Around the Moon is a women’s health care, research and
development company founded by women. We are dedicated to supporting women in the process
of reclaiming their own inner knowing of their fertility. With this intention, we are
developing a unique and innovative product designed to serve as a window into the female
cycle. Woman’s Window™ represents a revolutionary breakthrough in fertility awareness technology, in that it is a completely reusable, compact and low-tech method for gathering information about the personal fertility cycle.
Through our fertility consulting service, the Women’s Health and Natural Fertility Center, we offer personal consultations on the wide spectrum of women’s health and hormonal concerns. Fertility awareness is a knowledge base and tool of great value to any woman who wants to make informed and conscious choices about her health and well being.
We also publish a newsletter where we update our readers on the Woman’s Window™ project, and provide a forum for news and networking about fertility awareness issues around the globe.
The Company
The Company -|- Technology Under Development -|- The Product -|- The Market -|- Business Development & Capitalization -|- Officers & Directors -|-
THE COMPANY
Around the Moon is developing a unique and advanced fertility awareness product for women that offers immediate and tangible evidence of the unseen process of ovulation. Woman’s Window™ represents a revolutionary breakthrough in fertility awareness technology, in that it is a completely reusable, compact and low-tech method for gathering information about the personal fertility cycle. Woman’s Window™ is a reusable and compact microscope which allows the viewer to see the ferning patterns resulting from the hormonal changes reflected in saliva.
The principals of the Company, Carol Petherbridge, a naturopathic physician, and Marilyn Lerner, a midwife, have been marketing a fertility detection device since 1993. Around the Moon has now designed an improved product and is seeking capital and joint venture partners to develop Woman’s Window™ , apply for FDA approval, file patents, and identify it’s marketing and manufacturing partners. Around the Moon plans to license the technology to establish marketing and manufacturing operations.
TECHNOLOGY UNDER DEVELOPMENT
Woman’s Window™ technology employs the principle that saliva forms “ferning” patterns when dried which reflect the changes in the biochemical and hormonal constituents of saliva. Saliva forms microscopic fern-like, crystalline structures in the presence of increased estrogen and other electrolytes during the fertile days. These patterns allow women to identify the ovulation phase of their cycle and to recognize hormonal imbalances. Women who seek conception can track the patterns of the crystals appearing in the saliva to choose the optimal day to conceive. A woman viewing “fertile” saliva with Woman’s Window™ will see delicate fern shapes which may look like frost on a window pane. Over the course of a woman’s cycle, the ferning patterns build and then normally disappear by the next reading after the peak day of ovulation.
THE PRODUCT
Woman’s Window™ is a reusable, pocketsize and non-invasive microscope. It allows the viewer to monitor the fertility cycle by viewing the ferning patterns which result from the biochemical and hormonal changes in the saliva. Woman’s Window™ has obvious applications as a fertility indicator -- a device to help women and couples determine the fertile time of the female cycle each month. This is especially helpful for women desiring conception and also useful for those choosing to avoid the fertile time. As such, it shares some similarity and is complementary to the basal body thermometer and the ovulation predictor kits now on the market. Woman’s Window™ however, is reusable daily for many years, making it much more economical than conventional fertility awareness products.
Woman’s Window™ is much wider in scope than simply a fertility indicator and will have a profound value as a fertility awareness tool. Because the technology of Woman’s Window™ affords a window into a woman’s fertility, it provides women with more in depth knowledge of the entire fertility cycle, not available by other methods. The information gathered by women using Woman’s Window™ is pertinent and valuable to almost any woman of childbearing age, whether or not conception is a matter of concern. A woman can also use this new tool to enhance her knowledge about her cycle during times of transition, such as lactation or pre-menopause.
THE MARKET
The market for Woman's Window™ worldwide includes 1) women seeking help with infertility, 2) women using self-help conception, 3) women and couples using natural family planning to avoid or achieve pregnancy, many because of religious mandates, and 4) women seeking a safe and effective non-chemical method to avoid conception.
Woman's Window™ fills a universal need for reproductive choice, and is aligned with the exploding trend toward natural and non-invasive methods.
INFERTILITY
There are over 60 million women of reproductive age in the US today, where an estimated 20% of couples experience infertility. This amounts to 12 million couples in the US, and approximately 58 million couples worldwide. Approximately 46,000 physicians are providing treatment for infertility. The pregnancy success rate for infertility intervention is 13%, (reflecting an 87% failure rate,) with only 1% of infertile couples able to afford the expense of assisted reproductive technology. A 1995 National Institute of Health Study showed that proper timing of intercourse, with respect to ovulation, is critical to achieving pregnancy. Woman's Window™ offers a low-tech diagnostic tool for identifying the fertile "window," as well as identifying hormonal imbalance which may lead to predisposition to miscarriage. Many women could be spared the more invasive and expensive infertility work-ups by tracking their cycles with Woman's Window™ first, and sharing the information with their physician.
It is estimated that close to $1 billion dollars are spent on the medical treatment of infertility in the US today.
SELF-HELP CONCEPTION
There is an increasingly lucrative market for the growing array of home test kits, such as home pregnancy tests, home blood glucose meters, and home ovulation predictor kits.
For the self-help conception market, the only over the counter diagnostic tool available for predicting the timing of ovulation are the LH predictor kits, which are chemical urine analysis kits. These kits are designed to detect a surge of luteinizing hormone which precedes ovulation by sometimes only a few hours. The monthly kits cost from $25 to $70 dollars. A woman may need to buy at least 5 to 10 of these kits during her time of actively seeking conception. These chemical kits have a limited shelf life, and are sold through pharmacies, supermarkets and large discount stores. They are also offered by some gynecologists. Physicians recommend use of the kits for lack of anything better available. The total sales in the US has been increasing despite the kits' shortcomings: short-range predictive ability for ovulation, and the high consumer cost due to the need to purchase multiple kits.
Total sales of ovulation predictor kits in 1994 was $24 million dollars.
NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING
Modern natural family planning (NFP) has replaced the outdated and ineffective, "rhythm" method, and involves a proven system for avoiding or achieving pregnancy. NFP is especially attractive to women who choose not to use chemical birth control methods. It is also highly attractive to couples from faiths which prohibit other methods of birth control: namely Catholic, Muslim, Mormon, and some Christian fundamentalists. There is an NFP coordinator or contact person in each of the 187 Catholic dioceses in the United States. Theresa Notare, Coordinator of the Dioscesan Development Program for Natural Family Planning, has expressed enthusiam over the possibility of being able to offer a product like Woman's Window™ to the Catholic community. There is currently no effective device available to serve this population as a complementary diagnostic aid in identifying the fertile period. Woman's Window™ would fit this niche perfectly, and also make NFP a more attractive option for a larger population. A WHO study of 1979 concluded that over 95% of fertile women are able and willing to recognize NFP fertility parameters, regardless of cultural, educational, or economic background. This points to the huge potential for Woman's Window™ worldwide, in developing countries as well as in the first world.
GLOBAL NEED
For reasons of health, resources, environment and economics, we are faced with a critical global need for safe, affordable and readily available means to control fertility.The world population has doubled since the 1950's, and could explode to 12.5 billion by the middle of the next century. One-third of the world's people are between the ages of 10 and 24. In China alone, there are 333 million women of childbearing age, who face a strict mandate to bear no more than 2 children. A 1994 UN report notes that an estimated 500,000 women die annually from pregnancy-related causes, including 60,000 from unsafe abortions.
In the United States, we are facing a crisis in terms of unplanned pregnancies. Studies reveal that an estimated 60% of pregnancies in this country are unplanned, resulting in an increase in abortions, and an increase in higher risk pregnancies. Women with unplanned pregnancies are less likely to seek early prenatal care, more likely to expose the fetus to dangerous substances like tobacco, more likely to suffer depression and physical abuse, and more likely to separate, according to Dr. Leon Eisenberg, Harvard Medical School, and head of a National Academy of Sciences committee of experts studying the problem. The committee urged for the broad goal of "adopting a new social norm" that all pregnancies be consciously and clearly desired at the time of conception. Women using the Woman's WindowTM technology gain knowledge and awareness of the entire fertile cycle, and so are able to choose or avoid conception consciously.
WARM MARKET
Practitioners of wholistic, natural or alternative health care are an obvious "warm" market for Woman's Window™. These practitioners are working with a population interested in preventative care, based on a whole-body approach, and steering away from reliance on allopathic or chemical treatment. The trend toward broad public acceptance of "alternative healthcare" has skyrocketed in the past ten years, and is expected to continue to increase. The establishment of the National Institute of Health's Office of Alternative Medicine is one indication of the rising public interest in these modalities. In 1990, patients willingly spent $13.5 billion dollars out of pocket for "alternative" therapies.
The number of naturopaths, chiropractors and oriental medicine practitioners alone, in the United States, totalled 79,500 in 1996, and is expected to increase to 132,000 by the year 2010. A rough estimate of the additional wholistic-oriented practitioners stands currently at 72,000. This totals to at least 150,000 alternative practitioners who comprise the readily accessible "warm" and growing market for Woman's WindowTM. This product offers a substantial margin between manufacturing cost and sales price, resulting in an excellent potential for high yield on investment. © Around the Moon, Inc.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND CAPITALIZATION
As a development company, Around the Moon’s primary interest presently is to complete all pre-marketing and pre-manufacturing activities and to identify appropriate partners and strategic business alliances to launch the manufacturing and marketing of Woman’s Window™ on a national and international scale. To complete product development and pre-marketing, Around the Moon is inviting ground-floor investors to take advantage of a private stock offering. We are also inviting business associates and alliances to join Around the Moon in launching this timely and innovative product for women.
OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS
Carol Petherbridge, Applegate, Oregon; Co-Founder, President
Carol Petherbridge is directing corporate affairs and capital formation for Around the Moon. She is a licensed naturopathic physician in Oregon and was appointed by the Governor to serve on the Oregon Board of Naturopathic Examiners from 1992 through 1995. She and her husband, Dr.Patrick Donohoe, operate the Bear Creek Naturopathic Clinic in Medford,Oregon.
Over the past ten years of her practice, Dr. Petherbridge has specialized in women’s health care, working with the full spectrum of hormonal, fertility and related medical issues. She encourages her patients to be self-responsible and takes the role of physician as educator seriously. Dr. Petherbridge has extensive professional, as well as personal, experience utilizing the technology of Woman’s Window™ .
Marilyn Lerner, Applegate, Oregon; Co-Founder, Vice-President
Marilyn Lerner is directing product development and communications for Around the Moon. She is an Oregon state licensed midwife. For the past fourteen years, she has been working with women and families through all phases of the childbearing cycle, including pre-conception, pregnancy, birth and postpartum. Her scope of practice includes well-woman care and educating and counselling women on fertility concerns and natural family planning.
Jeannine Parvati Baker, Junction, Utah; Vice-President
Jeannine Parvati Baker is directing international research and development for Around the Moon. She is founder of Hygieia College and is an internationally recognized expert in the field of fertile sexuality, pre and perinatal psychology and health. Ms. Baker is author of the classics “Hygieia: A Woman’s Herbal” (1978), “Prenatal Yoga & Natural Birth” (1974) and co- author of “Conscious Conception” (1986). She was nominated for the International Woman of the Year Award for Contributions to Medicine by “Who’s Who” of Cambridge, England. She sits on the Board of Directors of Six Directions Foundations as Vice-President and is on the editorial board of the Journal of the Primal Association. Jeannine has an international private consulting practice and conducts Freestone Innerprizes from her home in central Utah.
