormones are being tracked and why.

For the price, that may be enough for many women. It was enough for investors. Modern Fertility just closed on $6 million in funding led by Maveron and Union Square Ventures, which were joined by Sound Ventures, #Angels, SV Angel and additional individual investors.

No doubt these backers see a future where an offering like that from Modern Fertility is a perk offered by employers, more of which are offering fertility benefits to keep their employees happy and in place. Already, Vechery says that a “handful of companies” are interested in layering Modern Fertility’s tests into their other wellness benefits.

Modern Fertility is also counting on repeat customers, suggesting to them that re-taking its test every now and then will give a woman a better idea of how her “fertility curve” is changing over time.

Most immediately, says Vechery, Modern Fertility — co-founded by Carly Leahy, a creative strategist who moved to California from Boston in 2014 after Google recruited her, and who most recently logged two years at Uber — will be adding to its current, eight-person team.

It also will be “trying to understand the best way it can get this information” to potential customers, says Vechery. “We want to meet women where they are and educate them that this type of testing is important.”

Pictured above: Modern Fertility co-founders Afton Vechery, left, and Carly Leahy

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During Memorial Day Weekend, many people gathered in backyards to kick off cookout season across the country — but in Denver, some visited an unassuming backyard to witness an attempt to shatter the world record for tallest stack of waffles, which was previously at 51 cm. 

Journalist Elizabeth Hernandez was on the scene to cover the event for The Denver Post and thankfully, she live tweeted the action for all of us as it was going down on Saturday. 

"You know when you get a press release to cover a Guinness world record attempt for tallest stack of waffles & expect it to be some big commercial thing & then it's just a guy's house?," Hernandez tweeted. "This is SO MUCH BETTER." Read more...

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678-136-7092Avengers: Infinity War shared Captain America's phone number with the world.

It didn't actually work, much to the chagrin of fans everywhere. But as we've now learned, it was originally supposed to work. The film's creators wanted fans to be able to pick up on the brief Easter egg and use it to actually receive a message from Steve Rogers.

It never happened, obviously, but sibling directors Anthony and Joe Russo shared their idea and the reason it never panned out during a recent interview with Huffington Post.

"We actually had intended to create a fake voicemail from Steve Rogers," Joe Russo said. "For the people that left the theater and called that number, they would get a voicemail from Steve Rogers." Read more...

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Turns out, even years after Gossip Girl, Blake Lively has some secrets up her sleeve — and her husband, and Deadpool star, Ryan Reynolds doesn't even know the half of it. 

Lively, who has been aggressively promoting her upcoming film A Simple Favor, tweeted a trailer that ends with the film's tagline "what happened to Emily?" — which then prompted a response from her husband. 

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Your quick mental checklist of "phones, keys, wallet" before leaving the house could soon be narrowed down to "phone, wallet." 

That's because Apple may be introducing a new function that would allow you to unlock your car and house doors with your iPhone. 

According to The Information (h/t Engadget), the near field communication (NFC) chip in your iPhone — responsible for the easy transactions behind things like Apple Pay — is rumored to be expanding beyond its current capabilities. 

"The change to the near-field communication, or NFC, chip, which is expected to be announced next month, could pave the way for people to use iPhones for other security-sensitive interactions, from paying transit fares and opening car doors to verifying their identity in other ways," the article reads, via MacRumors.  Read more...

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"I will send an ambulance if you really want me to." 

These were the words I heard over the phone, as I lay crumpled on the bathroom floor. I was in high school, at a party, and I had just tried marijuana for the first time. My chest was pounding, and I was convinced I was having a heart attack. Annoyingly, the 911 operator did not share my sense of urgency. In fact, she said marijuana-induced panic attacks were common and that this "didn’t qualify as an emergency." And, to my great surprise, I did not die that night in 2009.

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