In Women's Health  ·  Member Conversation Recap

Why Fertility Patients Become Experts By Necessity

With Lauren Berson, CEO of Conceive  ·  March 2026

This week we sat down with Lauren Berson, founder and CEO of Conceive — and someone who has navigated infertility firsthand. The conversation was honest, practical, and a little bit uncomfortable in all the right ways.

If you missed it, here are the highlights. Then go watch the full recording — it's worth it.

The system isn't designed to support you. Lauren was direct: fertility care sits at the collision of a clinical education gap, a fragmented insurance system, and a patient population that has no choice but to become its own case manager. OBGYNs receive only a few hours of fertility training in residency. There are only ~1,300 REIs practicing in the entire U.S. And in many states, care is still classified as elective. This isn't a patient failure. It's a system failure.

You don't have to wait until you're 38 to get information. Lauren's case for baseline fertility testing — for both partners, early — was one of the most actionable parts of the conversation. A semen analysis. AMH. TSH. An antral follicle count. Knowledge is power, and most of this testing is more accessible than people think.

What makes Lauren's perspective different is the combination of lenses she brings. She spent years at Andreessen Horowitz with a front-row seat to the first wave of biotech and digital health investing. She then went to Weight Watchers to build out their sleep, fitness, and meditation products — getting a crash course in what safe, high-trust digital communities actually look like. And then her professional world collided with her personal one. Three years navigating infertility herself is what ultimately led her to build Conceive. Investor, operator, patient — it's a rare combination, and it shows in how she thinks about this space.

Lauren also walked us through a practical baseline testing framework — what both partners should actually ask for, what SART data is and why you should be pulling it before you even choose a clinic, and why the lab matters more than the doctor's bedside manner when it comes to IVF outcomes. This is the stuff nobody tells you until you're already deep in the process. We turned it into a checklist you can use right now.

We also spent real time on something the system completely ignores: the emotional side of this journey. Lauren was honest about her own experience — three years to have her daughter, the isolation, the silence. And she was clear that the dropout rate from fertility treatment is driven primarily by emotional burden, not finances or logistics. If you're in it or supporting someone who is, this part of the conversation alone is worth the watch.

On the Radar — Upcoming IWH Events

P.S. Two things worth knowing about: our Career Mastermind is open — if you're building a career in women's health and want a peer group that actually pushes you forward, this is it. And our Second Women's Health Reimbursement Summit is happening this June — virtually. Early bird pricing is live through April 17. Both are worth your time.