Fertility Tracker App Glow Shows Impressive Results

Image via Glow

Fertility tracker app Glow has been immensely popular since its launch in August, and new statistics are finally showing that the app is worth the hype.

After several months on the market, the free app is showing that it really does help couples. The app announced yesterday that more than 1,000 women have already conceived with help from Glow, TechCrunch reports.

The app was originally created by PayPal cofounder Max Levchin with $6 million in funding, according to Forbes, with the hopes of helping couples who are looking to start or expand their families.

Today it’s so much more. Glow is useful for women who are trying to conceive, as well as women who are already pregnant and those who are just looking to keep track of their periods and cycles.

Fertility Tracking With Glow

For those who are looking to conceive, Glow has just about every feature imaginable. It lets users input data like when they start their periods, what their current body temperature is, and when and how they had sex, all useful information to track ovulation and chance of conception. It reminds users to take their temperature and take vitamins, as well as reminders for when they can expect their periods and when they’re ovulating. It even tells users how likely they are to conceive each day.

Users can link their Glow accounts with their accounts on MyFitnessPal, a popular diet and exercise app, according to TechCrunch. Glow says this partnership can further help women who are trying to conceive by painting a more complete picture of their health and wellness.

Of particular importance is a woman’s body mass index, calculated from height and weight information, which can affect her chance of conceiving. Glow CEO Mike Huang told TechCrunch, “According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, BMI is a big factor in one’s chance to get pregnant. If you are too high, or too low below the established norm, it can cause you to have more irregular menstrual cycles and have more difficulty conceiving.”

Huang said that other information shared between the apps will help in the future. “Our core mission is around data,” he said to TechCrunch. “Eventually, this could allow us to incorporate all sorts of data — how users eat, drink and exercise — into our machine learning algorithm.”

Glow’s Social Features

Glow has additional social features that let users share their experiences and get help. Glow First is a completely optional nonprofit program built into the app. Couples who choose to participate give $50 each month for 10 months or until they get pregnant. In the 11th month, women in the program who haven’t conceived will receive an even portion of the pooled money, to go directly toward infertility screening and treatment. Glow carefully screens each application for the program and keeps absolutely none of the money.

As of yesterday, the app also comes with Glow Community, a social space where users can share stories and experiences, TechCrunch says.

Glow: A Little App For The Big Picture

The app’s creator Max Levchin says his goals go far beyond helping couples get pregnant. Levchin says his goal with HVF, Glow’s parent company, is to tackle big problems in the world, especially those concerning healthcare.

He said in an interview with TechCrunch that fertility was a good place to start. Fertility issues are less complicated from a logistical standpoint because they come with a less complicated relationship between the patient, doctor and insurance company.

Insurers typically treat infertility as an optional or elective care, which is totally not how women or couples trying to conceive and failing to do so are treating it. They think of it as an existential crisis. A lot of times they get horribly depressed, or worse.”

Levchin said he saw an area of healthcare that could be improved, and he saw a way to improve it. He said, “It seemed like an obvious thing.”

Glow also tries to help with the emotional aspects of fertility tracking. Levchin, who has two children of his own, recalled that many of his friends lost emotional intimacy while trying to get pregnant.

When infertility issues are involved, he said, “You really lose a lot of the fun and intimacy of trying to make a baby. You go from this ‘Oh my god, we’re going to be parents’ to ‘Oh it’s that time of the month. Alright, well, let’s make sure we get it this time.’ It damages families and it can drive people away from each other.”

Levchin wants the app to help do away with the chore aspect of conception and hopes Glow helps provide a warm and welcoming atmosphere.