Cork sisters’ have big ambitions on future of women’s health

WHEN Dr Helen O’Neill, through the course of her work as a lecturer and research scientist, came across an IVF patient with the same date of birth as her, it got her thinking.

The lecturer in reproductive and molecular genetics at University College London, from Cork, and a leading expert in reproductive science, has vast connections within the embryology, medical and fertility worlds. But it dawned on her that she still didn’t have easy access to finding out about her own reproductive health, even if she had wanted to.

It was a light-bulb moment that ultimately saw her and her identical twin sister Deirdre, a corporate lawyer, launch female health company Hertility in 2020, alongside ovarian biologist Dr Natalie Getreu.

Originally from Ovens and now London-based, they call it the ‘Mother of all movements’, designed to revolutionise reproductive healthcare from menstruation to the menopause.

“Women’s health is being failed by the current system, and more needs to be done to address it, from a research and data perspective,” said Deirdre.

With that in mind, Hertility is a research-led company, with clinical trials on reproductive health and hormones constantly underway to better improve diagnosis times for common, yet misdiagnosed women’s health conditions.

“Our aim is to build the world’s largest data set on female gynaecological pathologies. That data doesn’t yet exist because people aren’t asking women about symptoms, biometrics or lifestyle factors in this comprehensive way. 

We are pioneering real change with this research, we’re questioning the current global reference ranges and diagnostic criteria, we’re questioning everything that’s being put out there because it hasn’t ever been assessed from a female-first perspective, and frankly it’s failing women.

Services currently being offered by Hertility include diagnostic at-home fertility and hormone testing, including testing AMH, which indicates a woman’s ovarian reserve, along with telemedicine and onward referrals for scanning, egg freezing and treatments.

A Menopause MonitHER test is also set to launch shortly, while a range of clinical services are offered by a team of gynaecologists who are specialists in reproductive medicine, gynaecological surgery, and women’s health.

The Hertility team comprises 43 people, with an additional 12 specialist doctors. Among them is Cork woman and senior research scientist Bríd Ní Dhonnabháin.

Deirdre, Dr Helen and Dr Natalie are driven to democratise the fertility market, and strive to keep their prices affordable, compared to private clinics.

“We don’t want to exclude women. There are already enough barriers in terms of the health system relating to gynaecological services. With Covid, it was deemed these were non-essential services, leading to soaring wait-lists for women’s health, but if you consider one in 10 women in the UK has endometriosis, a crippling, debilitating condition; one in 10 has PCOS; one in three will develop a gynaecological condition in their life; and one in six are infertile; that’s a huge number of women,” said Deirdre.

Tellingly, one in five Hertility customers has been found to have a previously undiagnosed reproductive condition which has been revealed as a result of their testing.

Society, Deirdre feels, is reactive to illness; and not proactive to wellness “We shouldn’t say, we’ll treat the tumour when it gets big enough, we should be saying we’re screening so you never get cancer. Fertility is seen as such a reactive thing and no-one assesses it early enough. Our mantra is that if every single woman tracked their reproductive health from menstruation to menopause, not only would you be able to diagnose conditions, but you’d know what rate your own ovarian reserve is in decline,” she said.

"Society has got to the point that lots of women think they can ‘just have IVF’. But this undermines the fact it’s incredibly invasive both physiologically, psychologically and financially.

Society has actually done a massive injustice to women. It has told us you can have and do it all, and yes you can, but you have biological limitations and most cases of infertility are age-related.

Egg freezing is something else they feel strongly about. While Hertility offers egg freezing as a service as it can offer reproductive autonomy, it is not always appropriate for some. Deirdre emphasised it should be approached with knowledge about its inherent limitations, especially with regard to the age at which you freeze.

“Recent research by our Hertility doctors, showed that the number of live births of women who had frozen their eggs, post 40, was zero. I’ve got such a fundamental issue about the false levels of hope it gives, and it’s not an easy process. It’s complex and it’s delicate.”

She also feels the “blanket approach to putting people on the pill is crazy”, adding: “People could stay on the pill for 15 years and it’s just masking symptoms. We should be monitoring and learning about our bodies, instead of adjusting hormones,” she said.

They’re driven to ‘pioneer a new way of thinking’ and to wake people up with a “public ‘cervix’ announcement” that urges women to track their ovaries, over their calories.

“We want to change the status quo of how people think about their reproductive health. People tend to silo it into contraception, fertility, periods, or menopause, but it’s our hormonal health, and the impact the hormonal changes are having on us over our life span, and not single life events that we need to focus on,” said Deirdre.

The identical twins, who just live 15 minutes from each other, moved to London to each do a masters, Helen in prenatal genetics and fetal medicine in UCL, and Deirdre in medical law in Kings College.

“We intended to be here a year and 15 years later we’re still here,” said Deirdre.

Helen’s partner is from Dublin and they’re parents to almost four-year-old Ella. Deirdre’s partner is English and they’re parents to Saoirse (3) and Aoife (18 months).

“Between us, in the last three years we’ve had three babies… and no maternity leave!” laughs Deirdre.

Working together, she said, is brilliant.

“Helen is my best friend, we say we’re womb mates! It’s great as she’s science and I’m compliance so it’s the perfect balance. 

There’s never any competition as we both deal with separate sections of the business and it’s so complementary, it’s the perfect ally-ship, it’s really great.

They have four older brothers who live in Dublin and the US and their parents moved from Ovens to Wimbledon to be near the twins and their grandkids.

“It’s brilliant, but it means we don’t have a reason to get home that much. I was back for a reunion a few months ago, and it was so lovely.

“The ultimate goal is for us all to move back to Ireland, I really miss it. Future plans include definitely building a team there,” said Deirdre.

The start-up got venture funding in 2021 and 2022, and they recently had over 1,600 people invest through Crowdfunding. They’re currently in the middle of raising finance, and are finalists in the prestigious EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2023 programme, set up to empower entrepreneurs grow their business.

“Ultimately, our ambition is to globally change the way women’s health is diagnosed, to globally change people’s perceptions of reproductive health, and to be the number one home for women’s health. These are big ambitions, but because we’re research-led I think we have a good head start in getting there,” said Deirdre.