How Does Doveras Define “Evidence-Based”?
Everything claims to be scientific these days, so what makes Doveras different?
There is a lot of pseudoscience out there (and a lot of products that claim to be "evidence-based"), so we’re glad you’re asking this question! And we’re going to give you a long answer because earning your trust is the most important thing to us.
We started Doveras because we found it so challenging to navigate the sea of fertility (mis)information — and we were tired of the decisions we made about our bodies and our families being informed by scary “Dr. Google” answers, influence-driven rather than evidence-driven recommendations, and old wives’ tales.
Integrity and trust are therefore two of our most cherished values, and they have guided our process for vetting the science at the heart of our products. Here is what you can expect from us:
- Only high-quality science. We started with 100,000 recent clinical studies on lifestyle factors that impact fertility and through our review. Our clinical and scientific team identified 85% of them as poor-quality studies, so they were filtered out of our evidence summarizations. From there, we did a deep dive into the remaining 15,000 studies that reflect the existing high-quality evidence based on lifestyle factors and fertility.
More than just meta-studies. Meta-studies do a great job of looking at the existing data on a topic, but they don't always filter out the poor quality studies or highlight what some individual studies point toward for specific populations. We therefore include these meta-studies in our review, but don't rely on them alone.
Transparency around the state of scientific evidence to support any claim. Everything is rated as “early,” “emerging,” or “established” science, reflecting how far along the science is in supporting a relationship between a lifestyle intervention and fertility outcomes.
Consensus science, not personal opinions. Our science is based on a synthesis of the best studies on a topic, based on a review by multiple experts, and not one person (or expert)’s opinion. We can’t underscore how important it is that this is not a personality or guru-led product. We will note when there is no consensus or where studies have produced conflicting results.
Vetted by the world’s leading experts and clinicians. Our advisory board of experts are top minds in fertility and helped design all parts of our process. They've held our review and recommendations to the highest standards.
You can check out the Our Approach page for a more in-depth overview of our scientific approach and evidence-grading philosophy.