Ep 280: Intratubal insemination: Another Option in Fertility Treatment

Fertility Docs Uncensored is hosted by Dr. Carrie Bedient from the Fertility Center of Las Vegas, Dr. Susan Hudson from Texas Fertility Center, and Dr. Abby Eblen from Nashville Fertility Center. In this special episode, they are joined by guest Kathy Lee-Sepsick, CEO and founder of Femasys, to discuss a promising innovation in the world of insemination: FemaSeed. FemaSeed is a novel device developed by Kathy and her team, designed to enhance the effectiveness of intrauterine insemination (IUI) by delivering sperm directly to the fallopian tube where ovulation is occurring. Using a specially designed catheter, FemaSeed allows targeted sperm placement—whether that’s the right tube, the left, or both—based on where the eggs are located. While the procedure is typically performed with abdominal ultrasound guidance, Kathy explains that it can be done without it as well. Though FemaSeed may cost more than a traditional IUI, it has shown encouraging pregnancy rates, even in cases where sperm counts are as low as 1 to 5 million, a group that typically sees lower success with standard IUI. It’s a new, accessible technology that fertility centers can adopt easily, offering hope to many patients seeking more effective treatment options. This podcast was sponsored by Femasys.

Transcript

Susan Hudson (00:01)

You're listening to the Fertility Docs Uncensored podcast, featuring insight on all things fertility from some of the top rated doctors around America. Whether you're struggling to conceive or just planning for your future family, we're here to guide you every step of the way.

This podcast is sponsored by ReceptivaDx. ReceptivaDx is a powerful test used to help detect inflammatory conditions on the uterine lining, most commonly associated with endometriosis and may be the cause of failed implantation or recurrent pregnancy loss. Take advantage by learning more about this condition at receptivadx.com and how you can get tested and treated, providing a new pathway to achieving a successful pregnancy. ReceptivaDx, because the journey is worth it.

Abby Eblen MD (00:00)

Hi everyone, we're back with another episode of Fertility Docs Uncensored. I'm one of your hosts, Dr. Abby Eblen from Nashville Fertility Center. And today I am joined by my interesting and intriguing co-host, Dr. Susan Hudson from Texas Fertility Center, and Dr. Carrie Bedient from the Fertility Center of Las Vegas. And we are also very lucky today to have Kathy Lee-Sepsick. She is the CEO and founder of Femasys.

Susan Hudson MD (00:13)

Hello.

Abby Eblen MD (00:24)

And we're gonna talk about an interesting device that she has patented in just a minute. But first, Kathy, tell us a little bit about you. You have some really interesting background information that blew me away just a minute ago. Tell me about the inventor in you and what you've done.

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (00:39)

Yeah, I actually underestimated that I would be this inventive, but I do have over 200 patents issued globally. And so my passion for women's health just keeps me going. And I keep thinking of new ways to improve options for women. it's just part of who I am.

I actually have over 200 patents issued globally and they're all related to the initiatives that we're working on at Femasys. And so it's an interesting fun fact that I'm actually the inventor of the technologies that we're advancing.

Abby Eblen MD (01:08)

So have a question for you. So If you get a patent on a device though, don't you have to get FDA approval for that as well?

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (01:14)

No, usually start with the intellectual property first. So you come up with these ideas. Once you put it out in public domain, you can't protect it. So you actually have to protect it first, and then you can disclose it, advance it. So all of this work was in the stages of starting the company. 21 years ago.

Susan Hudson MD (01:33)

What are some other things that you have patents on?

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (01:36)

I started the company for a non-surgical permanent birth control option. So it's quite similar to the product we're going to talk about called Femaseed. But in that case, we're delivering our proprietary polymer to women's tubes and we're leaving her with her own scar tissue as the long-term permanent blockage. We wanted something safe and something natural, as natural as possible to give an alternative to surgery. And then came Femaseed. So Femblock is the name of that product. And so you can see that we're working on things that are entirely different than that's ever been done before. And we're really trying to just bring something that women can walk in the door and walk out the door with their needs met.

Carrie Bedient MD (02:16)

So what is your background in training? Is it engineering? Is it medicine? Where, where did you get your start in all of this?

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (02:23)

So I'm actually a biochemist and then went out my MBA and I actually had thought pharmaceutical was gonna be my calling, but I had a stint in med tech and should have been an engineer, I guess, or a biomedical engineer that's common now. Those weren't the most common fields of career interests, but turns out I'm very inventive and yeah, took off from there.

Abby Eblen MD (02:36)

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I would agree.

So how did you develop your prototype for Femaseed or some of the other things you've done if you don't have a 3D printer and you don't have an engineering background?

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (02:57)

Yeah, so I worked in med tech for about 10 years before I started Femasys and cardiovascular and orthopedics, combining both materials, biomaterials, as well as more traditional med tech. So was very well aware of how we could prototype. We started out in my home. This is a true startup story. Finally got to our first facility. And now we are a US manufacturer and have been so for almost 15 years.

So everything's manufactured in-house at Femasys, which is another fun fact. I decided to go all in and make sure when we address these really big needs in the market, we do it the highest quality products and don't have to rely on countries outside of our own. And so that wasn't really in vogue as it is now, but I felt like that really having control over the process was really important. But yeah, I mean, it was traditional. I have 3D printers now all over the place, but back then there was a lot of mold and handholding. And I'm very clinical by nature, so I've been in a lot of cases and worked hand in hand with thought leaders around the country, both infertility specialists as well as GYNs in and out of the country, around the world. So this is, it's been a real pleasure.

Abby Eblen MD (04:09)

Well, that's impressive.

Carrie Bedient MD (04:09)

Now, does your inventiveness extend to your own house? So for example, if we walked into your kitchen, a button that you could push, as you're walking into the room, that by the time you get across the room, your coffee would already be started. The toaster would already be down with the bread in it. All of the little gadgets, does that extend to your regular life or do you keep it pretty compartmentalized of work and home?

Two shall not meet, especially once the business moved out of the house.

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (04:38)

I would say I'm more like a chef or a painter where you're really good at what you do at work and then you don't want to do it at home.

So I would say my home gets neglected, but work doesn't, because it seems to take a pretty high spot up on the list.

Abby Eblen MD (04:53)

One last thing and then we'll move on to our question of day. But I must say I'm a little disappointed with the answer to Carrie's question because I'm old enough to remember the Jetsons and I longed the day that I could be like Judy Jetson. I think Judy was a mom and she got to go on the conveyor belt. She got dumped out of her bed on the conveyor belt and she came out at the end and the hair and makeup and clothes are all done. I want one of those machines. So maybe one of these days you could work on that end of things, Kathy.

All right, well we better move on to our question of day. So Susan, what do you have for us today?

Susan Hudson MD (05:21)

Okay, our question of the day is, hi, thank you for your podcast. It's so informative. I'm a healthy 34-year-old female, no PCOS or obesity, G1P0, miscarriage at seven weeks. My partner is 37. After 11 months of trying with the miscarriage above, we underwent fertility workup. AFC was 15, no fibroids, polyps. My husband had oligoteratozoospermia, six million sperm, 2 % normal.

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (05:39)

Thanks.

Susan Hudson MD (05:48)

They were advised to proceed with ICSI, no IUI. They had one retrieval with 18 eggs retrieved, 16 mature, 9 fertilized, 6 blasts, 4 AA times 3, 4 AB times 2, and a 3 AA. His sperm count on retrieval day was 30 million with 30 % motility. No fresh transfer due to OHSS risk. My first medicated FET which was estrogen and prometrium was negative. What are my chances with the remaining embryos? Will I likely need a second egg retrieval?

Carrie Bedient MD (06:22)

She was on Prometrium?

Susan Hudson MD (06:23)

She was on Prometrium, yes.

Carrie Bedient MD (06:25)

And this was a frozen embryo transfer cycle. And if she was on estrogen, it doesn't sound like this was a natural or a modified natural cycle. And so I would say probably the first change that I would make would be your progesterone because the progesterone is what opens the window of implantation. And if you nail that, that makes it far more likely that implantation will occur. Far more likely is different than guaranteed because nothing in this world is.

The oral forms of progesterone tend not to be quite as helpful. And even the vaginal forms of progesterone, you have to be very, very meticulous and paying very close attention to make sure you're getting adequate exposure at the correct time. And so that would probably be what I would tinker with, but I think your chances of going forward and having success are very good, especially if you...if your protocol maybe gets a few shifts and granted there could be information about this that we don't know and so that always plays a part but that I think your chances of success going forward are actually probably pretty high.

Abby Eblen MD (07:23)

What do you think, Susan?

Susan Hudson MD (07:33)

I would agree that I think your chances of success are pretty high. Now, you did not mention whether or not you did chromosome testing on your embryos. Noting that you're 34, about half of the embryos you create are chromosomally abnormal. And so if you did not do chromosome testing, there was a 50-50 shot that this embryo really didn't have the machinery it needed to go on to be the healthy normal baby you guys are hoping for.

So, it sounds like you still have a good number of embryos, reasonable quality. I think you have great opportunities. I do agree with Carrie that I don't think your progesterone supplementation was what most of us would consider as ideal. That if you were taking the prometrium vaginally, I would still at least add injectable PIO, progesterone in oil injections, about every other day. To that, if you insisted upon doing that, what type of progesterone we use ebbs and flows with the times. I have not done the same thing my entire career. And I think it's because we get new data, new inventions are brought in front of us. And sometimes we have data that says something is better or worse depending on the time we're working in. And so I think a lot of us are swinging back to progesterone in oil injections for better chances of pregnancy and less risk of miscarriage. But I do think that you could use a combination, but just prometrium, especially if you were taking it orally. If you were taking it orally, I definitely think that was probably a major contributing factor.

Abby Eblen MD (09:06)

Yeah, and would agree with that. I although things have ebbed and flowed over time, I've been in this field for more than 20 years and pretty much progesterone oil has been the standard. Now, with that being said, like Carrie said, we don't know everything and maybe you are very averse to injections, maybe you had an allergic reaction. I mean, not everybody does exactly the same thing and we don't all have all the answers, but I do think most reproductive endocrinologists would recommend progesterone in oil.

I think if not, the other thing to consider would, if say you can't give injections or don't want to give injections, then things like Endometrin, which is a fizzy pill that you put in your vagina three times a day, or Crinone 8%, which is a vaginal suppository that you use twice a day, would probably be pretty comparable. And so that would be the second tier if you can't do intramuscular progesterone. But I think based on your age, even though I don't think your embryos were genetically tested, you still have about a 50 % chance of pregnancy next time around.

I would use all those embryos up before I thought about creating more at this point. All right, well, very good. We are going to switch gears and talk a little bit more to Kathy again about Femaseed. So Kathy, tell me about Femaseed. I really don't know much other than what Carrie's told me about Femaseed. So fill all of our listeners in on what that is and what it does.

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (10:17)

Sure, we set out to advance IUI and just take it the step further. Biologically, we all can acknowledge that conception happens in the fallopian tube. And so our goal was to bring sperm to the tube, particularly in this moment in time where there's a lot of discussion around reduced sperm counts. That's not something when I started out to advanced technology, people even acknowledge it was almost always talk about the factors and not really acknowledging the male contributing factor, which, in our research shows about 50 % of the time. So we set out to look to be that real first step prior to an IVF or an ICSI and just make IUIs tha tstep better.

It took me 10 years to get it through FDA. IUIs have been around for over 50 years. There's no prospective studies and we actually were asked to do a very large, multi-center trial that was in the neighborhood of, six, seven million dollars. And we went ahead and did that. And then FDA went ahead and cleared it. So we got it through the hurdle. Yeah, you can't predict some of these things. The end of '23. And we are just as a small company now starting to bring it forward through a team at the end of '24.

Abby Eblen MD (11:33)

So Kathy, our listeners, can you tell us a little bit about the way probably most people do IUI and how Femaseed is different than the typical way that most people would do IUI?

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (13:12)

Okay, so the way that Femaseed works is it's a true extension to an IUI. So it's placed very similar through the vagina, through the cervix, into the uterine cavity, but where it differs is we have balloon technology that goes to the opening of the fallopian tube. It is inflated, so it anchors there, and then the sperm is delivered through the catheter into the fallopian tube. And it gets enough pressure to cross over into the tube, which is a small opening. The other important part of Femaseed is that we load the sperm from the tip of the catheter. So almost all of the sperm exits the catheter. And so the balloon is sizable in size because the cavity is a potential space. So as the balloon inflates, really sits there and anchors. It's up to the clinician whether or not they want to treat both sides.

The device is mirror imaged on both sides. So after a uterine ultrasound monitoring, if medication's used and there's more than one mature or dominant follicle, after measurements and such, the sperm can be placed on the one side, the balloon deflated, rotated to the other side, positioned at the other opening, and then delivered.

Susan Hudson MD (14:27)

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Abby Eblen MD (15:01)

So just to clarify, so normally when somebody has, when they ovulate, normally they ovulate usually one egg on one side. So what you're saying is the beauty of this catheter is we can direct the sperm just to that one side where most likely that egg's gonna be. But if somebody's using fertility medicine, then you can put a little bit on one side and a little bit on the other if they have eggs on both sides, which is really different than what we use with IUI because we just put it inside the uterine cavity and hope it swims in the right direction, correct?

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (15:21)

That's exactly correct.

Abby Eblen MD (15:29)

That's awesome. That's a very unique way to do it. That's awesome.

Carrie Bedient MD (15:32)

So from the clinical perspective, how often, because we were one of the trial sites, and so we're looking at a lot of the logistics of doing this. And one of the things that I remember we had conversations about, and we have since, because we are still using the device, of course, we have since had the conversations with our patients about pain control and comfort with this. Because one of the differences is that there's, there's a lot more directionality to this instrument as opposed to an IUI catheter where you just put it in the uterus and cross your fingers. This goes in further, it extends into that corner and the beauty of it is that it goes right where it needs to. The flip side is that there's more manipulation and it takes a little bit more effort to get in and what the patient's going through as well.

When you've done the study, when you've been talking with clinicians, have very many people adopted doing a paracervical block where they numb up the cervix or anything else along those lines to help with comfort at all.

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (16:32)

So the Femaseed catheter is larger than a traditional IUI, but not as large as our FemBlock device that we started the conversation with for permanent birth control. But we are not seeing paracervical use. It's very, very low.

New guidelines have come out regarding pain management for IUD placement and we see this in different states like California has really adopted this and perhaps we're going to see it across the country. In the trial, we only had one or two situations where the device could not be placed. We are seeing advantages because it is a little bit more substantive in size that it is, many have commented, it's easier to pass into certain patients when they've had difficulty passing a very flimsy IUI catheter so that they can actually get the device into the cavity because of the substantive nature of the size of it. But no, we're not seeing increased use of any type of pain medication. Certainly that can be done, it's just not something we're seeing.

Susan Hudson MD (17:31)

When you did your study, were you looking for equal efficacy compared to standard IUI or were you looking for an improvement? What were some of your findings that would make somebody want to use this as opposed to the standard IUI process?

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (17:50)

It was really challenging when we started this project because no IUI catheters required any prospective studies. So nothing, there's nothing out there. And of course, when you look retrospectively at data, it can look any kind of way you want it to look. You you take it and you, represent your patient population in a way that...represents the data you're trying to present. So our study was prospective in design and we did reformat the study to look specifically at male sperm count. When we started the study, we were looking at everyone. We just wanted to help everyone, but in a study design situation, it was not really great because we had a couple patients in one category, a couple in here. So it was better for us to take a step back and say, let's eliminate the female part of this equation and look towards the male part because that's really what we're doing is bringing the sperm closer to where it needs to be. So from a study design standpoint for medical technology, it is very common to use what's called a performance goal study where you look at a historical control.

So we were able to go back in time and these were old studies and they were retrospective because all of them were and we were able to find a study that looked at your lower male sperm count looking at total motile sperm count at 1 million with no cap because back then it was like 30 years ago there wasn't really a good cap and the cap has continued to go down of what we consider normal with the new standards continually being updated. So we matched the patient population from that study, from an age standpoint, looking at no known fertility factor as closely as possible. And in that study, the overall rate was 6.7%. I think most acknowledge with more complicated sperm counts, it's low single digits. We did stratify the data to one to 5 million, five to 10, 10 to 15, 15 to 20. And 20 was, we put a cap at twenty. And we actually had a pregnancy rate of twenty two percent in the one to five million. So overall it was seventeen point five percent per cycle- so it was statistically significant against the historical control.

Susan Hudson MD (19:54)

Were you looking at, were these natural cycle IUI cycles or were they ovulation induction cycles? Were the women receiving medication for super ovulation? How did that part of the study work?

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (19:59)

Great question.

So we let the practices run their standard IUI protocol, but we did include natural cycles. And in fact, a couple of our pregnancies were natural cycles. My personal feeling is that there may be less medication use down the line. When you're doing a standard IUI, it's pretty typical to do ovulation stimulation. But here, when you're directing the sperm directly to the tube, perhaps we can use less and maybe there's even less ultrasound monitoring because there's less ovarian stimulation protocols and maybe there's a little bit of an adjustment. The other thing that we were seeing is we did run what's called a Kaplan-Meier analysis where you look at cumulatively, what is the likelihood of success at different cycle attempts. And we found that most patients, if they were going to get pregnant with Femaseed, would do so by the second cycle.

Most of our patients got pregnant on the first cycle. So 60 % of the study that got pregnant got pregnant on the first cycle. And then certainly by the second. The algorithm may change where instead of having one, two, three, four, five, six IUIs that we hear about, we've had a patient the other day that had 15 IUIs. She doesn't want to go to IVF, but maybe less moves them along in their journey quicker. And so overall, a significant time savings for the patients.

Susan Hudson MD (21:25)

How many people were in the study out of curiosity?

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (21:27)

It was over 200 patients that were analyzed. We had to stop the study early. It was, we're all, we were almost done, but, we got approval from FDA unknowingly that we were going to be able to change their decision. They classified the product is what's called a de novo. So nothing like it out there over and over and over again. And we went back and said, look, this is so safe.

And the data was showing that so they reversed their decision. We don't know of another company that has achieved that. And then we got clearance and it was about two years earlier than we had anticipated. But we ended up having to terminate the study, just slightly before it was completed in its entirety.

Abby Eblen MD (21:55)

Nice.

So if a clinician, a physician, nurse practitioner, PA is listening and is interested in getting this device in their office, is there training involved? If so, how is that done? Do you guys have reps? Do you have samples? How does that work?

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (22:21)

Yeah, so we do have commercial reps. We just started that at the end of 2024. So it's new to the market and we have training online so that everyone can do this at their own pace. We've had practices that have not had a Femasys representative there and have done the procedure successfully, but we always have someone available. We have a clinical team as well as a commercial team. So we're happy to come out and support the practices. Also have the patient as part of this journey. They're finding us, they're coming. When we bring up a practice, we are activating geo-targeting to make people aware, but you can't control social media. You can't control how people are finding out. So we are bringing and we're assuring patients when they come to us, we take it very seriously and we bring their voice and their referral to practices and say, look, here's 10 patients. We just did it the other day at a site in Texas.

I don't know why, but there was 14 patients that came through and we brought 14 patients there and said, would you like to do Femaseed and here are the patients that are interested in this procedure. We did get a broad label so they don't have to be infertile so that same sex couples, single women, anyone who wants artificial insemination by way of this new, method.

Susan Hudson MD (23:36)

How much does this add to the cost of an IUI procedure?

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (23:41)

We do not price the product. We sell it to the practice and then the practices are developing their own pricing. What I have seen out there is some have priced it at about $1,500. I've seen others go as high as $3,000. So it really is dependent on the practice and everything else they want to do alongside of Femaseed. We don't dictate that. If there's medication that's going to be used that's at a cost. If there's ultrasound monitoring that's at a cost. So it really depends on the patient and their doctor to decide everything they want to do related to Femaseed.

Abby Eblen MD (24:17)

How many people in your study used ultrasound? Because I was thinking if you're gonna do this, you really wanna make sure you get it in the right spot and you can't really do that by feel. So I would think most of the people in the study probably used ultrasound. Is that true or?

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (24:29)

Was less than 50 % that used once they started doing it they got really comfortable that it places exactly where we say it's going to place. However for the labeling to get it through FDA we have it in the label so that you should use ultrasound and so most use trans abdominal so just put a little probe on the belly and are able to see our balloon is filled with air so it's very easy to see. The insertion mechanism that goes into the uterine cavity is also very visible. And then as I mentioned, people are seeing sperm go right into the tube. So that's an exciting moment as well.

Abby Eblen MD (25:07)

Did patients need a full bladder for that since it was mostly abdominal ultrasound or no?

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (25:11)

Really great question because this is one thing that I kind of messed up on and I'll just own it. Because for our other studies, we always had the bladder emptied. And so for the study, we said, empty your bladder, empty your bladder, empty your bladder. And then when we came to market, we sat around with a lot of really smart doctors like why emptying the bladder? we're not clinicians, we're doing the best we can, but.

So no one's emptying the bladder now and it's way better, way, way, way better. So we had very little cervical anesthetic use and very little pain management protocols. It's all in our peer reviewed publication, but I think the full bladder really helped with that because the placement improved dramatically.

Carrie Bedient MD (25:51)

Do you see a difference with, you had mentioned that in the one to five million sperm count, it was up to a much higher success rate each cycle. Do you see a difference if instead of having one million, somebody has your max of 20 million?

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (26:06)

It wasn't statistically different between the levels like one to five five to ten ten to fifteen fifteen to twenty I if my memory serves me correctly I think our lowest percent of the grouping was in the higher numbers so it doesn't really make sense but one to five million at twenty two percent per cycle was astonishing but I think more sperm better.

Abby Eblen MD (26:26)

Yeah, that's surprising.

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (26:28)

That's always going to be the case, but we showed really great utility at that really low sperm count where IUI is not really an option for patients. So again, meant to be a first step in the process, meant to save time, meant to allow that additional discussion if she has to move on in the process.

Abby Eblen MD (26:48)

So sounds like it's good for everybody, but it's especially good if your partner tends to have really low sperm, almost in the category where we wouldn't even recommend an IUI with one to five million sperm. So that's definitely a target population for sure that may benefit from this. And particularly with the additional costs, obviously when you tell patients it's gonna be more money, a lot of people are less excited about it. But in that population for sure, that seems like a really good target.

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (27:13)

If somebody has one single open tube, we see that being used frequently there. But I mean, this can be extrapolated. If there's more sperm and we're putting it right there, there's no controversy around the biological importance of that. That is where it's supposed to go and we're just putting it there. that's, It's a very simple design. It's meant to be simple and nurses can do it. So it's meant to allow for practices to really augment their staff and be able to bring on new technology and just wake up that part of the segment. We see 10 million women that are infertile in this country.

So a lot of the discussion is how did we just get the journey to start for patients.

Abby Eblen MD (27:50)

I think definitely starting the journey is a definitely good thing. Carrie, I'm just curious from your perspective. Tell us from your clinician standpoint, what you think about it, what your experience is.

Carrie Bedient MD (27:59)

I think it's really helpful to give people an option that otherwise would have to go straight to IVF and would agree that it does, from my perspective, it does take me more time to do it. Physicians in our practice do the majority of all the procedures. And so I have to sit down and think about it a little bit more than I would in IUI. It's not necessarily that it's hard. I think some of it is just getting used to it and repetition and volume.

And I do counsel my patients a little bit differently because I think they do feel it more than a standard IUI, but I'm not surprised that they feel it more because that's what the device is. It's certainly not worse than the HSG or the saline ultrasound that they have to go through to get the diagnostics. I think the HSG still takes the cake. It's the worst test that we do on people. Yeah, not even close.

Abby Eblen MD (28:43)

Yeah, I bet this is not as bad as an HSG.

Carrie Bedient MD (28:49)

I think it's a nice thing to be able to offer patients to have one more tool to do it. Yeah. And I would agree that we don't do these back to back to back to back to back to back to back like we see people wanting to do IUIs. I do think it gives patients a greater degree of comfort of, okay, we're going to do this once or twice. And if it works, awesome. And if it doesn't, we're going to stop doing something that is not working on you, and move forward. So I think that's a benefit of it as well.

Abby Eblen MD (29:17)

Well, very good. Kathy, any last thing you would want to add that maybe we didn't ask or that you want to let our listeners know about about Femaseed?

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (29:24)

No, I think the bottom line is it's an additional option. Women should have choices. Families should have choices. And there's a lot of information on our website about how it works. I described it, but there's animation. And so I know that your audience, like a woman and a family member that wants to be pregnant, is very motivated. And these are hard financial times. And I think just being able to start the journey is beneficial and then seeing where it goes there and if you have to pause. Often patients that have gone on an IVF journey and can't spend anymore are looking at Femaseed now, just one more shot and it's really, we have worked really hard to bring this option forward and it's just more options are better and then it's your choice.

Susan Hudson MD (30:10)

Thank you.

Abby Eblen MD (30:10)

Very good.

All right. Well, to our audience, thanks for listening and subscribe to Apple Podcast to have next Tuesday's episode pop up automatically for you. Also be sure to subscribe to YouTube. That really helps us spread reliable information and helps us help as many people as possible.

Susan Hudson MD (30:24)

Visit fertilitydocsuncensored.com to submit specific questions you have and sign up for our email list. Also visit Amazon and pre-order our book, The IVF Blueprint, available in September.

Carrie Bedient MD (30:35)

And thank you so much for joining us, Kathy. Our guest today has been Kathy Lee-Sepsick from Femasys. She is the president, founder, and CEO. So thank you very much for joining us. We are very glad to have talked to you today. And I'm sure our listeners are as well, because this is a totally new option that just not that many people are talking about. So we're so appreciative that you are here and that you have invented this. And we now have this to offer for our patients.

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (30:59)

Thank you so much for having me.

Carrie Bedient MD (31:00)

And as always, this podcast is intended for entertainment and is not a substitute for medical advice from your own physician. Subscribe, sign up for emails, and we'll talk to you soon.

Abby Eblen MD (31:08)

Bye.

Kathy Lee-Sepsick (31:10)

Bye.

Carrie Bedient  MD (31:12)

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