Strike a Pose: Evvy Gets High Praise From Vogue

Evvy is revolutionizing the way the world views vaginas and the vaginal microbiome. The brand’s at-home vaginal microbiome test is finally giving women answers as to what’s up down there by decoding the vaginal microbiome and how it might be related to vaginal symptoms and overall female health challenges.

As the first company to use metagenomic sequencing in vaginal health testing, their work is a bold step toward closing the gender health gap — and Vogue took notice. Evvy was recently recognized by the legendary magazine as one of the startups leading the effort to destigmatize vaginal health.

Vogue has been broadening its coverage of women’s health care issues in recent months, publishing articles on everything from female incontinence to probiotics to postpartum sex-drive changes to the importance of pelvic floor exercises to eco-friendly period products. For the fashion bible, it seems vaginas are just as in style as Fendi monogrammed trench coats, Gucci shoes, and Balenciaga … well … everything.

Evvy Is Fighting for Female Inclusion in Health Studies

Women weren’t required to be included in U.S. clinical trials until 1993, according to Evvy, and it shockingly takes women four years longer than men to be diagnosed with the same disease. Evvy’s co-founders, Priyanka Jain and Laine Bruzek, found that unacceptable.

In July 2021, the Stanford graduates decided to launch their history-making business to totally transform how those with vaginas are studied, and to finally bring answers to women suffering with recurrent bacterial vaginosis (BV), yeast infections, urinary tract infections (UTIs), and more.

Most importantly, Jain and Bruzek, along with Vogue, want vaginal health to be something no one is too shy to talk about!

Evvy Is Giving Thoughtful Insight Into Vaginal Health

Seeking to provide people with vaginas access to data-driven insights on their bodies, the team at Evvy (which consists of top OB-GYNs and researchers from Harvard, Cleveland Clinic, UCSF, and more) is eager to educate and empower — one testing kit at a time.

The Evvy Vaginal Health Test is available individually or through a membership that includes one test every 3 months. It’s performed as a simple, at-home swab, which means you can keep track of your vaginal microbiome from the comfort of your own home.

Evvy’s results experience provides an interactive visualization of the vaginal microbiome and a detailed description of each microbe — including whether research has shown that any found microbes are related to broader health outcomes like fertility challenges, preterm birth, STI acquisition, and more.

All Evvy tests also come with a free 1:1 consultation with a certified health coach who is specially trained to walk users through their results, answer questions about the microbiome, and prep them to talk to a doctor if they need.

Evvy is Demystifying Common Vaginal Infections

Jain and Bruzek were tired of visits to the OB-GYN that left questions unanswered and repeated rounds of antibiotics that didn’t work in the long term. Bacterial vaginosis is not only the most common vaginal infection but perhaps the most misunderstood, according to Jain — and this is one of the reasons that treatments for it (usually antibiotics) often aren’t effective.

“Understanding the complete vaginal microbiome allows us to be good antibiotic stewards and only administer antibiotics when needed,” Dr. Oluwatosin Goje, who is one of Evvy’s top advisers, told Vogue. “Patients can also retest remotely to understand how antibiotics and other treatments impacted their vaginal microbiome.”

Vaginal dysbiosis has been linked to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and even preterm birth, according to scientific research highlighted Evvy. Jain and Bruzek aim to see more research and investment not only in vaginal well-being, but in studies of fertility, pregnancy, and other health challenges uniquely affecting women and people with vaginas.

Evvy has plans to expand beyond the vaginal microbiome and delve into other biomarkers, research, and products to understand and treat conditions in the female body.

Evvy Is Fighting for Transgender Awareness and the Vaginal Microbiome

Evvy isn’t only working to destigmatize the vaginal microbiome in cisgender women; the conscious company is considering the vaginal microbiomes of transgender people too, who are the subject of even fewer studies. In a 2009 study published in BMC Microbiology, researchers studied 50 transgender women who had undergone neovaginoplasty and found that like cisgender women, neovaginas also have a unique microbial community.

Evvy Is Making the Vaginal Microbiome a Global Conversation

On Evvy’s Instagram, the brand shared a U.K. survey that discovered in a group of nearly 100,000 women, 84% of respondents said they felt they were not listened to by health care professionals. In the U.S., it’s a place Jain and Bruzek have found themselves in all too often.

Jain told Vogue she’s glad to see taboos about vaginal health conversations starting to slip away. Jain is also excited to see more vaginal health coverage pop up on TV shows, TikTok, and a variety of other social media outlets. They’ve had multiple videos go viral featuring candid experiences about yeast infections, bacterial vaginosis, and experiencing discomfort down below with no explanation.

Vogue isn’t the only glamorous glossy calling out Evvy for its important strides in vaginal health care. The co-founders of the progressive health care company also snagged a coveted spot on InStyle’s The Badass 50 list. It’s an achievement Jain and Bruzek are proud of and they hope it continues to keep vaginal health and vaginal microbiome testing in the spotlight.

“It’s time that vaginal health, and women’s health as a whole, gets the investment it deserves on a clinical and personal level,” Jain told Vogue.