The Fertility Crisis No One Talks About: 50% of Infertility Cases Are Caused By Men PLUS The Myths around Fertility, Miscarriage & Gender Roles That Lead Sam Diamond To Build Bird&Be

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0:54In case you missed it, you're allowed to be hot, smart, and rich. So let's get into it.

1:08Samantha Diamond. Hello. Are you ready to get HotSmart Rich? Aren't we all? What a great response. Okay, so this is a really, really, really exciting podcast because I actually think you're the second founder I've had on that I've invested in. And you are the latest investment out of HSR Ventures. You're also a Toronto girlie. Your last name is Diamond. And we're going to have so much fun today talking all about pregnancy, fertility, building a company, everything. So I wanted to ask you a little pregnancy myth that I've heard, and I don't know if you're going to know the answer, but I am dead set on this being true.

1:40So please don't crush my dreams. Okay. So I heard that you can actually kind of manipulate the sex of your baby based on when you have sex in your ovulation cycle because boy sperm swims really fast but dies faster. And then girl sperm doesn't die as quickly but goes a lot further. Is that true? We don't know if it's true, but this myth is not based on total fiction. Okay. And I have boy, boy, girl. And you depicted that. And based on me having the girl and when conception happened, the myth could be true. So for anyone that's listening, because I don't fully understand when you're supposed to have intercourse to have the boy or the girl.

2:26Like, do you know when that timing cycle happens? Well, fun fact and huge misconception. And I think we all, like, we forget what sex ed was like because it happened in Canada back in, like, I don't know, grade 10. Yeah. In the U.S., there is about 17 states that are still teaching abstinence-only sex ed. No, there isn't. So a lot of people just don't have the background in terms of, like, what is happening in their bodies, when to have sex, what that means. Yeah. and and and so there's this white space so we're filling the white space ovulation is after the peak on your ovulation test so a lot of people take these tests and they think that means i'm ovulating okay and ovulation actually happens after so if you're trying if you're trying to have a certain sex and not to say that it is like is or is not going to happen yeah but you should actually have sex at that peak for your best chances of conception.

3:28Okay. And then maybe you're going to want like a day or two before that. To have the boy or the girl? To have the girl if it is true. If it is true. Okay. That they swim a little bit slower. Okay. Yeah. So you did not go to medical school. I did not. How did you learn all of this stuff? It's like by process of absorbing and absorbing and absorbing this information through building a company that this is what I do day in and day out all day every day and we spend a lot of time educating whenever I bring on a new employee I do like a reproductive health boot camp with them they also have time with our doctors on our team but then they spend like a day with me and we go through the basics like menstrual cycle what like what happens when egg and sperm eat because most people just don't actually know.

4:19I have to admit, like, I know nothing about this at all. Like I actually, for the first time, I think it was like two years ago, I noticed that like during my time of the month when I was ovulating, I was getting a lot of discharge and I was like, oh, I just like, don't know why sometimes like like my whole life since I've had a period, I'm like, why do sometimes I have discharge and sometimes I don't? And I had no idea it was because that means that you're ovulating. Why do you feel like women specifically are not being taught what we need to know about our bodies from like such a young age? I think part of it is we've been in this cycle of like very reactive medicine.

4:55Yeah. And so we go to the doctor when something's wrong. And fertility and reproductive health specifically seems to have just kind of been an afterthought. Yeah. And I think when people are struggling, that's when they go and seek help. And we're not really talking about anything related to like what's happening in our bodies and how to get pregnant any earlier on. And so I think that's part of the reason it's just been reactive. I think there's like, honestly, there's a shortage of doctors and they can only do so much. Yeah. And from a public health perspective, I mean, we've got that grade 10 health class.

5:35Yeah. And then we got not a lot else. And it's kind of been up to the media. Social media, I feel like too now. Social media, brands, companies to kind of fill that white space. And we want to make sure it's being filled with science. Yeah. Are you comfortable talking about sex and like your own sex life? I am. And we talk about it a lot with our kids. And how old are your kids? My kids are 11, 9, and 6. Yeah. And they ask questions and we give them straight up answers. They are asking questions because they're hearing stuff at school or they're like interested in their body and they're experiencing like feelings for the first time?

6:13I think it's a combination. And then also because we are, we call it like our family fertility household. Like we both work in the fertility space. Our kids have been exposed to what that means from a very early age. So they understand what happens in a lab. They once, actually one of my kids recently asked like, do all babies cost money to have? And I was like, well, it depends what you mean by that. So they're thinking about IVF? They're thinking about IVF because it was the younger one. They didn't really understand sex. And so they thought that all babies were made in the lab. Oh, my gosh.

6:50So with you and your husband and your kids, is there like moments where you're having like we're sitting down and we're having like sex education or it's like an open format and you're like feel free to ask anything? It's an open format. There's no formal education, although I have suggested a PowerPoint. And then how did you land into building an at-home fertility company? Great question. Honestly, the reason I ask that is because so many people listening to this, like I've had a million lives. I'm like a cat. I've done everything from like entertainment, building brands, venture capital, like working in startups, working at like the biggest tech company, Salesforce.

7:24And I've found it so easy to seamlessly translate skill sets from like one to another. But a lot of people feel like they get stuck when they do one thing. So for someone that's worked at like the biggest color cosmetics companies in the world, starting a PR company, selling that, now starting another company. How have you so effortlessly gone from one thing to the next? It's a great question. I think, honestly, the getting stuck in your career is something that our parents' generation struggled with, where you're a teacher and you're a teacher for your entire career. I think our generation is that transferable skill set.

7:57So if you can solve a problem in one company, you can solve a problem in another company. And what I'm best in the world at is actually solving problems. So give me any problem. Doesn't matter if I know anything about it, like quantum computing. I don't know anything about quantum computing, but if you have a problem with your quantum computing company, like I can probably solve it. Yeah. So I went from this career in cosmetics, opened a PR agency that focused on PR and marketing in the cosmetics industry. Because you just saw a problem that no one was solving. I think when I, this was, I mean, I'm dating myself, but we're going back like, a solid 15 or so years now.

8:36When I first launched our agency, we were in Canada. There weren't any bilingual PR agencies at all. We have a French market in Canada. So that was a big piece. There weren't any really like small boutique-y style agencies kind of tackling the organic PR the way that we wanted to do it. And we came from brand. I came from in-house brand PR at MAC Cosmetics. Okay. And then you started your agency, you sold it, and then you just decided during the pandemic, I am going to launch an at-home fertility company. I actually sold the PR agency because of this company. So this company had been in the works since really like 2016 was the initial idea.

9:21Okay. Was it from like a personal problem? It was part personal problem for sure. Like I had gone through pregnancy loss when I was trying to build my family and it absolutely devastated me in a way that I didn't expect. And I think that I knew the stats, but I didn't understand the feelings and implications. And as a result of that experience, I kind of dove into integrative medicine with the help of naturopathic fertility doctors. and I learned so much. Like I learned, you know, things that I had just never even dreamed of when, when like kind of researching fertility and all the things that you can be doing.

9:59And I was like, again, why are we not being proactive? Like there's so many things I could have done and why are we not being proactive? And I just felt really, really passionate about the fact that like other people needed to know this. And so I kind of just said, I'm, I'm going to just leap like we are leaping here. Well, that's one of your founding mantras. I don't know if this is for the company or for you, but you say bravery over certainty, which is like your founding principle. You guys are really the first at-home fertility company that's focused on men infertility because men infertility is 30 to 50 % of infertility.

10:34Why do you feel like nobody saw that white space? I think people are starting to see it, but male fertility is still so stigmatized. And it's interesting. Like, I think that there are for sure companies in the past have had a fear around tackling that space because they weren't sure that the customer was there. Yeah. The customer is there. So who's buying it for men? Because as I say all the time, like women control 85 % of consumer spend. They are making household decisions. And it's like even I can speak to the conversations I've had with Courtney where it's like I'm the one learning about everything and bringing it to my person to be like this is what we would need to have to do when we are ready to like start our family.

11:18How do you even get to the men if the women are the ones making the decision? Or are you selling directly to men? We're selling directly to women. Okay. We're selling mostly to women, although there are quite a number, and I would say it's increasing, of men purchasing it for themselves. We talk a lot about internally at Bird and Bee and soon probably externally about sharing the load. Yeah. Oh, love that. Love that. So male infertility is the only disease that when a male has an infertility diagnosis, it is the only disease where they are not the actual person being treated. It is their partner being treated.

12:00So the male, maybe they're going to take some supplements. On a rare occasion, they might need a surgery. But the female is still being treated. So if they are going through IVF because of male infertility, which, by the way, in Canada is the number one reason people have gone through IVF in the past two years. What is the number one reason? Male infertility. Number one reason people are choosing IVF in Canada. In the U.S., it is second only to embryo and egg banking. Wow. So male infertility is a problem. If you're going through IVF, it is the female who's doing injections, hormones, egg retrieval surgery, embryo transfer, carrying the pregnancy and birthing.

12:45So if there's a woman listening to this that is in a relationship with a heterosexual partner and is struggling to get pregnant, how do you suggest that they bring up to their partner that there might be something that's not just what she's struggling with, but maybe something that is causing the problem with their partner? That's a great question. And I think the story kind of starts earlier, wherever possible. So if you are thinking about getting pregnant, if that is on the horizon, absolutely, both parties, they absolutely need to be tested. And who does the testing? So you can test at home as a first step.

13:24It is very, very chill. You can do it in the comfort of your own home. There are options. You don't have to go and drive and sit in one of those rooms in a clinic and have it all be very stressful and uncomfortable and scary. You can start. You can dip your toes. Dip your toes at home. You can take an at-home male fertility test. You ejaculate. I can say that on air, right? Yeah, of course. We love sex. Ejaculate into a little cup. It's kind of like a COVID test for your sperm. Okay. You get the results in 15 minutes and you will know immediately if you have an issue with your sperm. Okay. On the female side, there are tests that you can do at home.

14:05There are red flags. We call them fertility red flags. What are some of those? So ovulation issues. So are you getting your period regularly every month? Are you having painful periods? Are you having painful sex? Are you getting when you're doing the actual testing of ovulation? And we always recommend if you're using an app, we always recommend pairing that with an actual test using a urine test. Right. So if I'm using Aura to track my cycle, like that's something that you would say I need to pair that with an – what would I pair that with? You would pair that with an at-home. You would pair that with these.

14:40Okay. You would pair that with these. What is that one? Ovulation test. This is an ovulation test. It is super inexpensive. It is easy to use. You dip it in your urine. you take a few tests a month and you're looking for that like very dark line. You're looking for a peak. Okay. And if you're not seeing a very dark line or if you're seeing multiple dark lines through the month, that's a problem. Okay. You want to go and see your doctor. Okay. We have an at-home ovarian reserve screening test. This is our proprietary technology that we developed over the course of two years. It is the same as a pregnancy test, as an ovulation test.

15:16It's a FSH. If your FSH is high, that means your ovarian reserve or your egg quantity might be a little bit lower than we want it to be. It's not a marker of your fertility, but it is a marker of your timeline. So you might be closer to menopause than you think. And it can happen in your 20s. It can happen in your 20s. You can see women in their 20s almost at menopause? Yes. It's called diminished ovarian reserve and it can happen in your 20s. Between the ages of about 30 and 40, almost 25 % of women have a high FSH and are experiencing those first symptoms of perimenopause earlier than expected.

15:59And that can affect how many kids you want. Wow. Subscriptions aren't just about repeat orders. They're about building real, lasting relationships. And that's where Recharge comes in. They are the subscription platform powering the brands you know and love. Chamberlain Coffee, Blueland, Bird & Bee, and over 100 million subscribers worldwide. What we love? Recharge takes the headache out of retention with seamless subscription experiences, powerful analytics, and tools that help brands go beyond the moment to keep customers coming back. From flexible billing options to automated retention strategies, they make it easy for brands to deepen their connection with every customer, turning one-time buyers into loyal advocates.

16:49This is why we partner with Recharge and why they're giving the HSR community 90 days free, helping brands test, learn, and grow their subscription business with zero risk. To claim this incredible offer of 90 days free, click the link in the show notes. so let's say you and your partner have not had this conversation and you're trying to get pregnant and you're not having any success and you're in a domestic partnership where you really are like carrying the shame of that experience how have you seen the most effective conversations happen when a woman brings to her male partner and says I think that there is another type of task that we need to do, which is not just on me, but it's also on you.

17:37So I think there's ways to make this fun. Okay. Like as Courtney said, he's like, do I take this to the strip club? And like, I'm just kidding. You can prep it however you want, but like make it fun. There are tests that we can do that are both pleasurable and informative. For females, unfortunately, none of them are pleasurable. They are just not pleasurable. Yeah. The males. I mean, it's a pleasurable experience. Go to town. OK. Go to town. Test that sperm. I think it's important to bring up. Listen, we want to have a family. We are we are targeting this family as a couple. We want to do the things to make ourselves as healthy as possible.

18:19Yeah. On the road to growing our family. And we want to make sure everything's good. And we want to avoid spending too much time trying at home if we're going to need the help of a clinic. Like this is an arduous process. We don't want to be trying at home for two years only to find out there was an issue we could have flagged two years ago. It's stress on the relationship. It's stress on finances. We want to get in to see a doctor as early as possible. What would you say to the people that always say like I was going through IVF and it was so stressful and then we just stopped trying and we got pregnant.

18:52Like does that happen more often than people think? Like is your stress playing a huge role in infertility? I think I'm not a doctor, but from what we've seen in the research, stress, like hardcore stress, there are types of stress that you can put on your body that have an impact on the quality of sperm and egg. For females, there's a kind of athletic stress. So if you quality of sperm and egg for females, there's a kind of athletic stress. So if you are exercising to the point where your period stops, impact your fertility. Okay. interestingly on the male side that type of stress let's say lack of sleep it actually can impact your sperm pretty quickly I had a really cool conversation a couple of weeks ago with the director of a sperm bank one of the only sperm banks in Canada and she said that she has clients that are flying in to do their donation because they are donors who are paired specifically with a couple that's receiving a sample and they've flown in and their first sample after sitting on a long flight or after being up for however many days is crap sample.

20:08So little things can actually have an impact. The kind of stress where you have anxiety, unconfirmed. Nobody really knows how much of an impact that has on your fertility. Obviously you want to support a lifestyle where you are healthy mind, body, soul. We always recommend any sort of like social group support, therapy, anything like that for somebody who's going through a journey to help them is like, it's huge if it's affordable. You've also compared the fertility stigma today to mental health stigma a decade ago. What's the one thing that you wish everybody did, whether they're in a relationship or not to prepare themselves for the journey of getting pregnant?

20:53Start early, for sure. I think it's something that we need to think about earlier on than just even when we're, okay, today we're starting. I think it's something we need to be thinking about years, years in advance. And that's all related to how you treat your body. In the medical community, menstrual cycles and sperm health are now kind of being called the fifth vital. it's it's a link to how healthy your overall body is and when we're thinking about how our bodies are functioning and overall wellness we want to make sure that we are sleeping well eating well we're not smoking we're not drinking or drinking very little yeah we're not consuming food that's going to destroy that's huge most people are not exercising enough we're lifting heavy weights this is very important and we need to be doing this for years years in advance so as a fertility company, this is the really hard thing when you're a startup, right?

21:48You can't be everything for everybody. But obviously if you're targeting people and they're like their early twenties that aren't thinking about family planning, that's a long sales cycle by the time that they're ready to actually purchase your products and become part of the bird and be family. So what do you feel like the conversation needs to like be directed towards those people versus who you're speaking to, which I would assume is primarily like 20, late twenties, thirties, like late thirties. I think testing early is the message. Like make it fun. Make it fun. Test early. And again, like women in their twenties can experience issues related to their reproductive health.

22:26Yeah. Even if they don't want kids and they're sure that they don't want kids issues with their menstrual cycle, issues with their ovarian reserve. These are things that you want to take to your doctor. Yeah. You want to know what's going on in your body and how to solve for it. PCOS, huge. Well, do you know how I got diagnosed with PCOS? This is the first time I've talked about this on, which is so cool. But I really struggled with my menstruation cycle when I was younger. I would not get a period for like three years during high school and had crazy hormonal acne when I was like 25. I invested in Alara and I went and did a bunch of the tests thinking it was like a fun investor exercise.

23:03And the doctor, when we were doing like the recap of all my tests, she's like, I think you might want to turn your camera off. Like you have one of the and like the things that we're treating. And I was like, it's okay, let's just keep the camera running. And I just hear her say like, you have PCOS. And I was 30 or 31 at the time. And I just kept thinking like, how did I go my entire life? And nobody, not one doctor thought to think like missing periods for years, I guess, because I don't look like a typical PCOS patient. I just was undiagnosed. And I'm obviously now at the age where like, I'm just turned 33 and family planning is like consuming my brain.

23:39And I am now at the stage where I'm like doing the ovulation test, doing the sperm test this week. Like, but it's a little scary because both my partner and I are obviously a little older in terms of like when people should be starting to think about this. Why do you think it's one of those things that so many women are afraid to like find out in case it's not what they want to hear? I think we're afraid to find out honestly about anything medical. Yeah. That could impact the dreams that we have. I mean, any diagnosis is a scary thing. I think there's comfort in knowing how many other people are diagnosed or suffering with something that have been successful.

24:22So PCOS, I am PCOS too. So not typical symptoms, but I also had the crazy hormonal acne. Acne crazy and also didn't get my period. And by the way, when it was put on Accutane, it was never thought to go through any sort of holistic, proactive care. And now there's a lot more studies. So the Inositol, it's as effective as medication. Why people struggle with fertility, but the most treatable. Interesting. Most treatable. Okay. So when you were thinking about building Burden B, you put on an early pitch deck that you were building the honest company of fertility. Funnily enough, Brian Lee is also one of the reasons that I'm now involved in this deal.

25:02For people listening that don't know, Brian Lee is the co-founder of The Honest Company. He is your lead investor. So you manifested that shit of getting Brian Lee on. I manifested it. How did that even come to be? I love, this is one of my favorite stories. So this is the power of female founders. Okay. I had connected with a female founder who created a hair tool company. and another female founder had connected me with her. And I kind of gave her my pitch deck and kind of gave her my pitch. And she's like, I have a couple of investors who I met along the way who actually didn't even invest in my company.

25:39And I would love to introduce you. And one of them was BAM Ventures, which is Brian Lee's venture fund. And my pitch deck already had said the honest company of fertility. And when I spoke with somebody, in the BAM family, they were like, you know, Brian is the honest company. I'm like, I'm so embarrassed, but this is the pitch deck. Like this is our pitch deck and this is what we want to be. And they were our lead investor and they came in and have been absolutely incredible because Brian knows everything about consumer brands. When you say you're building the honest company of fertility, what does that mean?

26:17For us, when you think about trying to have a baby, what I want everyone to think about is Bird and Bee. I want Bird and Bee to be the thing that they know and they trust along the way from trying to conceive through to pregnancy, postpartum and beyond. When Brian found out that you put on the pitch deck the Honest Company of Fertility, what was his reaction to that? Brian is the most chill guy. I think he kind of like brushed by it. He didn't even acknowledge it. Brian is the most humble, incredible, smart, supportive investor. And he just totally didn't make a big deal. Okay. When you brought in BAM, you actually raised 1.8 million in four weeks during the pandemic, and you just closed another round.