Eli Health is a Montreal company that turns an ordinary phone into a hormone reader. The Hormometer is a slim single use cartridge held in the mouth for about a minute to collect saliva, and the company has raised backing to move it from beta into wider release.

How it works

Hormones circulate in saliva in very small amounts. The cartridge carries a strip that reacts chemically with cortisol or with progesterone, and the phone camera photographs the strip and converts what it sees into a concentration. A result appears in minutes and joins a chart, so the daily shape of a cortisol curve or the rise across a luteal phase becomes visible.

Key considerations

Every reading uses up a cartridge, and the lowest advertised price per test depends on a twelve month commitment.