“My two co-founders and I quit our jobs and immediately started Evvy when we uncovered the fact that women weren’t required to be in clinical research until 1993, and we’re still diagnosed over four years later than men across over 700 diseases,” said Pita Navarro, chief scientific officer and co-founder of Evvy.
“So this not only made our own frustrating experiences in the healthcare system make a lot of sense, but it also shocked us and pointed to this massive opportunity to harness those unique signals that the female body is constantly giving off.”
The company’s first offering was an at-home vaginal microbiome test powered by metagenomic sequencing. The test analyzes over 700 microbes with a single swab to help identify issues related to bacterial vaginosis, yeast infections, fertility outcomes and more.
This month, Evvy expanded into the supplement market with the launch of its Women’s Complete Probiotic, a 3-in-1 microbiome support supplement for gut, vaginal and urinary health.
Navarro said many women with issues like IBS, UTIs and vaginal dysbiosis often face overlapping symptoms, but she and her co-founders did not see anything on the market that offered a simplified approach.
“Our research across over 50,000 women has shown just how deeply interconnected the gut, urinary and vaginal microbiomes are—yet most products continue to treat them in isolation,” Navarro said.
“We really wanted to design an advanced three-in-one microbiome support for gut, urinary and vaginal health that was uniquely formulated for the types of customers that were coming to us. And so once we got an understanding of the problem, we spent months digging into…ingredients that have clinical studies on them."
“We talked to hundreds of manufacturers..and so that was like a year long process of really doing due diligence on where there actually are clinical studies that we can leverage,” she added.
The probiotic includes clinically-studied Lactobacillus strains to promote healthy bacteria, support yeast balance and reduce bloating, along with patented delayed-release capsules that increase survivability of probiotic strains through the GI tract as well as postbiotics and vitamins D and E to support immunity and gut barrier integrity.
Looking ahead, Navarro said Evvy will continue to build upon and leverage its large vaginal microbiome dataset to create treatments and supplements for women’s health.
To hear how microbiomes evolve during pivotal life transitions, such as perimenopause and why a Lactobacillus-rich vaginal environment is crucial for reproductive health and more, listen to the NutraCast.
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