Dixon woman’s invention makes TIME magazine’s 2024 Best Invention List

DIXON — A Dixon woman’s invention is making history.

PherDal Fertility Science’s PherDal Kit, the only 100% sterile at-home fertility kit to be cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, has been named to TIME’s 2024 Best Inventions List.

PherDal CEO and founder, Jennifer Hintzsche of Dixon, invented the kit after refusing to accept her unexplained infertility diagnosis. The kit is less expensive and invasive than traditional conception options like in vitro fertilization and intrauterine insemination while providing a sterile at-home insemination option, Hintzsche said.

“I am deeply honored and humbled that the PherDal Kit was selected by TIME as one of its 2024 Best Inventions,” Hintzsche said. “PherDal’s mission is to empower and provide women struggling with infertility with a simple, yet science-backed, at-home fertility device to improve their chances of having a child. Thank you to TIME for selecting PherDal and recognizing the work we are doing to help those struggling to conceive.”

TIME compiled its list of “200 groundbreaking inventions” through an online application process that evaluated applicants on several factors including impact, originality, efficacy and ambition. Other nominations included the world’s largest computer chip, a humanoid robot and a bioluminescent houseplant, that are “changing how we live, work, play and think about what’s possible,” according to TIME’s editors.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 13.4% of United States women between the ages of 15 and 49 experience difficulty becoming pregnant, including 13.1% of women who have had one or more children and 13.8% who have never had a child. Further complicating the matter are “fertility deserts” – geographical areas of the U.S. with proximity to few, if any, fertility care clinics.

Hintzsche used her PhD in Bioinformatics to look for a noninvasive option with the same live-birth rate as IUI to help combat the problem. She discovered that intracervical insemination, which is when sperm is inserted into the cervix as a passageway to the uterus, worked when done sterilely. However, no similar at-home options were available. So, Hintzsche created the PherDal Kit, becoming pregnant after using a pilot version of the kit for two months.

The PherDal Kit is unique to other at-home fertility options in several ways, including :

• The kit has two utility patents certifying it as the only sterile, pathogen-free kit. This is important because health organizations like the National Institutes of Health have linked bacteria changes to infertility.
• It is the only at-home kit cleared by the FDA.
• The kit uses IVF-grade materials and clinically approved methods to ensure its sterility.

According to the Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago, IVF treatments can cost upward of tens of thousands of dollars. The PherDal Kit retails for $199 and includes detailed instructions with three syringes and collection units, giving women three chances to conceive. Hintzsche made PherDal’s syringes longer than those found in other kits to ensure sperm is deposited directly to the opening of the cervix while reducing the chance of interference from vaginal microbiome.

For more information, visit pherdal.com.