DuoFertility monitor a success in Britain expands into the US

Fertility monitor which accurately measures basal body temperature is a success in the UK, helping many couples have a baby. Most entrepreneurs care deeply about their businesses but they’re not usually reduced to tears by a successful sale. For Oriane Chausiaux, of Cambridge Temperature Concepts, which provides fertility monitoring for couples struggling to have a baby, the early successes of the business had as much emotional impact as financial. “After the thirtieth pregnancy I managed to stop crying when I heard the news,” says Dr Chausiaux. The company makes a monitor called DuoFertility. This is a small sensor worn by a woman under her armpit, which sends signals about body temperature and sleep patterns throughout the day and night to an analytics centre in Cambridge, using wireless technology. These signals build up a picture about when she is most fertile, because the presence of different hormones affects body temperature. Users can call up the centre at any time to discuss the results with a fertility expert. The device is not cheap – it sells for about £500 in the UK, through the company’s website, Boots online and Pride Angel, but includes all the analytics and communications with the company, which offers a guaranteed refund to women who don’t fall pregnant within 12 months. The price is cheap compared to IVF treatment, which costs between £5,000 and £7,000 per cycle in the UK. The monitor is only suitable for couples who don’t have medical issues that mean IVF is the only way they could conceive but, because about a third of patients who have IVF in the UK suffer from “unexplained infertility”, there is still a large market to go for, says Dr Shamus Husheer, chief executive. The monitor had an unconventional birth. It was the brainchild of Dr Husheer when he was a nuclear and structural chemistry PhD student, working in a particle accelerator in France. He was inspired by the difficulty his parents had in conceiving him and by new battery technology which generated power from the body. He recruited Dr Chausiaux, who is now the head scientist, and four other Cambridge PhD students to help him build a prototype and come up with a business plan. What they developed was a medical device that, in its first form, was “a shoebox full of electronics which you strapped to your body”. The idea won the scientists £1,000 and then £20,000 in competitions run by Cambridge University. They used the money to pay for filing a patent and building a prototype. At the end of 2007, they raised £250,000 from angel investors in the Cambridge area, to develop the DuoFertility monitor. Even when they were still at the shoebox stage, they were contacted by couples wanting to pay to have a monitor built for them. Dr Chausiaux says: “That showed us the need really was there.” Dr Husheer adds: “We also didn’t appreciate how huge the mental and psychological side was when we started off. The couples were always on the phone to us to talk about their condition and we realised we were providing a service that was not available to them anywhere else.” After being screened to check their fertility issues are within the limits the monitor can help with, Cambridge Temperature Concepts says couples who use it for six months have the same chance of getting pregnant as someone of the same age on a cycle of IVF. While growth in the past four years has been “spiky”, Dr Husheer admits, the firm now has 2,000 customers and expects turnover to rise to £2.5m in 2012-13. However, growing through UK retail has been slower and trickier than the pair anticipated and the founders are in the middle of a £1m fund-raising to help to pay for plans to expand in the US. They are hoping that American doctors will recommend the product to patients. The opportunity in the US, where a cycle of IVF can cost as much as $20,000 (£12,500), is an order of magnitude greater than in the UK, Dr Husheer says. “We believe there are 400,000 women in the US a year for whom our product is the right thing.” However, there is also a new opportunity in the UK – the company has been accepted for a trial by the NHS, with the same guarantee that it will reimburse the health service after a year if the patient does not fall pregnant. “There’s a push into payment for outcomes by the Department of Health, so we’re ticking the political boxes too,” says Dr Husheer. Since the first fund-raising from angel investors, they have raised money “a couple” more times the same way, although they still own just over 50pc of the company. “The main things we need to finance now are some people with deep commercial experience in the US, and staff in the UK to do the fertility analysis,” says Dr Husheer. The company hopes to be able to provide the same level of support as it does now for 10,000 people after this round of hiring. All the analytics staff will be based in Cambridge, in large part hired from the town’s universities. The DuoFertility monitor has gained the approval of the US medical regulator, the FDA, and the company is marketing it to the obstetricians and gynaecologists American women typically visit rather than GPs. “Our experience with the FDA was not nearly as bad as some of the rumours suggest,” said Dr Husheer. “They seemed pretty responsive to us because our device is non-invasive and we have a lot of field data from using it in Europe.” Article: 13th November 2012 www.telegraph.co.uk

The Fertility Show, London, Olympia 4-5th November 2011

Are you considering having a baby?
Maybe you are finding it difficult getting pregnant. Whether you wish to know how fertile you are, considering sperm donation, egg donation or IVF, then why not visit The Fertility Show, 4-5th November Olympia, London.
When Friday 4 November 2011: 10am - 6pm
Saturday 5 November 2011: 10am - 5pm


Where Olympia 2, Hammersmith Road, London W14. Olympia is located in the centre of London on Hammersmith Road, near High Street Kensington

Just thinking about starting a family or been trying for ages? Find out what you need to know at The Fertility Show.
- 100 exhibitors
- 60 talks from experts
- Medical and complementary alternatives
- Leading UK and overseas clinics
- Fertility assessments and treatments
- Advice for everyone including single women and same sex parents
- A successful and proven event, now in its 3rd year


For those just thinking of having a baby:
- Zita West on how to get pregnant
- Marilyn Glenville on fertility-boosting nutrition
- Charles Kingsland on preparing for pregnancy
- Testing your ovarian reserve
For people finding it difficult to get pregnant:
- The main approaches to treatment
- The fertility rollercoaster
- What men need to know about their fertility
- Tackling particular problems and scenarios


For those considering IVF:
- How to choose a clinic
- Treatment abroad
- What the NHS will pay for
- Improving the odds


Britain's leading fertility specialists on:
- Reduced ovarian reserve
- Egg freezing and reproductive surgery
- PCOS, recurrent miscarriage, endometriosis
- Complementary medicine
- Specific advice for single women, older women and alternative parenting
- International surrogacy and donors abroad
- Coping strategies and managing relationships through treatment


Book your tickets for The Fertility Show here.

Pride Angel will be exhibiting at The Fertility Show this year, so why not come along and have a chat with us about using a known sperm donor egg donor or home insemination, visit us at 'Stand 20'.