Carolynn Dubé remembers the pressure she shouldered at the beginning of her in vitro fertilization journey, especially as she braced herself to administer the required medications.
“You’re standing there at your bathroom counter and you’re thinking, I can’t screw this up,” said Dubé, the executive director of Fertility Matters based out of Moncton, N.B.
IVF medications often require precise timing for them to work as intended. While fertility clinics will explain what is required, patients and their partners usually handle the injections at home.
“It does create increased anxiety and worry, especially when you get to the point of mixing or injecting,” Dubé said. “You’re wanting to make sure for 100 per cent that you’re doing it correctly, because so much is riding on these medications.”
As estimated, one in six Canadian adults is impacted by infertility, according to Fertility Matters Canada. In vitro fertilization is one option for people looking to start a family. However, the process can cost a lot of money and time. Plus, there are no guarantees.
IVF patients frequently hit a snag when questions arise — say, about a nighttime dose — because their clinics are closed when they need answers most.
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Entrepreneur Jessica Schaefer had a similar experience.
“If you’ve gone through the process, it’s very ‘do-it-yourself doctor,’” Schaefer explains. “You’re doing it at home alone, or if you have your partner, your partner is doing it, and you’re mixing anywhere between 10 to 12 fertility drugs, and it’s complicated. When I went through it, I had no idea what I was doing.”
Schaefer founded a concierge fertility service called Lushi. Ahead of the company’s December 2024 launch, Schaefer spoke with Global News at the Web Summit international technology conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
“A lot of people do not undergo this because there’s a lack of information, education, and people are scared,” Schaefer said. “With Lushi, we’re really making it simple for you to access the top doctors from the comfort of your home.”
Since its launch, more than 15,000 people have signed up to use the platform in the United States.
The Lushi app, which recently launched in Canada, includes different levels of service. Users pay a basic entry-level fee, where they can ask questions and receive AI-generated responses to some of the most common questions related to egg retrieval and IVF treatments.
“Instead of having to wait in the clinic for hours to get some of your questions answered, you can talk to our AI technology, and it will give you access immediately,” Schaefer said.
People can also choose to buy different upgraded packages. Those can include speaking to a trained professional through an online video appointment or even hiring someone to come to your house to administer injections.
Lushi’s chief medical officer, Dr. Mana Baskovic, says the platform can help fill in gaps that fertility clinics do not have the bandwidth to manage.
“They are limited by the resources they have, and there hasn’t been an advancement in technology within the directly within the health-care space in some time, especially when we look at the fertility space,” Baskovic said. “As you can imagine, the majority of the population is not comfortable mixing medications, dealing with needles, discarding needles, not poking yourself.”
Advocates, including Dubé, say the online tool will have other benefits too, particularly in a country like Canada, where access to IVF clinics is not always easy.
“If you are in Gander, Newfoundland, or in the Northwest Territories, where you have flown to a clinic and come back, and you could open an app and connect to a medical professional who can help walk you through that process.… I mean, what an opportunity for increased access to care,” Dubé said.
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