Ava Releases Results of International Study on Women's Attitudes, Emotions and Awareness About Fertility and Trying-to-Conceive

SAN FRANCISCO and ZURICH, Sept. 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ava, a medical technology company focused on innovations in women's reproductive health, today announced the results of an international survey about women's attitudes and misconceptions around fertility and the process of getting pregnant.

The survey's findings – which are broken down by age and country in a report accessible for download here – reveal the extent to which many women around the world do not have a realistic understanding of how long it takes most couples to conceive, nor the importance of timing intercourse to the six-day fertile window in order to get pregnant. In addition, the survey revealed that discussing topics related to fertility and trying-to-conceive (TTC) is still taboo, particularly at work, and that hearing news of friends' pregnancies can elicit sadness or stress. For example, key findings included:

• More than three-quarters of the women polled (78%) say they underestimated the amount of time it would take to get pregnant – and this was even higher in the US (83%) and Spain (83%)
• Nearly half of the women admitted they did not understand the importance of timing intercourse around the fertile days of the menstrual cycle (though French women seemed more educated, with 67 percent acknowledging the importance of tracking the fertile window)
• 60 percent of women said they "don't feel comfortable talking about fertility with anyone other than very close friends or family" – though this was much higher in Germany, with 73 percent of respondents saying they weren't comfortable talking about it
• 80 percent of US women said hearing about other people getting pregnant and having babies caused them stress and/or depression – and that goes up to 86 percent for women 40 and over

"It's unfortunate how much stress and frustration women still experience today around the process of getting pregnant," said Ava Co-Founder Lea von Bidder. "This is one of the reasons Ava has invested heavily in developing resources, education tools and supportive online communities for women to learn and talk about cycle-tracking and TTC topics."

Sex and TTC

The Ava survey also looked at the age-old beliefs around sex and TTC, revealing some of the stereotypes may hold true, especially in the US. For example:

• More than half the women polled said they have had "inconvenient or unromantic sex" in order to try to conceive. However, the number was much higher for US respondents at 72 percent, and lower for French women at 29 percent.
• 47 percent of US women admitted they have had to convince a partner to have sex at a time when he was "not in the mood" in order to try to get pregnant. This was much higher than the 26 percent of French women who have done this.

"Older methods of ovulation detection like BBT thermometers have tainted many women's experience with cycle-tracking, reinforcing negative stereotypes about obligatory intercourse to conceive," noted von Bidder. "Because Ava's technology detects the fertile window earlier than any other method, allowing couples 5.3 days to 'try,' we hope this helps bring back the romance and makes couples less dependent on jumping into bed when they're not in the mood."

Note: For more information about survey methodology, or to download a full report of the survey results, visit here.  

About Ava

Ava is a medical technology company dedicated to bringing innovation to women's reproductive health. The Ava bracelet, which received The Bump "Best of Baby Tech CES 2017" award for fertility and pregnancy, is the company's first consumer product. It uses sensor technology combined with clinically tested data science to precisely detect a woman's entire fertile window in real time. The company is also conducting clinical studies to adapt and expand its algorithms for use in pregnancy monitoring, and future use as a non-hormonal contraceptive device. Backed by $12.3M in seed and Series A funding, Ava has operations in Zurich and San Francisco.

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SOURCE Ava