UCL support allows fertility company to help more people

Enhanced Fertility drastically speeds up home testing for infertility issues, so people can get a diagnosis and start treatment sooner.

The business was set up by Andreia Trigo who was diagnosed with infertility at an early age. Experts from the Innovate UK Business Growth team, part of UCL Innovation & Enterprise, have supported the business since 2021.

Helping clinics and couples identify infertility issues faster

Infertility is an issue that affects one in six people worldwide (according to the World Health Organization). On average it can take three years for someone’s fertility issues to be diagnosed, and seven years for them to have a baby. Many couples travel to clinics across Europe for appointments and tests.

But now, thanks to Enhanced Fertility’s home testing kits, people can get a diagnosis and begin fertility treatment within a matter of weeks.

The testing kits can test people’s hormone levels as well as other biomarkers, like vitamin D, that may be affecting their fertility. Fertility clinics can then access this data and it gives them all the information they need to start treatment.

The tests can be ordered online and used remotely, removing the need to travel long distances to clinics during the diagnostic stage.

“Instrumental to our success”

Since Enhanced Fertility launched, it's expanded its offer to patients and clinics, with support from UCL’s Innovate UK EDGE team (now Innovate UK Business Growth team). The relationship with the team’s innovation and growth specialists began after Andreia was awarded the Women in Innovation award in 2022.

“The Innovate UK EDGE team at UCL have been incredibly helpful. They’ve worked with us to clarify our mission, to prepare pitch decks, to work out our go-to market strategy, everything.

“With their input, we’ve also been able to access a grant to develop a platform for clinics, which we launched in January this year. We’ve received the Conformité Européene (CE) mark and are two months away from starting to sell our tests across all European countries to help even more families.”

At UCL, one of the ways we engage with businesses is by providing Innovate UK’s business growth and scaling advisory support for SMEs in London. Our innovation and growth specialists work one-on-one and intensively with clients to help them accelerate their growth. They're part of a larger team of over 350 specialists providing the same tailored support nationally.

Thanks to support from the team, Enhanced Fertility has developed partnerships with seven clinics across Europe who treat patients from many different countries.

“It’s not just patients who were finding the testing process onerous, clinics were too,” explains Andreia. “But thanks to our new platform we’ve now centralised the tests that need to be done, and clinics can select the relevant ones for each patient.”

“I wanted to give meaning to my pain”

As a nurse, Andreia has always had an interest in healthcare, but it was her own journey with infertility that pushed her to build a pregnancy-related business. 

“It is, of course, very traumatic to be told so young you’re unable to have a baby. At the time I was already in my first year of nursing, and I didn’t want anything to do with fertility or pregnancy, it was too close to home. But over time, I realised I wanted to give meaning to that pain.

“We’ve been on this amazing journey of discovery the last few years, working out how to solve people’s infertility issues in the best way. But now we’re all about speeding up diagnosis. Because three and a half years is too long. Having to wait could be the difference between being able to conceive naturally, or not being able to conceive at all with your own eggs.”

Bringing babies into the world

Over 1,000 people have now tested their fertility using Enhanced Fertility testing kits, and the business has contributed to bringing nine babies into the world.

Stephanie Eastman is one of the women who benefitted from the service. She says: “Enhanced Fertility helped me with testing, which was quite easy to do with a finger prick. The results came quite quickly and Andreia helped me understand what the problem was. I started taking progesterone and was pregnant very soon after that. I would recommend Enhanced Fertility to anyone who is struggling with infertility and looking for affordable testing.”

Links

Find out more about:

• how UCL is transforming lives through collaboration and knowledge exchange
• Enhanced Fertility
• Support available to SMEs
• Support for external organisations to partner with UCL
• Innovate UK

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Photo © Enhanced Fertility