Boulder fertility company looks to prevent miscarriages through home test kit

BOULDER — After two cycles of in vitro fertilization and six lost pregnancies, Amy Beckley decided to use her biology background to solve her infertility problem herself.

Boulder-based MFB Fertility, co-founded by Beckley and her business partner Christina Chamberlain, who also struggled with pregnancy, was created to empower women to measure their own progesterone levels. Progesterone is a key hormone released after ovulation and a certain level is needed for viable pregnancies.

“There’s been no good way to measure that,” Beckley told BizWest, “but our test empowers women to track their levels themselves. If it’s low, they can seek help and get supplementations and not be infertile anymore, saving them through the pain of multiple miscarriages.”

Beckley said that it can often take three miscarriages before a physician will treat a woman, but because low progesterone is a common cause of lost pregnancies, a woman can be proactive by tracking their levels. If they do have low progesterone, a doctor can give them a prescription to remedy their low levels. Beckley said her hope is by using MFB’s test, which is a urine test similar to pregnancy or ovulation tests, women can solve this common problem before they suffer a miscarriage.

So far, MFB has had the market on its side: In two years of operating, the company has sold more than 2,000 units of its test, which each $40 and contains seven individual tests.

MFB Fertility recently competed at the MedTech Innovator Awards in Denver, where the company was selected as the audience favorite, and now has a chance to be selected as one of 50 companies to go onto the final showcase. The winning company of the national event wins $500,000.

Beckley said the company now plans to launch a seed round of $500,000, which will go to raising awareness of the product. MFB Fertility already has FDA approval for its tests and plans to secure approvals to expand into other markets, such as Europe.

More than anything, Beckley said it’s the feedback she gets from customers that lets her know her passion project has been onto something.

“It’s truly awesome to see the emails I get saying ‘thank God for this product; I got the help I needed and now I’m pregnant,’” Beckley said. “Those things make everything worth it.”

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