At first I wasn’t  sure how I felt about this website: Fertilomat.com Initially, I was mad about it.  I was mad because I believe it was just targeting vulnerable women who are concerned about their level of infertility.  But then I thought, well it appears to be combining a whole bunch of medical research and turning it into a user friendly format for women to interact with, that’s got to be a good thing.  This website has developed a ‘predictive’ model that combines data from various research areas into fertility, such as effect of BMI, alcohol and caffeine.  But the big problem I have with this website is that they are not transparent with how the model is developed or what the potential error is.  This makes me suspicious.

Plus their business model sucks.  They charge women 19 Euros to view a two page personal report based on 23 questions about lifestyle.  The questions are very simple, such as weight, height, age, alcohol intake, caffeine etc. Although I can see that this model may have taken many hours of research and cost them a bit of money to develop, I feel conned because the research that they do cite is free to download anyway.  I also wonder how the authors of all the various research reports being used feel about their data being used to make money from women in this manner?  The website could have chosen a different approach and made money in other ways, by advertising on their website, or charging medical practitioners to use their model.  Maybe I am just biased…

So as a matter of interest I paid for the two page personal report providing me with my fertility score.  Quite frankly I was very disappointed.  First of all because for some reason the form I filled in reset to my height as 4ft and weight as 55lbs.  I am 5’8″ and 130lbs, so the output was useless anyway.  Here are the two charts that were included in my 19 Euro report…

Depressing…

Of the two pages of My ‘personal’ report, I actually received 1 1/2 pages of report. 1/2 page was dedicated to repeating back my answers to the 23 questions, the other 1/2 page were the two charts above.  Then the last 1/2 was some text pointing out that my BMI was far too low (of course it was because the interface was CRAP and assumed I was 4ft and 55lbs) and my fertility score is below average, and next year it will decline.  It also told me that it was good that I was avoiding alcohol because 1 litre of wine in a week can decrease fertility by 60% (thanks, I read that in the free research report you cited).  It told me: ‘the fact that you don’t smoke increases your chances of getting pregnant’.  Ummmm no that’s not how it works!!!!  Then the last paragraph filled up space telling me that If I want to know more about my fertility I should see a doctor/gynaecologist to check for further tests such as ultrasounds.  And that was it!!!!

Simply put people, and as I suspected, this is a CON: Fertilomat.com But I am glad I spent the 19 Euros because hopefully now I can share this so other women won’t!