Bryan Johnson, the technologist-cum-multimillionaire-cum-biohacker, has become well-known for his quest to become immortal. Kate Tolo, his girlfriend, is pursuing similar goals, all for women’s health.
Post
Announced by her boyfriend as “the female Bryan Johnson,” Tolo has been rigorously tracking more than 1,500 biomarkers from her body to optimize her health—in service of “half the population.”
Tolo has struggled for most of her life with suspected endometriosis—although she refused to undergo the invasive surgical procedure required to diagnose it. When she shared her story with her boyfriend, Johnson became obsessed with finding a cure.
So far the couple claim they have diagnosed Tolo with endometriosis over the course of 42 days using noninvasive methods, such as a saliva and blood test and an endo-specific ultrasound. Their next step is creating an organoid using cells from Tolo’s menstrual blood.
Endometriosis has historically been extremely difficult to diagnose. While physicians can make a clinical diagnosis based on patient self-reporting and ultrasound imaging, the “gold standard” for diagnosis is still laparoscopy—a surgical intervention.
Physicians who treat endometriosis regularly are also skeptical that Tolo and Johnson’s methods will yield helpful results, given the extremely limited sample size. But Tolo’s quest has translated into a positive shift in public perception, particularly toward Johnson himself.
Immortals, the wellness company founded by the couple, has also forayed into women’s health and wellness products, including topical estradiol for postmenopausal women and tretinoin cream to combat the signs of aging.
0 reposts5 likes
The ideal outcome, admittedly, would be bringing a diagnostic blood test to market. But for now, Tolo says, “our ultimate goal is to make as much as we can about female health public so we can spur the entire industry” to develop noninvasive tests.
Read this story for free for a limited time in the new WIRED app: www.wired.com/story/introd...