Future of Fertility_Noelle Acosta: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Future of Fertility_Noelle Acosta: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Abby Mercado:
Hi, I'm Abby Mercado, an IVF mom, former VC investor, and CEO of Rescripted. Welcome to The Future of Fertility, a podcast dedicated to shining a light on the entrepreneurs and innovators who are changing the face of family building. With billions in funding over the past few years, we'll introduce you to the people, the ideas, and the businesses that are changing the fertility industry and in turn, millions of people's lives. The future of fertility is bright. Now let's get into it!

Abby Mercado:
Noelle Acosta is the co-founder and CEO of Noula Health. Noula is for birthing people who want to better understand and take care of their bodies, making personalized reproductive health information and support more accessible through affordable at-home precision health testing, digital care plans, and one-on-one coaching from experts. I love it when a cold LinkedIn outreach leads to an actual meaningful relationship, because that's Noelle and my story. Yes, I was the culprit, the cold outreacher. Anyone who knows Noelle knows that she, A, has a heart of gold and, B, is on a mission to completely upend how we think about reproductive health. With that, I would love to, to welcome Noelle to the podcast today. Welcome, my friend!

Noelle Acosta:
Yes. Thank you so much for that intro, Abby. It was, I was literally just beaming with smiles like, you are so incredibly sweet. It's an honor to be on this podcast, thank you for having me. I love how we were able to connect through this cold outreach on LinkedIn, and I'm always just so inspired by wonderful and inspirational founders like yourself. So it was a no-brainer to take it, to connect with you in the first place.

Abby Mercado:
See? You hear that, fans? She is the heart of gold already coming through. So, Noelle, welcome! Let's start out. I'm so excited to just hear about your path and more about Noula today and just share your amazing story with our audience. So first things first, tell us just all about yourself and I would love for you to dive into kind of one fun fact that we might not know about you if we look on your LinkedIn profile or read a little bit about your founding story in Noula.

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, again, my name is Noelle, I'm the co-founder and CEO of Noula. I've always been very passionate about women's health, so I, a little bit about me. I, initially, I actually grew up in the Bay Area in California, was living in San Francisco for 13 years and recently became an East coaster, so relocated to New York last fall.

Abby Mercado:
Oh oh!

Noelle Acosta:
I know and.

Abby Mercado:
I feel like seeing more and more of that in the tech industry. It's like, you know, many of us are bi-coastal. Actually, I'm not, I live in Denver, but a lot of people are leaving asap. So you go to New York and Miami is super hot. So anyway, you got a winter ...

Noelle Acosta:
I was actually very excited about the snow because also apparently only West Coast to say it's the snow, but, that's what I've been told. But it was a really fun winter, it wasn't as bad as I anticipated, but it was actually really funny because I realized I never truly had a coat. And it was like, no wonder I'm so cold in San Francisco all the time. Like my version of a coat was not a real coat. And so, yeah.

Abby Mercado:
Like an anorak or something?

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah, exactly, so.

Abby Mercado:
Protect yourself from the fog of the bay or whatever they say out there.

Noelle Acosta:
Right, ... the fog. So, yeah, I grew up in California, born and raised. I'm half Mexican, half Filipino, first-generation college grad. And so how I actually supported myself throughout school is through my own entrepreneurial ventures. I'm also a huge dog lover, so I actually started and sold a subscription box company for pet owners before Instagram was even a thing and grew my, my user base to over 100 mobile subscribers and it was becoming too much while trying to manage the logistics of that and taking genetics and cellular, cellular neuroscience, I was like, okay, this is too much as a pre-med student. And so I ended up selling off my client list to a competitor, and that was really my first taste of true entrepreneurship.

Abby Mercado:
That's amazing! So that was in college?

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah, I sold it at 21, so and then I was a dog walker for people like wealthy families, like just go-getter, and that's how I supported myself.

Abby Mercado:
And that's an amazing, that's an amazing foray into entrepreneurship. Did you have your own dog at the time or were you just like.

Noelle Acosta:
Yes,

Abby Mercado:
I love all the, okay, okay.

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah, I did, I did. But really, a fun fact about me is I'm a self-taught surfer, so I taught myself how to surf in my twenties and my partner and I, we've been surfing up and down the California coast. We got a bunch of our friends to learn how to surf too, so we just formed this group of surfers. Obviously, we're not doing much of that in New York, and so it's definitely something we miss, but we do love the energy vibrancy of the city here.

Abby Mercado:
Amazing. Okay, so tell us, like what, what happened, what you put yourself through college, you were an early entrepreneur. Like you got an exit, like, amazing. Okay, so what, tell us about kind of your career path after you did that. Was it a partnership or bust? You know that you work for a large company? I don't know. Maybe a leading question.

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah. So as I mentioned, I was a pre-med student. My goal was actually to become an OB-GYN. And truthfully, I did the complete opposite, being in San Francisco at the time, I decided to go into tech sales, which was obviously the complete opposite of medical school. And the reason for that was because once I actually shadowed one OB-GYN specifically, I honestly was spooked. This person warned me saying, you know, I'm so burnt out, this isn't worth it. You don't work for patients, you work for insurance companies. And it was just so clear that they were so exhausted by the system. And, you know, again, as someone who supported myself through school, the thought of incurring not much debt, to be in a position where I could be unhappy made me question kind of my career path. And so I finished school and scratched my head like, okay, what am I going to do?

Abby Mercado:
Initially, what initially was like made you want to take that path and just like made you interested in being an OB-GYN?

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah, I've always, you know, since I was a kid, I was just always interested in how the body worked. I remember even just sitting with my dog as a child, wrapping my dog up in like that, like gauze and just pretending like I was the doctor.

Abby Mercado:
I was sure the dog loved that.

Noelle Acosta:
Yes. So it was just always something that really interested me. I really wanted to be in a position where I could make an impact in the world, and I felt that becoming a doctor would fulfill that for me. And I've also been very interested in science, like I'm actually a huge nerd about genetics right now. So naturally, I decided to pursue pre-med and wanted to move on the path to going to med school. But after those events, you know, I thought, okay, maybe this isn't for me. My stomach is actually a lot weaker than I thought it would be after taking anatomy lab, ....

Abby Mercado:
Dissecting frogs or what have you. No, you didn't do that. No?

Noelle Acosta:
Well, like, actual humans.

Abby Mercado:
Actual humans. Oh, Jesus. Okay, wow. Yeah. That's crazy! Obviously, I was, like, a history major. Like, this is, like, so different. Anyway. Well, thank you for putting things to make our world better.

Noelle Acosta:
So that really, you know, I've always wanted to be a doctor, and I have cousins who are doctors too, and just kind of seeing what they were doing, I was always just very inspired by what they were able to accomplish as Mexican women. And so that was something that I was like, I want to be just like them. And then, you know, obviously that turned completely upside down after my experience shadowing those physicians. And so I went into tech sales and my, I went in saying, okay, I'm going to do this for a few years, save up for med school, and then I'll go to med school. I ended up loving working in go-to-market organizations within startups. So the very first company I joined was a tiny startup, there was literally four of us in a tiny room in a business park, and it was just so exciting being able to contribute to the growth and scalability of that company. And I built my career doing that. So built my career leading and scaling sales and business development teams at a variety of startups from B2B SAS companies to digital health companies. Most recently, before Noula I was at Maven Clinic, the largest virtual clinic for women and families and, and help scale their team. And, and it was just such a wonderful journey, and so I didn't look back. But really my passion for women's health was reignited after my own struggles with a chronic reproductive health condition that I felt went on for too long without answers and where I truly felt like I was the one in five women being dismissed in their provider's office. And I was someone who had wonderful access to care be in the Bay Area. I had.

Abby Mercado:
I'm like working for Maven, right?

Noelle Acosta:
This is before Maven. But yeah, I had wonderful employer-sponsored health insurance. And yet when I was going to the doctor, you know, I felt like my experience was extremely transactional, it was impersonal, and the, there wasn't any kind of, there wasn't even a push to just understand what was going on with my body. It was like, here's a prescription for birth control, that was not working, okay. Let's write you one with higher estrogen, and it was just kind of like the cycle of here's a new birth control prescription, here's a new birth control prescription. And first, I mean, I hope you don't mind me sharing too much, but.

Abby Mercado:
No, really. ...

Noelle Acosta:
What it was, yeah, really what prompted it was I had switched birth control methods. So I went from an IUD and decided I'm just going to go back on the pill. And after I did that, I began menstruating for seven months straight.

Abby Mercado:
And that sounds like utter and complete, oh, I'm so sorry.

Noelle Acosta:
... But it was, you know that, it truly was, and we know that reproductive health impacts every aspect of our lives, it's more than just physical, and it truly disrupted my life in every way possible.

Abby Mercado:
I also like how you're already like in the early stages of this podcast, talking about, talking about reproductive health, like not as it relates to like having a baby, having a family. This is actually something that you experienced, I think, in your twenties, and you were like, okay, this is a reproductive health thing that is affecting my lifestyle, like how I live every single day. So when we, like when I talk about reproductive health and, you know, people who don't know a lot about reproductive health, who have it easy, they're like, oh, this is like all about having babies. Like, no, this is not, it is so much more than that. So anyway, go on, .... that little.

Noelle Acosta:
No.

Abby Mercado:
Little ... I ... Thing ...

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah. So and it got to the point where my cramping was so bad and painful that some days I couldn't stand up straight. I constantly had a heating pad like glued to me. I was popping more ibuprofen than I should have just to get through the day. And I remember having to vomit in the office from the pain. I had chronic migraines, and yet when I would go to the doctor, the responses were, you know, some people just have longer periods or more painful periods than usual. Just take Tylenol, uhm, that birth control is not working, let's try a different one, without actually understanding, like, I didn't have a single hormone panel done to see what was actually causing this issue, it was just like, here's a prescription. And so like 70% of millennials, I ended up turning to Google for support as my medical opinion. And actually, it was after I had a male gynecologist tell me, ... table, if you think you're in pain now, sweetie, you have no idea what you're in for when you give birth.

Abby Mercado:
Stop.

Noelle Acosta:
And, yes, it gets better. And so I was like, okay, maybe this is just the way my body is supposed to be. And I went through this emotional roller coaster of, is this in my head? My doctors don't seem to care, so clearly, maybe it's not that big of a deal. And this is just the way I'm supposed to be, because I've always had a history of irregular periods. And I remember we had a few friends over and it was for Friday Happy hour, and I fell asleep on the couch and didn't wake up till the next afternoon because I was so fatigued from this. And my friends are generally very concerned, so I finally went back and advocated myself. I was reading tons of medical journals, doing so much research online, trying to figure out what the hell is going on with my body. And so I went back to the doctor's office, essentially self-diagnosing myself, saying, hey, I think I have fibroids, cysts, endometriosis, I don't know, but I demand an ultrasound. And it turns out I had 45 cysts on my left ovary.

Abby Mercado:
Stop it! That sounds like a lot of cysts.

Noelle Acosta:
Just a bit. And even at that point, you know, my doctors scratched their head and said, well, I don't know why your birth control isn't working, so since you didn't have a problem with your IUD, let's put another one in. And when you're ready to have a baby, call us because you're probably going need fertility treatment. And as you said, I was in my twenties, at the time I was not ready to even start thinking about having a family. So I was extremely frustrated because I felt like my health didn't matter until I was ready to bear a child. And what if that wasn't on my horizon? Like, does my health? Is that not as important as if, you know, when I'm ready to have a baby? And so I ...

Abby Mercado:
... An IUD. That's, you know, an IUD is kind of a big deal. Like, it hurts. It really, really, really hurts. I just got one, no fun. No fun.

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah, no fun. So that was the end of my care. And to this day, I haven't received any additional support for my PCOS. It's really just been up to me, and that was in 2019. And so after that experience.

Abby Mercado:
And also I just want to point out that like, I mean, you had training in college to read medical journals. I'm like, probably like super preliminary training. Like you didn't go to med school, but like, you probably took biology classes where you were like, okay, I have to read this thing and I have to interpret it like, we're not all like, privileged. Like, I'm just going to go out and read a medical journal, like that is uncommon.

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah, exactly. And so I was in a position where, and my partner is actually a chemist, so he can also even read like the methods and say, okay, this seems this study seems more just credible than the other because their sample size was larger, here's the instrument they use, this has a more, he walked me through like all of this, all of like kind of the, the instruments that they used and the accuracy and so on and so forth. And so the fact that he even had that access to an analytical chemist was something that most people don't have, right? So, you know.

Abby Mercado:
There's not, not a dating app like meet chemist.

Noelle Acosta:
Meet a chemist. So like, maybe that's really spicy.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Looking forward to having coffee with you!

Noelle Acosta:
So I thought, you know, if this is my experience of someone who had access to high-quality care, how to know how to advocate for myself, and also had greater health literacy than probably the average woman in birthing person, I can't imagine what the average woman goes through who doesn't have those, especially women of color like me, who face greater access barriers to care. And so I knew I wanted to change this for the better. And I joined Maven Clinic on, I wanted to learn as much as possible, I wanted to be surrounded by like-minded individuals who care deeply about this mission, and I spent about almost two years there and then left to build Noula.

Abby Mercado:
Oh my god, okay, so, so tell, share, share with us how the, the idea came across and what was, what was that moment when you said to yourself like, Noelle, I think it's time to leave Maven this rocket ship. Like, I think this, actually this is an amazing company, but I think there's actually something like missing, like that can be additive here that I should go. Like tell us about kind of the theorizing around early Noula and what kind of gave you the strength and the confidence to leave and just start this?

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah. So with that, really, I found myself, honestly, like me, reading all the medical journals was probably kind of the first indicator. It was like, okay, one, the system is inherently designed to work against us, not for us. It's very reactionary, not proactive. And so I knew, it's also not built to recognize me as an individual, it's built to kind of be very like, I guess like one size fits all, when it comes to an approach to care. And so from me reading all of those journals and trying to figure out what is my unique body telling me was the first indicator, because I found that that is what a lot of companies and, and health solutions are missing is they're not designed based on our individual makeup and our total health makeup. So beyond just physical but emotional, mental, even like our family history, things like that, so that's one aspect that really influenced Noula's roadmap and what it is today. The other piece was having the empathetic support. It was an incredibly isolating journey that I was left to navigate on my own and really no one knew could relate to what I was going through. And so I knew we needed to also build a better support system to support women through these hard times in their, in their care journeys, and so that was kind of the initial prompt. And I initially was very laser-focused on pre and post-natal health because despite us being one of the most industrialized nations in the world, the US has the worst maternal mortality rates and Hispanic and black women specifically are 3 to 4 times more likely to die from childbirth-related causes, yet 60% of these deaths are preventable. So that was like my initial thesis was like, let's go there and tackle this problem. But with, when I decided to take the leap, you know, I had been noodling on this idea of Noula and, and knew I wanted to build something to address a problem that I face that I know so many other people face too. But honestly, the catalyst was a very personal one. I, last January I had a scare with a potential brain tumour and I remember sitting in the ambulance and this was during COVID, so I was transferred, I was being taken to the UCSF in an ambulance by myself. My husband couldn't come with me and I remember I don't know why this stuck with me so much, but I remember seeing a streetlight and it was like 2 a.m. and I remember seeing the streetlight through the window of the ambulance. And that immediate, the first two thoughts that came to my mind was like, there's so much more that I want to experience in life with my partner and that, and no, I could leave this earth as making an impact or as a cog in the wheel. And so I told myself, you know, if I can, if I make it through this, I'm going to do something to change the world, even if it fails, at least I try, and so luckily.

Abby Mercado:
That's holy hell, Noelle, what a story.

Noelle Acosta:
Okay, so luckily, I don't have a brain tumor. So I had a, had a massive seizure. The seizures that, that I had are typically linked and tied to brain tumors. So they initially thought, you'll probably never happen again, so don't worry about it. And last winter, I was diagnosed with epilepsy, adult-onset epilepsy. So that was truly the best-case scenario. Like, manageable, but that moment was truly like the catalyst for me to say, okay, look in the mirror and look ahead over of your future, like, and so I decided, okay, I'm going to make the decision to do this full time. I tried to save up what I could.

Abby Mercado:
Okay, I'm glad, I'm glad you're touching on this. This is exactly something I wanted to touch on. I feel like the audience that we see for this podcast is varied, but I feel like, you know, a lot of who, you know, I personally want to talk to is like the aspiring fertility entrepreneurs. Like, there are just so many problems in this space, so anyway, like, as somebody who like, how do you plan to start your startup from a financial perspective? Like you still have to eat? You have to pay your rent. Like how, you just like, how did you think through that?

Noelle Acosta:
It was incredibly hard. And, you know, I was, and I hate to say this, but like the to start a startup, you know, I find that oftentimes many founders do have this cushion to support them. I was fortunate enough where, you know, having my career in tech sales as a sales leader allowed me to be in a position where I could set aside some money, but it wasn't like I had a year's worth of quote-unquote runway to support myself. I saved up enough to give myself 3 to 6 months now.

Abby Mercado:
Oh, yeah. So, so hard. And with these things are like, how much of your own money have you invested? Like, literally all of it.

Noelle Acosta:
My life.

Abby Mercado:
My whole entire life.

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah. And it's funny because one of the very first investors I talked to, she told me you should be raising your first half a million from friends and family. And I was like, I don't have that access to capital, because oftentimes, even with friends and family grounds that they need to come from accredited investors, which requires a net worth of 1,000,000 dollars. I don't know anyone in my life with that net worth. ... So so, you know, truthfully, a lot of it came from grit and a lot of it came from luck. So I biked all around San Francisco because I couldn't drive anymore. So I biked all around San Francisco, because of their epilepsy.

Abby Mercado:
Oh, wow. These ... played against you.

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah. So I biked all around, chasing down people to see if they'd be willing to talk to me and see if, like, is this, to learn about Noula, and kind of my or just interview people. Like, can you just tell me about, like, what your experience was like? Because I wanted to see is, was my experience in the doctor's office a fluke or is this a very common theme amongst women ...? And it was I interviewed over 250 people, and despite none of our stories being like alike, we all had similarities in our frustrations and feeling like we were left to fill the fragmented pieces and gaps in care ourselves. So I was like, okay, I'm on, I think I'm on to something, and I applied to accelerators. I applied to YC like four times and got rejected every time.

Abby Mercado:
You hear that YC?

Noelle Acosta:
Yes.

Abby Mercado:
You missed out.

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah. But I connected with an accelerator called Visible Hands and met them and got in. So that was truly the way for me to leave my job and try to build Noula. And so that started September of last year and it was a three-month program, and I said, okay, there was a small investment there, so that gave me an extra three months, so, and that can be September through December. And then I was like, I need to raise by end of February, maybe end of March max, or I need to go back into the workforce. And so that's what we did. And we did it! Yeah, we raised an oversubscribed pre-seed round of $1.4 million dollars, which made me it makes me one of less than 100 Latina women to ever raise a million dollars. And we did that in a short period of time, pre-revenue, pre-product, as a solo founder and just really painting my vision. And so I feel incredibly fortunate to be in this position, but it was hard.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah, yeah. So tell it, tell us kind of what you how, how have you used the money that you've raised to create the products, that tell it? ...

Noelle Acosta:
Yes, yes.

Abby Mercado:
Let's do it.

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah. So Noula provides personalized, proactive and data-driven reproductive health information and support. And again, we do that through at-home testing of key reproductive health biomarkers, culturally competent personalized care plans and dedicated 1-on-1 health coaching from experts. So that's the make of our beta today, so we use the funds to launch our beta product, our MVP, and bring on our founding teams. So now we are a mighty team of four and growing, we have, our folks on our beta are giving us wonderful feedback and testing the product. And what was most interesting is, I, I told you my initial thesis was we're going to support primarily pregnant people to start and then grow from there, it actually has been the complete opposite. We majority of our users, I would say over 70% of our users today are in this path of either they're currently trying to conceive or they are thinking about their family-building future, saying, okay, I know that I want to start a family maybe in 1 to 3 years, but I want to better understand my body so that I can understand my options from there. And so that's truly the biggest makeup, is, one, they want to understand their hormone health to make informed decisions about their health care journey, and they're coming to newer for that. And so that feels just, you know, I think it's a testament to you, again, how we are not alone in this and people are seeking support outside of their doctor's office. And I mean, it's, it's understandable. It's understandable because, you know, the healthcare system is also designed to work against physicians. They're burnt out, only 50% of counties even have access to an OB-GYN, and the average appointment length is less than 15 minutes. So your time with your provider is very little and you can't truly receive the individualized empathetic care within that time period.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah, yeah. So tell us a little bit more about this concept of full health as it relates to reproductive health. And I'd like to understand specifically some of the biomarkers that you guys are testing for that are unique, like that, you know, an average doctor might not test for, might not have time to test for, might not think about testing for it, might not have a code to test for, so on and so forth. Like why does full health matter and how does how does Noula address it?

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah. So it is incredibly important because we, we know, as I mentioned, like we know that no two journeys are alike. Like if we were to compare, you and I were to compare our medical history, it would look wildly different. Even our goals are probably different, our makeup is entirely different and our cultural backgrounds are different, which has an impact on our health. And so why is it that we are okay navigating our health in a system that is truly designed to support white men? Like it wasn't until 1991 until women were required to be in clinical trials. So there's so much unknown about our bodies and our bodies as women and birthing people should not be in the .... And so we really wanted to help empower patients and their physicians to understand the whole you, to provide personalized treatment and proactive care, to guide them in their journey so that the bedrock of care is truly preventative versus the way the system is where health care is designed to treat diseases, not people. And so that has been our.

Abby Mercado:
Sick care.

Noelle Acosta:
Sick care, right, yeah, exactly. And so what can we do to empower us to proactively get ahead of our health, take care of our body so that we don't, we're not in a position where we're in pain or we are dealing with a chronic condition until it's too late, for example, or a disease, you know, And so that's really our goal. And for Noula specifically, today we're testing four key biomarkers that span across different hormones. We look at heart health because, and heart disease is actually one of the number one killers for women. Also, over half of American brown people go into pregnancy with poor heart health, which in turn has an impact of your total maternal and fetal outcomes. We look at key vitamins because oftentimes we're deficient in vitamin and we look at specifically your thyroid stimulating hormone because one in ten women will develop a thyroid condition at some point in their lives. And so we want to empower you with a full picture of your total health and well-being so that you can understand it and work with your care providers on the proactive or even, you know, do need to be treated, like the right treatment plan to get ahead of it. And so we actually have had a couple beta users who, because of Noula, they were able to work with their doc, they .... Also their doctor. And we're diagnosed with hereditary thyroid conditions. And because of Noula, we were able to flag that early before it started impacting other parts of their bodies, like their heart, and they were able to work on preventative treatment plan. And now that treatment plan is in Noula and they're using you to actually take care of their bodies.

Abby Mercado:
... Okay. So, so somebody gets, so test kits into somebody's home, they fold blood, they do a finger prick, they send it back to you guys, you test it for a bunch of things, and then they're provided with their results. And for the next step for the consumer is they take it to their doctor, like, what's kind of ...

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah. ... Yes. So basically when they get the results, they can use Noula even before while they're waiting for their test kit to be to arrive because we do ask about their goals and their total health so that they can start actively using Noula from day one. They have a dedicated care coach who's there really as your empathetic expert to be your companion throughout your journey. So these are reproductive health experts, one specifically, she is an RN, so she's just been an incredible help for our users today, but essentially when you get your results back, we explain why we tested for, we did this even before, but you get a breakdown of what each biomarker means, how it's linked to your overall health as a woman and birthing person. If there are any abnormal ranges, like if something's high or low, we'll share okay, this is what it may mean. We cannot, we are not diagnosing you with anything, that's truly intended to be for wellness purposes. And then you have the call with the Noula RN or care coach to say, to kind of walkthrough. Okay, as your next step, talk to your provider about your results. I'm really empowering them to have those conversations and then they take their results to their doctor until and then go from there.

Abby Mercado:
And meanwhile, you're kind of proposing some, what kind of wellness plans through the application.

Noelle Acosta:
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So one example is we also measure vitamin D. So my test specifically said I had low vitamin D, so I worked with my Noula care coach to set a goal to go for 25-minute walk 3 to 4 times a week and to get some sun time. And so I've been making time to do that and.

Abby Mercado:
I don't mind this.

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah, it's also a nice break from like, take care of my mental health too.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah.

Noelle Acosta:
And so we create these custom goals based on our results and our own personal goals as well.

Abby Mercado:
And I also feel like, I mean, supplement brands are everywhere these days. I'm like, that's, that's fantastic. But sometimes they're not, like they're, like I'm not sure what I, like I don't, I don't know if I should take a certain supplement because I don't have the proper data on my body. But the Google, Facebook marketing engine is like, you need this, you need this, you need this.

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah.

Abby Mercado:
I actually don't know what I need. Like, what does my body tell me that I need?

Noelle Acosta:
I keep getting ones that are like your clock is ticking. You should think about this.

Abby Mercado:
And they're like, screw you. I know I work in reproductive health, relax. Oh, my goodness. So I want to spend a bit of time just diving into culturally competent care. What does that mean? Why is it important? What does it mean to, you know Noelle, CEO, like, why is this important? Tell us, all the ...

Noelle Acosta:
Okay, yeah. So first, you know, in order, our, our mission is to deliver and foster equitable, accessible healthcare that actually puts you first. And so again, that goes back to how we're delivering on that mission, and so that's individualized care. And that also needs to include the diverse makeup of all the wonderful people here on this earth. And that includes we need to recognize that there are disparities in how our bodies react to maybe different, are susceptible to different diseases, are more prone to things like So, for example, like with my PCOS, I learned in a conference, not at my doctor's office, that Mexican women specifically have the highest phenotype or risk for infertility if they have PCOS. So that was, the fact that I learned that for my conference from like a doctor speaking on, on stage versus me being physically in the doctor's office was surprising because that shouldn't have been the case. And so we really want to recognize that whole individual and provide a safe and familiar space for all birthing people. And so we really lean in heavily with cultural competency and inclusivity. And so you'll notice that I'm constantly using the phrase birthing people. We actively do everything we can to create this safe space for people, recognizing how they identify, their goals, if they have cultural preferences, for example. So another thing too, is that, for example, Hispanic, Asian, Black, and Native American women are, have a higher incidence rates for gestational diabetes than white women. And what many physicians also don't know is there's a lot of corn in our diet, so we're eating more glucose than, than probably white women, and so these cultural differences do have an impact on our health. And then if you're not recognizing that and you're providing treatment like you need help here.

Abby Mercado:
That's like, what does that mean? Like, what does healthier mean? Like, do you know about my diet? Like, what.

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah, exactly.

Abby Mercado:
Is done? Like, what do I like? What are my preferences?

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah, people want to eat healthier. But for, even for me, like if you gave me a list of like, okay, you eat healthier, here's a list of foods is peas, kale, trout, cod. I like this.

Abby Mercado:
I don't even .... God.

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah. And then even just access to high-quality foods. So in the early days when I was doing customer discovery, I purposely wanted to talk to as many different people as possible across different genders, ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, locations, and I made an effort to interview women in, living in food deserts in Los Angeles. And so one Hispanic woman was sharing how she had these recurrent, recurrent inflammation, but she didn't know what to do about it because she was like the closest grocery store to me was the liquor store. So she, you know, and so all of these things and these social determinants of health are so important to understand, so that we can deliver better outcomes overall. I could go on and on about that, so.

Abby Mercado:
I mean, it's a, I know it's a key, it's a fundamental aspect in your business. And, you know, candidly from my, I see a lot of, just because we're a media company in the fertility space, like I, I know what a lot of companies in the reproductive health space do, in the hormonal health space and a sexual health space. And we are, we're not paying enough attention to this right now. Like it's, this is a, this is a bold mission that is just so needed in our space. We just, we're not talking enough about it. So I'm so glad you're grabbing the bull by the horns and doing your show. And I know that you're the leader to do it. So well, Noelle, this has been absolutely fantastic. Where can people find you if they want to get in touch with you?

Noelle Acosta:
Yeah. So I'm on LinkedIn, Twitter. I'm always happy to connect with anyone, answer any questions about reproductive health or if you're on your own founder journey, talk through it, because it is a hard journey to say the least. And we're stronger in numbers when we have a wonderful support system. Our website Noula.com. We're at Noula Health on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, so yeah.

Abby Mercado:
I forgot my one, one last question. So if you could rescript anything about the fertility industry, what would it be?

Noelle Acosta:
Accessibility and affordability.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah. Awesome. I love it. Thanks. So simple, so important, and absolutely something that we need to rescript so, well, Noelle, again, absolutely fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing your incredible story. So much grit, a little bit of luck, but a shit ton of grit too. So and I know that we will connect soon. And thank you again.

Noelle Acosta:
Thank you. It was such an honor to be down here. Thanks. Talk soon

Abby Mercado:
Thank you for tuning in to the Future Of Fertility. We hope you'll leave here feeling empowered about all of the exciting innovations taking place in the fertility space. If you liked today's episode, don't forget to click subscribe, and be sure to check out Dear (In)fertility, our popular podcast/advice column, where we chat with experts about all things fertility and fertility and pregnancy loss. To learn more and to join our free Fertility Support Community, head to Rescripted.com.

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