Why Hormone Trends Matter

SPEAKER_01 0:00

The big value for UVA is being able to see what our our personal hormone values and trends are so we can achieve our goal. If it's trying to conceive, great, we often assume that we ovulate at the halfway point of our cycle. That's actually not true. And so you ovulate earlier than you think you do.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Okay.

unknown 0:18

Right.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Women aren't taught that and we don't know it. So until you get that objective data to actually see what your hormone patterns are, it's it's pretty difficult to achieve that goal effectively.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

Welcome to

Meet Dr. Amy DeVarania

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Hormone Heroes, where I share testimonials from real people who have experienced bioidentical hormone therapy. Men and women share the symptoms they have experienced and the difference proper hormone replacement has made. I'm your host, Dr. Kelly Hopkins, and I have been in the functional medicine space for over 30 years, with a focus on hormones for 20 years. Please keep in mind this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Please consult with your physician or practitioner for medical advice. Let's get started with today's guest. Dr. Amy DeVarania. She is the founder and CEO of UVA, a women's health company using at-home hormone testing and data science to help women and clinicians better understand hormone patterns across fertility, perimenopause, and other stages of hormonal health. Her path into women's health began with her own fertility journey. While pursuing her PhD in genetics and genomics at Mount Sinai, Amy was misdiagnosed with PCOS twice, and she struggled to conceive. But now we're happy to say she has a beautiful eight-year-old boy. But despite her scientific background and access to healthcare resources, she found it difficult to get clear answers about what was happening with her hormones. That experience led her to combine her expertise in data science, genomics, and biomarker discovery with women's health research. She eventually founded UVA to move hormone testing beyond single snapshots and toward longitudinal data that can show how hormone patterns change over time. She currently resides in Connecticut. Welcome. Thank you so much for having me. So excited to be here. Your beautiful on top of it, you know, brains and beauty. What can you say?

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Thank you very much. You're very sweet.

SPEAKER_02 2:39

So just start by telling your story, the dealing with PCOS and that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Yeah. So

Misdiagnosed PCOS And Lost Years

SPEAKER_01 2:49

my journey was, I I often say like it's actually not a unique journey because I think women find themselves in very similar shoes quite often throughout life, but you don't really realize it until you take a step back and look at the journey you've been embarking on. For me, it was quite difficult because from my first period, I struggled with very regular cycles. And I know it's a podcast, but if you look at me, I am South Asian. And so my my mom's number one concern was well, if you have irregular periods, you won't be able to give me grandchildren. So let's get this under control. First things first. Right. Exactly. So very like innocent like desire there, right? Like, let's get figure out what's going on underneath. And so she took me to an OB and the doctor looked at me once up and down. Now I had just graduated college. I was pre-med. So I mean, I was in the library for months. I ate not the best food. I had gained a little bit of weight. I had bad acne because of the food. And I was studying in a student, so I hadn't gotten my eyebrows done. And so like I had some facial hair, right? And so the doctor just looked at me and said, Well, you have polycensor covariance syndrome, get all metformin, here's some birth control, and sent me on my way. Right. And I didn't have the like the knowledge to even challenge or ask a question or ask for justification. I just did as I as I would as a complying patient and I started taking the medication. Well, it didn't really suit me well. I ended up getting very depressed. I became very anemic because I was bleeding profusely from the birth control. I just wasn't able to get my cycle regulated. And I actually dealt with it for about three years and was on the medications for that long. Well, in those three years, I got my I lost the weight, the acne cleared up because I started eating like a normal person and I got my eyebrows done. So I go to a new doctor, and on my intake, I said I'd have PCOS. And she said, Well, she had done the hormone testing on me. And so she's like, Your hormones are fine. You don't have polycystic ovarian syndrome, you just have irregular cycles. Get off the meds.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

And had anyone ever done an ultrasound to look for cyst on your ovaries? Okay. Well, that happens a lot.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

It happens a lot. And it's not that uncommon either, because I mean it's not expected to be that uncommon because while it's called polycystic ovarian syndrome, not every patient with this actually has cysts. So that's not the telltale sign, right? Okay. So it's just, I I like I didn't question that I didn't get an ultrasound done because I don't think that was, it wasn't a requirement to get the diagnosis. Right. Right. And so I it just the way that she was very like laissez-faire about the fact that you didn't have this diagnosis that I had been struggling with for three years, kind of stuck with me and it left me very dumbfounded at like, well, I didn't feel right. I didn't ask the questions, and these doctors don't know what they're doing with me either. Like one says I have and the other says I don't, only based on one test. That seems really ridiculous. So it put a really deep mistrust in me when it came to my fertility and having a doctor tell me how or when I could get pregnant. So my husband and I agreed we were going to pursue parenthood naturally. And if it didn't happen for us, we were not going to go down the invasive route. There was a lot of reasons for it, but one of the biggest ones was that I just didn't have this, I didn't want someone to tell me how to navigate that something that my body should be able to do. Right.

unknown 6:25

Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

So we started on the journey, super dark, super lonely. It was exciting in the beginning, but man, that got old really fast. And nothing could have prepared us for that. But it was like month after month of a lot of devastation, a lot of loss. And ultimately it had a happy ending. But throughout that journey, what I realized is women just aren't given the data to be able to advocate for themselves. You are left to your own devices. And that could be like over-the-counter tests that you get from your drugstore. It could be taking your temperature, it could be tracking your symptoms. But if you don't fall into that 28-day cycle, none of those algorithms are going to work for you. They're not designed for women like me who have an irregular cycle. Right. Right. So I realized I was really starting from a point of like with the massive gap. There was nothing, like none of the tools and money I was spending was going to help me. They weren't giving me the right answers. So I wanted to figure out a way to give women that autonomy so they can have that data and be able to advocate for themselves. And then also add some objectivity into women's health because I think doctors need that data so we can actually move this field forward and not just lean on gut instinct.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

So

The Moment UVA Was Born

SPEAKER_02 7:41

your studies at Mount Sinai, how did that help lead you down this path?

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Just timing, to be honest. My PhD work had nothing to do with what I built with Uva. But at the end of my PhD is when we started trying to have a baby. And I was very fortunate to be surrounded by the best mentors throughout my entire career. And so at the end of my PhD, my advisor said, You knew what do you want to do with your life? I'll do whatever introduction you want. And I was like, Well, I don't want to go back to pharma. I don't really want to go into academia. So, do you know a biotech company or a startup that is doing something in women's health to give them access to data so they can actually be able to answer questions about their fertility, their overall health, whatever it may be? And I said, I think like what I'm saying today is really small compared to what I said that day, because what had happened that day was I got another negative pregnancy test and I was on another level of like frustration. And so I think I ended up word vomiting a lot to him about what I wanted to do. And this very, very, very tall man who had his back to me in the moment turned around super slowly and said, Amy, you need to build that. And wow, I was like, okay, well, what does that mean? And he's like, go put a pitch deck together and I'll put you in front of an investor, and let's like you need to put that into the world. It needs to exist.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Wow. How serendipitous. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

I think everything happens for a reason.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

Absolutely. So you you put your deck together, you got in front of an investor, evidently. And this was how long ago? This was in 2017. Okay. So you've been in business now nine years or so. And just describe the concept of UVA.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

So

How UVA Testing Works

SPEAKER_01 9:32

at the core of it, we are a hormone testing platform. We measure multiple hormones through urine. So it's completely non-invasive. And we track that data over time. So the biomarkers, the hormones that we're looking at, are quite dynamic. They change on a daily basis. So we look at estrogen, progesterone, and luteinizing hormone. Now, the beauty of UVA is that we track every day so we can actually see what your unique hormone patterns are and then help you navigate whatever health journey you're embarking on. It could be fertility, it could be perimenopause, or it could be something that is completely unrelated and something we call hormone optimization, where something is going on, but we don't know what it is. And so let's try to understand and translate our hormonal language. The platform is super easy to use. Basically, you get a kit that comes with these disposable test trips. Everyone knows how to piano stick. So you basically register and we will tell you which hormone to test on which day. You collect a urine sample, dip the test in, and then scan it with your phone. There's no device, there's no attachments, very easy to use, and you'll get your results within seconds.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

That is amazing. So I I saw when I looked at the website, which by the way is UVA.life. It's o-o-v-a.life l-i-f E. And you have an app that that the patient downloads. And so you urinate on a test strip based on the test that they are wanting to do or and that you've recommended for them. And the and then say that again, you scan the the strip with your phone.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

If you look at the test strip, there's a QR code, and then there's a window where you'll see the lines appear. So basically, with our app, you would scan this test strip, you align this cartridge in the boundary box that we show, and then we basically interpret the results from your test strip and put that into your app and give your quantitative results. It's synonymous with doing a mobile deposit. If you think about that, like you align your check and the information is scanned into your account. That's exactly what's happening with us. You're not getting pictures of your test strips in your camera role. We're just scanning it and putting it the information into your account.

SPEAKER_02 11:50

And they and the patient gets the information within seconds. That is incredible. Incredible.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

And if and if you have a clinical team, we are fully HIPAA compliant, so you can share the data with them as well. And they will get the results in real time too.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Wow. Amazing. So back to your story. You you had the negative pregnancy test. Serendipitously, someone was in the office that told you to build it and helped you get in front of somebody and it went on from there. So, how did this information help you with your pregnancy?

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Um well, I think there's something fairly serendipitous with UVA because it helps everyone achieve their goals. So the company actually started in August, and I found out in November that I was pregnant. And congrats. Yeah. Thank you. I think what ended up happening for me is UVA was the best distraction from this second job that I had basically taken on myself, which was trying to get pregnant. And it had completely consumed me. And so by starting something productive like UVA, I was able to channel my energy into something really creative and fun, which is where I thrive. And I think internally I became a much more happy person. So my body wasn't in this stress mode of, okay, we need to protect and preserve. Instead, it became, okay, now we're ready to flourish. And that's what allowed me to get pregnant. It was definitely not the apps and the tests that I was using because they were just giving me false results. I learned with the that those results were actually not true.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

So uh you mentioned, you know, a snapshot versus a full movie for someone's hormone. So

Fertility Data And The LH Surprise

SPEAKER_02 13:32

it can you kind of walk us through, let's say someone is struggling with fertility. Can what could they expect to learn from your app on a daily basis?

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, let me just tell you a little bit about my story, why I feel like UVA was incredibly informative for me. I had been using those ovulation tests daily for months, right? I'm just gonna say years. And it always I barely got a high peak result. I never got a peak. I almost I got five times I got a high result, but never hit peak for fertility.

unknown 14:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

And typically those fertility tests give you low, low, low, a few days of high, and then you'll get a peak. And those are the days that you should try to conceive.

unknown 14:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

And the way that those tests work is it's a binary yes or no. You're waiting for your levels to hit a certain threshold, and then you'll get the appropriate result. Well, when I started using UVA, I learned that my LH search, which is required to release an egg in order for us to conceive, was just never reaching that threshold. It was too low. But it was normal for me, right? But those tests made me miss my ovulatory window time and time again. And if I didn't have a quantitative test like UVA, there would be no way for me to track that. And so the big value for UVA is being able to see what our our personal hormone values and trends are so we can achieve our goal. If it's trying to conceive, great, we often assume that we ovulate at the halfway point of our cycle. That's actually not true. As we get older, that shifts. Our follicular phase gets shorter. And so you ovulate earlier than you think you do.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

Right. But women aren't taught that, and we don't know it. So until you get that objective data to actually see what your hormone patterns are, it's it's pretty difficult to achieve that goal effectively.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

So someone watching for ovulation and fertility, they are testing, you mentioned LH, estradiol, and what was the third one? Progesterone. Progesterone, okay. And we we know that we get a huge surge of progesterone after ovulation, and that helps ready the uterus for implantation. So I I can't imagine how excited you you guys were when you finally found out you were pregnant.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

It was kind of surreal. We uh we found out, I obviously told my husband, and but then we didn't tell anybody else. It we were too scared to, well, I mean, we all believe that you can jinx things, so we there's that. But then what I had learned through my journey was like I if we get dis if you get disappointment, you can deal with it. But when you see that's something that you and somebody else have been working towards and you see their disappointment, it's it hits a different level. And so what I found myself doing was initially when we were starting on our journey, it was exciting. We would try, and if it didn't work, it's like, oh it's okay, let's try again next month. Don't worry. And we were both positive. But then as it got longer and longer, we kept getting those negative tests. I was devastated. But then seeing the devastation on my partner was like exponentially harder. And so I could not deal with that with our family in case if there was a loss or something went wrong. So we actually kept it to ourselves for about four months before we shared it with anyone.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

How about your mother was overjoyed?

SPEAKER_01 17:00

Oh, yes, they were. They were beyond excited.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

Are you an only child?

SPEAKER_01 17:06

I am not, but my husband did. So his parents were excited.

SPEAKER_02 17:09

Yeah, yeah. Okay, so fertility, that makes a lot of sense. Let's

Perimenopause Without Clear Answers

SPEAKER_02 17:14

talk about how UVA can help someone going through perimenopause. And perimenopause is that time frame, you know, it can be up to 15 years prior to actual menopause. So walk us through what the kit might help a perimenopausal woman decipher.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Yeah, absolutely. So we like if you think about perimenopause, right? Now everyone, I think above the age of 25 thinks that she's a perimenopause at this point. Right. I mean, there could be some truths to that. Like it can happen at a lot of different times. But unfortunately, a lot of the education that we have on perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause is very limited. We really don't have a lot of data here. And so when you look at the standard, we say that you enter menopause or that menopause is a moment in time, it is the day you've gone 365 days without a period.

unknown 18:06

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

And now anything after that is post-menopause, anything before is peri. Right. Well, now that we're semantically okay, the problem is that just because you're ble bleeding doesn't mean you're ovulating. Right. And that is turkey. Right. And so even if you're not ovulating, that means that there's either an there must be even a balance between your estrogen and your progesterone, which then leads to a lot of external symptoms that may not always present themselves as the stereotypical peri- or post-menopause symptoms of hot flashes or um night sweats.

unknown 18:42

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

To be quite honest, those are symptoms that occur much later in the transition. And the ones that we're seeing our users report much more frequently and much more, I guess, early is cognitive issues. So brain fog, sleep issues, anxiety, like uncontrollable anger. It makes you feel like a crazy person, and you're not crazy. You are having a hormonal imbalance, right? But nobody understands that. So what UVA has really taken it upon itself to do is educate the community about what that hormonal imbalance is and what are things that you can do that aren't necessarily hormone replacement therapy. It's a very viable and a fantastic tool and a solution for certain folks, not for everybody.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

Right.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

Right. And so there's a lot that can happen before you jump into a therapeutic option. And so Uva's really arming itself with a ton of data to understand this imbalance and how the symptoms are related to it. Because the symptoms are your body's outward way and telling you what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

100%.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

The hormones are internally, right? Right. And so one last thing I'll say about this is there's a lot of like, there's not a lot of clarity when it comes to perimermapause. It's often a single diagnosis. You you're in perimenopause. But as you said, it can last up to 15 years. How do you have that same, you're not the same person day one as you are 15 years later when you're about to enter menopause? Right. Right. You're worn out. Yes. But why is that? Hormonally, you're very different. Right. And so with UVA, what we've done is we've actually created an algorithm that has been, we presented this at the Menopause Society conference last year, where we can actually predict where you are in that 15-year journey with 88% accuracy.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Wow. That's really high.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Yeah. And that's based on your hormone data, not looking at anything else. So just giving that clarity, I think, is so empowering for a woman.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

And then you also have a kit for hormone optimization. Walk us through that, the usefulness of that.

Hormone Optimization For The Unknowns

SPEAKER_01 20:54

This is more general. So this is for anyone like imagine fertility, perimenopause are kind of concrete journeys. Hormone optimization is for everything in between and on the bookends of that as well. So we start seeing a lot of women that are coming to us for a variety of use cases that are not specifically trying to conceive or navigating perimenopause, like dealing with or controlling a reproductive condition that's been undiagnosed, misdiagnosed, or currently diagnosed. We also have a lot of women that are have been on birth control for a prolonged period of time and are trying to get back out of it and regulate their cycle. So getting some clarity on that. And then there's this interesting wave of women that we're starting to see where they're much younger and they're going into their 20s, never having had a period. So trying to understand what is happening in that underlying hormonal signature to help navigate what's their overall fertility and reproductive health. But there's just a lot of unknowns when it comes to women's health. And I think we're just starting at the tip of the iceberg.

unknown 21:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

So it it's anyone can go on and order one of these tests. And then how how do you how do you how do you help a female who's gone through this testing? Do you have recommendations for communication with her physician?

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Absolutely. Yes. So yes, anyone can go online and purchase UVA. It's not prescription required. You can use your HSA FSA dollars to use it to purchase it as well, which is quite helpful. But we make sure that all the messaging in the platform is simple for a woman who does not have a medical degree to understand. Okay. Right. The whole purpose of UVA is to ensure that you walk into that doctor's office able to have a two-way conversation and not be at the mercy of this is what you have. Here are the steps and I'll go on your way. We want to make sure that meeting, that really treasured and cherished moments that you have with that doctor are used as effectively as possible. So we will give you what lifestyle modifications you would recommend. We will give you what symptoms to look forward to. And then most importantly, we will tell you what questions and discussions to have with your doctor.

unknown 23:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

We won't tell you what like a diagnosis, and we won't tell you you should go on this protocol. That is for your doctor and you to decide together. But we will give you the questions to be able to have that meaningful conversation.

SPEAKER_02 23:19

I do see where you have partners, practitioners can become partners with you. Yeah. And if you have a so if someone is, do you have the ability to if someone asks you for a practitioner near them or someone that could work with them online, do you offer any suggestions in that way because of your provider partners? Okay.

Providers, Referrals, And Clinician Training

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Yeah. So we have over 600 clinics that we've partnered with across the country to date. And we can make referrals to whatever your situation is. So we can really segment our providers by what they specialize in. And then if the patient wants telemedicine or in person, we're able to support them however they need.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

That's great. That's fantastic. So you're not just a testing company, you're you're really a resource for the whole package. Someone could we like to call ourselves a platform. Yeah, there you go. And as a practitioner, I was noticing you have 14 training modules and eight hours of training that you offer. So, you know, from everything, how to use the provider dashboard to understanding your cycle phases and hormones. I mean, it's so great for a physician that came out of med school, not focused on hormones, and you know, as a review and and then you have webinars as well for the practitioner, uh, reproductive hormones, metabolism and hormones.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

And this field is changing so fast, and our data is so powerful. And we're always trying to publish a lot of our research as much as we possibly can, because it's not just about educating the patient, it's also about educating the entire system.

SPEAKER_03 25:04

Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

So, because it's moving so quickly, we want to try to be at the forefront of it and help disseminate this information as quickly and efficiently as possible. And honestly, virtual meetings are probably one of the best ways to get a broad audience. And it's so lightweight where you can also listen to the recording afterwards if you can't attend that day. So we really love to put some of these events together to help educate not only patients but also clinicians.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

Very good. And then you have success stories as well. That there's some beautiful families, it looks like. Repeat what he said.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

Sure.

A Child’s Definition Of Purpose

SPEAKER_01 26:04

So we were at we were actually visiting Quebec City in Canada, and uh they we went to the parliament building and we asked like the two kids that we were with to like make a speech, my son and my friend's daughter. And so my friend asked my son, like, what does your mom do for work? And I thought, like, my son was three, so he was this is like right in the heart of COVID. And I thought he would be like, Oh, my mom's on the phone all day or on Zoom all day. And instead, he like paused and he says, My mom helps other families become complete. And I just melted right there. I was like, Oh my god, we're doing something right.

SPEAKER_02 26:39

That's when you really know you are in the right lane and you are fulfilling your purpose. When an innocent child like that sees it, that's amazing. What a great story. Well, you are definitely a hormone hero, Dr. Amy. Is there any closing thoughts you'd like to give anyone that is struggling with information about hormones?

SPEAKER_01 27:04

Yeah, I I think if you have any questions or if you feel like something is off, like listen to your gut, listen to your body. The symptoms that you're experiencing are your body's way of telling you something is not right. So don't just like brush it under the rug. It's only going to get worse. And I also think we are quite hard on ourselves that like we should know this information. My body is designed for it. I should know what to do in these situations. And honestly, none of us are taught it. So give yourself some grace, get the information, find the resources that you trust. And if you have questions, our team is so eager to help you. It may not be UVA, but we can at least point you the right direction. So please don't hesitate to contact us and we're happy to be a resource for all of your listeners.

SPEAKER_02 27:44

Thank you, Dr. Amy. And once again, it is Uva.life o-o-va.life is the website. And it's such an easy platform to use and to get started with. And uh, we completely recommend it here at Hormone Heroes. We will have all the information in the show notes as well, as well as a way to contact Dr. Amy. So uh thank you once again, Dr. Amy, for your time today. Thank you so much. Great to see you. Thanks for

Closing Advice And How To Connect

SPEAKER_02 28:14

listening to Hormone Heroes. Take a moment to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next episode. While you are there, help us spread the word by leaving a rating and a review. If you would like to share your bioidentical hormone story or need help finding a physician in your area, please email us at drkelly at hormoneheroes.org. That's D R K E L L Y at H O R M O N E, H E R O E S dot org. We want you to be a hormone hero.