Are you being proactive about your hormones? Svetlana Kazantseva, CEO and co-founder of Strawberry Health, shares how a combo of home testing kits and concierge support is changing the game in women’s healthcare.

With curiosity, adaptability, and relentless problem solving as her superpowers, Svetlana reinvented herself while living all over the world—from Siberia to India, the UK, and the US. What do you do when you land in San Francisco with a toddler and a newborn, and a pandemic hits? If you’re Svetlana, you start a company and a nonprofit to help women!

Building her first company, PlumThyme, Svetlana connected with young women, and recognized the widespread lack of understanding about hormone health. She pivoted and launched Strawberry Health, offering innovative at-home hormone testing and concierge service to deliver results and recommendations for follow-up care.

We discuss the importance of making comprehensive hormone tests affordable and accessible, and life-changing impacts of early hormone testing, such as discovering reduced ovarian reserves that compromise fertility or low testosterone as a root cause of fatigue and low libido.

Svetlana shares how she and her team are empowering women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s to understand their hormonal status, get treatment for underlying conditions, reach their goals, transition through menopause with ease, and age in peak health.

TESS’S TAKEAWAYS:

• Standard blood panels seldom include vital biomarkers for hormone health.
• Healthcare plans and insurers generally don’t cover detailed hormone testing.
• Strawberry Health makes comprehensive hormone testing accessible and affordable.
• Understanding your hormonal health early can amount to vital preventive medicine.
• Strawberry Health’s home test kit addresses nine key biomarkers.
• The home test kit’s innovative blood collection device is painless and easy to use.
• You may have underlying health issues but not present with any adverse symptoms.
• Strawberry Health concierge support gives recommendations for follow-up medical care.

ABOUT SVETLANA

Svetlana Kazantseva is CEO and co-founder of Strawberry Health, empowering women to proactively manage their hormonal health.

A mother of two and founder of two femtech companies and a nonprofit, she comes to her work with a unique global perspective derived from living in multiple countries and knowing diverse cultures.

Svetlana has established a thriving community of business leaders in the Bay Area.

ABOUT STRAWBERRY HEALTH:

Strawberry Health is an AI-powered hormone insights platform, providing at-home testing kits and actionable results on nine key hormone levels. Members get personalized hormone baselines with concierge support to guide next steps in care.

CONNECT WITH STRAWBERRY HEALTH 

Website: https://www.joinstrawberry.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/strawberry-health/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joinstrawberry/ 

Meet Tess Masters:  

Tess Masters is an actor, presenter, health coach, cook, and author of The Blender Girl, The Blender Girl Smoothies, and The Perfect Blend, published by Penguin Random House. She is also the creator of The Decadent Detox® and Skinny60® health programs.     

Health tips and recipes by Tess have been featured in the LA Times, Washington Post, InStyle, Prevention, Shape, Glamour, Real Simple, Yoga Journal, Yahoo Health, Hallmark Channel, The Today Show, and many others.   

Tess’s magnetic personality, infectious enthusiasm, and down-to-earth approach have made her a go-to personality for people of all dietary stripes who share her conviction that healthy living can be easy and fun. Get delicious recipes at TheBlenderGirl.com.  

Connect With Tess: 

Website: https://tessmasters.com/  

Podcast Website: https://ithastobeme.com/   

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theblendergirl/  

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theblendergirl/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/theblendergirl  

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/theblendergirl  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tessmasters/  

Get Healthy With Tess 

Skinny60®: https://www.skinny60.com/  

Join the 60-Day Reset: https://www.skinny60.com/60-day-reset/ 

The Decadent Detox®: https://www.thedecadentdetox.com/  

Join the 14-Day Cleanse: https://www.thedecadentdetox.com/14-day-guided-cleanses/ 

The Blender Girl: https://www.theblendergirl.com/  

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Oh. Svetlana, I'm so excited to talk to you about strawberry health, but I want to start with your history, because I find it so fascinating how you have just constantly tried new things and pivoted and reinvented yourself and been open to things, which I think is, is so it's so in line with it has to be me, you know, whatever we're wanting to do. So you're originally from Siberia, and you moved to India when you were 21 so take me inside that it has to be me, moment where you were working in a hotel and kind of in a in a strange country,

yeah. Well, there is a story behind that. I moved there to follow my partner, actually. So it was the love of my life, and he got a job offer in India. Best

reason to move for the love of your life,

exactly. And I thought at that age, I thought that is so exciting India. I've never been there, and there is a chance to live there, like I should go and like we weren't married, and it wasn't that easy for me as a partner, to move with him, as I'm married a partner. So I had to find my own opportunities, and I did my research, and I found an internship for a hotel position like to work on the front desk of a hotel, high end luxury hotel where mostly European, American, Australian people are staying. And I thought, okay, that's not too far from like, where my partner's work is. Let's do it. So this hotel, they worked on all the documents on the visas for me. So I moved there as an independent person to do my internship. I got my salary there, and it was a very fun time of my life. So

is that where you kind of it got ingrained in you, this amazing customer service that you now have. Was that sort of a really great training in that part of what you do now?

Yeah, I definitely think there is this background is really shaping how I view customer service, because this wasn't the first hotel I worked in while I was studying in Siberia in the university. I did a summer exchange program in the US, and I also worked in a hotel.

Okay, so you had been in the US before, many, many years ago,

for three months, it was a very short term internship. And where was that? It was very junior, okay, yeah, it was a ocean front Hotel. Families were coming there to spend their vacation, yeah? Children, dogs, that was a

good place to practice your English. I imagine too. It was

amazing place to practice my English with little conversations every

day. Yeah. Okay, so take me to the next it has to be me, where you move to the UK, and then again, you have to pivot in another place. Let's start over. Oh, yeah,

starting over. I feel like it's part of part of my superpower. Yes, I've seen it quite a few times. The UK was was difficult one, um, even after India, I was still not confident enough in my like, professional English. Yeah, I was able to understand people, I was able to talk to people, but I wasn't confident enough that. Okay, I can enter the workplace and I can be like as a peer to everyone who is, like a native or has, who has been living there for a while, working there for a while. So I've got maybe a year of adaptation, where I was looking at all the opportunities there. I even looked at working at a local coffee shop at some point, just to get me familiar and confident enough, if being in the new environment. And

so what shifted for you then, yeah, like, where you were not feeling confident, and then, obviously, then you, you decided to sort of go all in, going, it has to be, me figure this out.

Yeah. Well, it was a difficult year for me. Um, I was initially, like, very internally focused. I was trying to, like, invest in my home interior. Like, what can I do there to make it more like comfortable for me? Because new country, like, everything is new. Like, we were dealing with their like, new. Bank accounts, new medical system, everything is new. So you try to find comfort in little things that you are used to be comfortable with, like home interior. I was cooking a lot, and at some point I decided, okay, I need to get out there. Like I'm going to get crazy if I'm just in this space with myself, and I started looking for communities, like local communities. I found the community of expat people, where everyone was a non native English speaker. So I joined this one. We were going to a pub once in a while, in the middle of the day, while everyone is working

day, drinking is always right with me, like an empty

pub and a group of like, non native English speakers practicing, yeah? It was amazing. I have great memory with that, and it really helped me with my confidence that yeah, like I'm here. I belong here. Yeah.

So in the UK, you worked for a startup, right? Yes. So was that the first time that you'd worked, you know, with something from the ground up, like, you know, I imagine that was amazing training for you. Then starting all of these companies that you've started, yes,

totally, totally. That was really helpful to get used to a startup environment. Yeah, what

did you learn the most from working there that's helped you now? Yeah,

I've seen how the company, it was a dating, dating app company, yeah, and I was there at the moment when they acquired another company, okay, I will see all the changes happening, like how fast they moved, like I worked on one thing one day, then I came in, okay, we are doing a totally different thing today, because we acquired this company. Like our tone of voice is changing, like our value propositions are changing. It was really helpful for me to see that entire company. It was a pretty big startup at that point, over 100 people were working at eight, yeah? Like, how fast everyone had to, like, align and work on a new strategy, execute a new strategy, like, new mission,

yeah. Okay, so your superpowers of adaptability and being able to pivot and and acclimatize, yes, were honed professionally in that environment. Totally, yeah, yeah, I love it. Okay, so let's go into the next it has to be me when you then moved to the to the US,

yeah, okay, that was a different one. So I spent eight years in London working for three different startups. And once I moved to the US, it was January, 2020, oh, yes, I had a

ride as COVID about to take over. Yeah, I

had a two year old at the point, and I was pregnant with my second child. My daughter was supposed to arrive in April. So, as we all know, what happened in March 2020, so one month, one month into the pandemic, I gave birth for the second time. I was left with nearly zero projects at my previous work, because once I relocated, I had to let some of the projects go. They weren't like transferable to the other country. And the ones I had, they were slowly dying because of the pandemic, and the world was going upside down. I think my mind went upside down too, and I decided that I need to pursue something I'm really passionate about.

And so what did you dive into?

I opened my first company in the US.

Okay, that that's a big deal. Like to start your first company in the middle of a pandemic, when there's so much uncertainty, you know. And I love this story so much because my experience of the pandemic was people went one of two ways. You either let it destroy you and let it unravel you, and doom and gloom, and this is terrible, and I don't know what to do, and just getting lost, or people just decided I'm going to be as productive as I possibly can, and I'm going to rise like the Phoenix, and that's what you did. So what was it inside of you that when it has to be me to do this, I'm doing this? Well, you've got a newborn baby on

top of it, and a toddler, right?

And in a new country. I mean, it's your story. You have such balls, like such courage. I it's just incredible.

Yeah, well, it took me a year, actually a year, while it's

still people going, I've got a dream to start something, and they're not doing it. Yeah,

well, you know, I won't throw all the things that people around me were going through. I was baking bread starters. I bought a sewing machine to start, like designing things for the first time in my life.

Oh, I did not do, I did not do a sewing machine during COVID, but anyway, I caught July, yeah, okay,

yeah, but that was actually the starting point for me for my first business. Once I got a sewing machine. Really tell me

more about that. Okay,

so a bit of TMI. I've got my period back after giving birth for the second time, yeah, and at the same time, I got a sewing machine, and it was a year without periods. It was more because there was pregnancy, pregnancy, breastfeeding, so more than a year without periods, and I was just terrified with the menstrual products that were like in my cupboard that I used to use before my pregnancy. They were smelly. They were so wasteful and so much plastic in them. I was thinking, there must be other way. So I was on a journey of finding like a perfect menstrual product for myself. At the same time, I got a sewing machine, and I was trying different like reusable menstrual pads, reusable menstrual cups, and I had this machine in front of me, and I realized, Okay, I've tried several different brands already. I know what's working in them, what's not working in them, so why not just like, create the perfect reuse of momentum.

Yeah. And so that was plum time. So you founded plum time, yes to to offer these reusable period pads and just decide you're going to be the solution,

right? Well, I started small. I started small. I started from my friends. So I created examples for my friends. I remember I researched materials in a Facebook group, yeah, seven group in Facebook. Then I went to Etsy to buy like patterns, seven patterns. And then I sent samples to my friends for them to try out and give feedback. I've got mostly positive feedback, just like I expected, some people were just not going to use anything reusable for their menstrual products, and that's okay. It's a niche product. I understand that, but I've got a lot of positive feedback from people who never tried the reusable menstrual pad, and then they were like, how. How come? I didn't know this exists and this is comfortable, and this like, you can wash it in a washing machine. You changed my life. Yeah,

my sister and my niece use reusable ones. Yes. I mean, they're really into the environment, and it's, and they love it, but you're right, it's, it's for some people, and other people are just not going to get on board. Right, right? Yeah, no, it's so incredible. So what did you learn inside that has it has to be me chapter with with plum time. Yeah, that's informed strawberry health. Now,

yes, I was trying to listen closely to our customers at Palm time. And at some point, I've heard a lot of questions about like, menstrual health, Hormonal Health, and me and my team of interns, we started to do social media content about women's health, which got so much response. We were even getting emails on our marketing campaigns as replies to our marketing campaigns asking to cover like particular, like symptoms of endometriosis, for example, or like PCOS. And I was looking at it and realizing, okay, I'm I'm selling menstrual products, but they're questions that people have are mostly about like, how do I get better care? How do I get answers to my health questions? And that's when, when it clicked. That's. I need to focus on this. Yeah, so

again, this superpower of adaptability and pivoting and being able to change and listen to the data and go, Okay, what does this have to be? What do I have to do? Is such a huge part of your story. So was letting go of plum time and morphing into strawberry health difficult for you. Or did you just look at the data and go, This is what it has to be?

Yeah. Well, I think it has to align from both sides to let go of one project and focus on the next one. And that was the moment. That was the right moment with plum time. At that point, we were at 83 retail stores in the US and Europe and Canada. Those stores were mostly independent, like eco friendly stores, or like independent natural grocery stores with pretty small orders, and as you can imagine, reusable menstrual products. You're supposed to reuse them, yeah, not coming back to buy them every month. Yes, and that was the problem for our business, yes, yes. Once we decided to go into big retail, that was the problem. Like big retail wants their customers to come back and researches the products. Yeah, that was the perfect moment to let it go and focus on the thing that I was thinking that I'm supposed to solve. Yeah,

so how did you partner up with the other Svetlana? It's like Svetlana and Svetlana. It's like the dynamic duo you had worked together at Plum time, right? Yes,

yes, we have. We get so many jokes about the similar name, yeah. How did you decide to work together because of the similar name? Maybe, actually, maybe we were drawn to each other because of the similar name. But that wasn't the main reason we we've met at a non profit. So in 2022 i co founded a non profit here in the Bay Area, which was helping women immigrants. So women, mostly women, because we were focusing on partners of work, visa holders, and those are mostly women moving to the US with their partners. And while working at that non profit, Svetlana joined us to volunteer, helping us build relationships with local companies, corporations, and we've got to work together initially in a bigger group. Then I noticed that all of the problems are getting solved when me and the others with loan are collaborating. So I brought you in Plum time, yeah, to help with the business partnerships there, and she is so passionate about women's health. She has her own reasons, her own stories, and it's really magical to work with someone who shares your passion or the problem you are solving. I think that this makes us such an efficient team.

Yeah, yeah. So let's talk. Let's dive into strawberry health, because what I love so much about it is that it's really preparing women in their 20s and 30s to have a really great perimenopause and menopause journey. It's also applicable to women in their 40s and 50s, of course, but I'm particularly interested in empowering younger women to really understand more about how their hormones are affecting things. You know, there's some wonderful stories in your community of younger women getting diagnoses that they would never have gotten, had they not gotten the home test kit with strawberry health and really been able to analyze and find solutions, which is so incredible, because I think so many people in there, so many women in their 40s and 50s are on the back foot. They've already got existing issues that have been left unattended to. So that's what I really, really love about what you're doing. So talk us through exactly what strawberry health is.

Yeah, just as you said, we are preparing women in 20s, 30s and 40s to understand hormones and how we came up with this particular like product offering. We were doing customer interviews. We were speaking to the age groups of like 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s as well, and women who went through perimenopause, who experienced symptoms and went through their own struggles to find. Solutions for their symptoms. They were saying, I wish I could understand my hormones earlier, before I got to deal with all of this disrupting symptoms. And we've heard this quite a number of times. And as women in our 30s and 40s like suplan and I, we were thinking, okay, like if this is such a common thing among women in 50s that they wish to to be able to learn it much earlier, why not help women in their 20s, 30s and 40s to learn about their Hormonal Health so they are prepared. They know what's going to happen. They have the data about their hormonal baselines before they even start experiencing symptoms.

Yeah, it's so important. So I go to your website and we How does it work? Talk, talk us through exactly how it works for somebody yes, you

go, yeah, you go, you go to our website. You click, join strawberry health, you answer a short questionnaire. You you go through the checkout process. Our first Harmon test kit includes annual membership, so you are making one payment, but you are getting your test kit, and you are also getting all the benefits that come with the membership, like additional concierge support, like we help you navigate, follow up, care, if needed, then you are redirected to a health questionnaire. So that's a pretty extensive questionnaire asking about your current situation. What are your goals related to Hormonal Health, if you have any existing conditions that you're aware about, if you have any tyroid issues, if you are on hormonal birth control, or if you're on hormone replacement therapy, because this is going to affect the results that you're going to see with your strawberry health test. Once you went through all of this, you receive your first test kit.

Okay, and let's talk about what's in the test kit, and then you know, how you, you administer the test, and then how you, you know you get the results.

Yes. So in the test kit. You receive everything to self collect your blood sample, and we use a painless device that is going to collect your sample like you stick it to your upper arm, you press the button, it makes a cut in your skin, and the blood collects to a test tube, which works great for people who are afraid of the look of the blood who may faint during the blood draw. So we were able to successfully serve quite a few people who had issues previously with blood draws. Yeah, it's

very easy with that device that you send out. Yes,

yes, yes. I love this device. Personally, I used it three times. Four times. I just used it for the fourth time. Yeah, and you ship your sample overnight to FedEx. I mean, you drop it off to FedEx and you ship it to the lab. So we've worked with the lab, which is certified to cover 50 states in the US. So the lab processes the sample, and then you get the results in your strawberry health portal. You get your numbers, and also the explanation what these numbers mean, how it relates to your ovarian reserve, if there are any possible signals of polycystic ovary syndrome, if there are any issues, we will we would recommend next steps to address any underlying causes.

I want to talk about some of the tests that are included in the comprehensive panel, the blood test that you're doing, because it's really amazing, because some of these things are not included in a standard panel that somebody would do with their general practitioner, you know. So it's just a more, higher level hormone test that really needs to be done. And many women are never getting these tests done, you know. So that's another really important piece of this. So can you just talk through some of the things that are included in the panel?

Yes, yes. Our comprehensive panel includes nine biomarkers we test hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, AMH, total and free testosterone. What else is there? Lhutanizing hormone probably test albumin to calculate free testosterone. And many women who want to understand their hormones were never able to get, like their testosterone tested for their healthcare provider, or get their AMH tested to understand their ovarian reserve better. So strawberry health is the first place for them to be able to see these hormone levels.

Yeah, it's so important because, again, because, and the other thing too is, is that there are a lot of doctors that are not qualified or knowledgeable to analyze those tests either or to help you determine what the next steps might be. So I want to talk about the doctors that you're working with that are on your advisory board that are helping you determine what this concierge service looks like as part of the annual membership. So as part of this annual membership, you get the test, you send your test off via FedEx, you get the results, and then the concierge service at Strawberry health will help you interpret this data. So talk me through how you and Svetlana determine who was going to be on your advisory board.

Yes, first of all, it was very important for us to work with doctors who understand the importance of hormones, because it's not every doctor, and even not every OBGYN doctor in the US. And additionally, it's important for us to work with doctors who are regular physicians, who are seeing their female patients and are hearing their concerns about hormones, but have a very limited toolbox to address those, because one of our goals is to help our members to better facilitate the conversation with their healthcare providers.

Yeah, so talk me through what that looks like on a practical level. How you would help me. So I send in my sample, I get the results back. Oh, alright, there's some levels that are kind of not looking quite right. What does that mean for me? So then, does it get emailed to me? How do I interact with the with the concierge service at that

point? Yes, you will get an email that your results are ready to view your results, you would need to log into the strawberry health portal for the like data protection security reasons, and there you would see your levels. You would see the interpretation and the recommended next steps if one of the next steps is to consult the healthcare provider. That's where the concierge can help to navigate the existing network of providers out there to find the right one who can address your particular situation.

So is that all done via email? Is there a portal online where there's Q and A's and blog posts and things like that. Like, how does it work in terms of understanding what you have access to as part of your yearly membership?

Yes, so we have an instant chat underneath your results. It's an AI powered chat, but it's personalized to your hormone levels to your age. So some basic questions that you have straight away, or if you want to better understand how, like, certain hormone level can affect your I don't know, chances of getting pregnant naturally, for example, this instant chat can help. But if you need a specific recommendation for a provider, it's done through email. So you would ask a question, and we would look at your case, and we would see who out there can help you address your issues, and we would recommend it to you,

yeah, so talk me through Dr Kendall cannon and Sarah watercolor and how they have informed the development of strawberry health and the kinds of information that's available as part of the membership and the concierge service, right,

right? So these two doctors, they are coming from, like two different sites. Doctor Sarah batter come she is running a smaller practice with physicians, and Dr Kendall cannon is a part of a bigger healthcare system Stanford Medicine, and this is really helpful for us to understand how different sizes of practices are addressing the concerns of their patients differently, also for us as a company, it's helpful to understand the billing behind these two situations, because hormonal tests are sometimes often not covered by insurance.

Yeah, yeah. So how do. We provide support in that sense, you know, for women that are from different socio economic situations, you know you you're tailoring support and what the next steps might be, obviously going to be different for each client, each member,

yes, yes. So our test kits are currently FSA and HSA eligible, and they are not insurance covered for their reason of transparency, price transparency. It's $250 for a test kit, and with membership, every consequent test is going to be cheaper. And what was the question, no,

just about how you support women from different socioeconomic situations, you were just talking about the insurance not covering certain things, you know. So what are you finding with that, with

members, right? So right now we mostly see people who are able to pay out of pocket for a hormonal panel. Yeah, yes, we understand that the need is much broader, and women from different backgrounds, different socio economic situations are can benefit from this service, and this is the next step for us to make it available to more people. Yeah, right now people are paying out of pocket and reimbursing it through FSA accounts. Yeah.

I mean, look, the membership is extremely affordable over a year long period, right? I mean, 200 something dollars, right? So, and you have access to this concierge for a year. So for example, it's great value in the sense of, you get the test kit, and your membership extends, and the value extends well beyond the test kit. So I get my tests done, and then maybe six months later, I'm kind of really absorbing what's happened, and I'm discovering that, yeah, there's some flow on effects and symptoms that are associated with these things, and I can keep asking questions, yes, that's correct. Keep getting support, that's correct. Yeah, it's amazing. So what's your vision for strawberry health in terms of it expanding? Obviously, because this is such a new company about what, how you will be expanding the value of the membership and what's available on your website, in the portal,

right, right? So some of the immediate projects that we are going to add to the membership is a community. We already have an informal community for our members. We did a couple of in person events for our beta members, and this is in San Francisco, in San Francisco and in Mountain View, we did two where people were able to meet each other and talk to each other about their experiences, what they were able to find out with strawberry health tests how they addressed their issues. So we've seen how people are really like turning into little groups where some of them are discussing hormonal acne, some of them are discussing like fertility and trying to conceive. The other group is discussing permeable symptoms and what they are doing to address them. So we are right now working on bringing more value to our members with the community, because we see the need women want to have the community to talk about, yes, women's health.

Yeah, it's so important. And what are some of the other things that you've got on the boil?

Yeah, so the next step for us as a company is to to get some B to B partnerships, actually, because testing is done in so many places, like fertility clinics are these days, are testing MH as as the first step of serving any new customer. There are doctors who are focused on hormones, who are doing hormonal tests before they were able to, like, intake their patient and address their concerns. So we are working in that direction.

Yeah, and so in terms of, like, your vision for this, like, you know, let's, let's just go pie in the sky for a second, because you constantly start things and and reinvent yourself. Like, yeah. What's your big dream for strawberry health?

Yeah, my big dream is for women in their 40s, 50s, to be educated about hormones, and I hope that strawberry health is going to play a big role in that, to live better lives, to be. Be there for their families to be amazing in the workplaces, because they were able to get the right help in the right time.

Yeah, there are so many great stories from your community. I just want to ask you about a few of these, because I want to ask about some of the others. You know. So Amanda, she's 34 and she discovered a reduced ovarian reserve, and was be was able to be proactive about her planning decisions, yeah, about having a family or whatever, yeah. And then you've got Melinda, who's then in her early 40s, who found out that her testosterone levels were low, yeah, and that explained her chronic fatigue, her low libido, and she's, I know she said to you, I can't believe I waited this long to get it checked, because she could have fixed it a lot sooner, right? And had a better quality of life, as you say. And then Dorothy's in her 20s, talking about how she got the PCOS diagnosis, and would not have happened had she not taken a test. So what are some of the tell me through some of the other stories you know that you're experiencing right now of women who are literally figuring some stuff out because of this one test.

Yes, well, the three stories that you mentioned are the most, the three most profound examples of what people were able to find out with strawberry health test. We started up recently. So we are like, we do not have a huge customer base, but from these people who did strawberry health tests, we've seen these examples where a woman was able to find out about reduce a very reserve, even though she did not have any symptoms, she did not realize that she may have this issue in your early 30s. And having this information is really empowering, because right now you're at the point where you can actually make something make some actions to address this issue, rather than suffering in like 10 years time with trying to get pregnant and not having any options. Yeah.

I mean, I think, Gosh, I think the the important part of what you just shared is that she didn't have any symptoms, right? And there are so many instances of this where you can be asymptomatic, and there are all these underlying issues which left unattended to progress into more serious things, and you don't want to let it get that far, which is why I'm such a big proponent of blood work every year. Blood work every year. But as we were saying earlier, you know that these, the some of these hormone tests, are not part of a standard blood panel, you know? So obviously FAS FSH is and Lh is, but some of these other things are not so such important stuff. So what's your favorite part about working on this,

seeing the real examples of how strawberry health, health has shaped people's lives. That's definitely what is motivating me to keep going to have even bigger impact on the lives of other women out there. That's definitely my favorite part of the work that I do,

yeah, yeah. So I, you know, I find this, this thing about being able to access stuff online, which is obviously why we, you were at Google Mountain View, right? Like, I love this trend of embracing telehealth, of embracing being able to test and send things off, and you can be anywhere in the country. So in terms of the it being in 50 states, like, how would we, you know, in terms of you recommending what the next steps might be? So let's say I figure out that, you know, I've got, I've got low levels of something, and you recommend that I go and get tested with this doctor or that doctor. How can you help somebody connect with the right physician or the right resource? For example, that's part of the concierge service, right? Yes,

it is part of the concierge service. Well, we do have vetted and trusted providers that we can recommend. In terms of telemedicine providers, there are a couple of options that our community has already used and already was able to get help from, like to name a few, media health or ALARA health in terms of in person support, because some members really prefer to see their doctor in person. Yeah, they mostly have our network in San Francisco Bay Area, and right now we are working on building this network of methods providers in the other. Places across the country, and I would say that, telling me this is solving a lot of solving a lot of problems,

right? Yeah, it really, really is. So what would you say to someone that's resistant to getting a kit and mailing it off and going, I've heard that these online things are just not trustworthy. And no, no, no, it's not for me, just like we had this barrier with people not wanting reusable period pads, right? What would you say to someone who's who's resistant to that?

We would invite them in our community to hang out for a while, to hear the stories, to see how other people's lives are being shaped by being proactive about their Hormonal Health, and let them decide if they want to resist it or if they want to be a part of it. I

mean, it's just a test. That's the other thing, like, it's not anything extreme or dangerous or crazy, you know, and you're not selling anything beyond that. That's the other thing that I love about this, right? You're actually just selling a test to get greater awareness and then the potential advice for next steps that's going to make your life better. You're not actually selling the supplements that people might take or the service. You know, that's what I love the most about this, is that it's just this, you know, whereas sometimes you enter communities and then wanting to on sell you all of these things, you know, and that is absolutely not what you're doing, which is what I love about you. It's just a very honest kind of as you say, you know, your main goal is just to help women empower themselves with knowledge, right? It constantly astonishes me how many women just don't know what's going on inside their bodies Exactly, yeah, and we just absolutely have to know. So getting the test for yourself, I'm just curious for you and Svetlana, like, Did you learn anything you didn't know before about your own health taking this test?

Yes, we just posted testimonial on our Instagram account this week. Oh, my question's

timely, that isn't it.

She was able to find out that her testosterone levels are really low, and she was suffering with fatigue and low energy for a long time, and she was really looking for answers, like she was going to her doctor. Was running iron levels, thyroid panel never she was tested for testosterone levels, and then they came out really low. That was the answer for her, Okay, this is where my fatigue, constant fatigue, is coming from, and she was able to address it. She's currently getting it addressed. For me, it's very important to know my baselines. I'm a data driven person. I wear like track and ring to track my sleep, my heart rate during my workouts, because I really, really believe in, like, knowing my data and making my decisions based on that. So for me, it's empowering to test my hormones, to see my levels, to know that I'm doing well, initially, eventually, when I move into menopause transition, I believe this is going to be a great support for me having this personal data set. Yeah,

oh gosh, it's Yeah. You just gotta know your levels, but the end of the day, and you gotta have them done every year, you know, because they just change. You know, so and so many women are tired. They have extreme fatigue, and particularly with hormonal changes and stress and, you know, young children, and then older children, and then perimenopause and menopause. I mean, it's just, there's just something, you know, all the time. So this, this fatigue can be corrected, you know, with hormone replacement, or with changes in nutrition or with lifestyle changes, and you've just got to know what's going on. So anyway, I just love what you're doing, and I'm just excited to see strawberry health grow. And I'm so excited I got to talk to you at the very beginning. I wanted to talk to you while this was still a startup, because you're the queen of the startups. It's just so unbelievable. So in that along that line, I always close every episode with the same question, which is, for somebody who has a dream in their heart and doesn't feel like they have what it takes to make it happen, what would you say to them,

who else would make it happen? If you have a dream and you have a passion and you see a problem out there like you are the person to solve it, like you can wait forever for anyone else to notice the same problem and to get the same passion. Um, but you are the person you are out there. Put your work where your heart is.

I love it because it's just so simple. And I love how you just constantly put yourself out there, so incredibly brave. And I find it so inspiring. Thank you for this lovely conversation. Absolutely.

Thank you so much for having me. I loved our conversation today. You.