Some Women Are Self-Testing for Improvement

Farrah was fed above him really.

For the past two years, the 29-year-old dancer from Ohio has been struggling pelvic pain and the smell of nyin. “It was like an 8/10, excruciating pain in the middle,” she says. “I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t even work.” office work. It was bad.”

After seeing the doctors, he told them what he thought was to blame: an allergic reaction to the soy oil in the tub of water he swam in during a pirate-themed dinner party. But they didn’t believe him. He said: “They tried to fix it with antibiotics. “And it didn’t do anything.”

So Farrah (who asked that her full name be withheld in order to speak freely about her health) started Googling her symptoms. This is how he stumbled upon Neueve, a vaginal health company which offers supplements, suppositories, and home microbiome testing kits.

He ordered to be tested by the company for $150, and he came back with a diagnosis: aerobic vaginitis (AV), a bacterial infection caused by an increase in E. coli or streptococcus. He ordered a supplement recommended by the company, and says the pain subsided immediately. He said: “I was very happy to know what the problem was.”

Farrah is one of a growing number of women who have used at-home tests to discover for themselves the issue with the gut microbiome – the ecosystem of bacteria that grows inside the gut; presence of “good” bacteria. it is compatible with a lower risk of sexually transmitted diseases and other types of diseases, according to many studies. The industry was called out by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Bryan Johnson recently has been sent on X that he had just given oral sex to his girlfriend, Kate Tolo, then showed a picture of her TinyHealth vaginal microbiome report. She declared that she scored “100/100” and that hers was “in the top 1% of all vaginas” due to the strength of the Lactobacillus curlatusthe type of “good” bacteria found in the genital area.

Johnson’s thread drew widespread outrage, with many questioning why Johnson would publicly mention the health of a friend in such a way. But it has also received responses from women online who are tracking their genital microbiomes to treat bacterial infections, improve fertility, or simply for curiosity. Others posted their results as well.

The market for home vaginal tests for women is growing—TinyHealth, which Tolo used, says sales of the women’s health test rose 2,000 percent within Johnson’s first 48 hours—and companies like Juno Bio, which partners with Neueve; The UK-based Daye, and Evvy. But some experts believe there isn’t enough research to confirm the long-term validity of such tests. There are no home remedies on the market that are approved by the FDA. There are also questions about whether they empower women to take care of themselves or just increase their stress levels.

28-year-old Samantha (she asked not to be named because of her passion for the topic) became interested in vaginal swab testing after developing bacterial vaginosis, or BV. He ordered test equipment from Evvy at the suggestion of the Facebook group Beyond BV, which provides support to women with genital infections, and where they often post their results.

Samantha found her test results helpful, but she also noticed that the group had mixed feelings. For example, when many women receive their results, they tend to check if they have enough Lactobacillus curlatusor “good” bacteria in fact. “I read articles where women panic if they have 97 percent crispatus and then they’ll try again and they’ll have 60 percent and they’ll be upset and scared,” she says. The opposite is true. “Women will write about having 100 percent crispatus and other women in the comments will be like, ‘Oh, I’m so jealous, I have so many stories, I hope one day I can be you.’