Meet Mohana: A new precision platform for hormone health
An honest review after four months of beta testing.
I was on a deep, determined online search for hormone health specialists when I came across Mohana. Two prior OBGYN appointments at different clinics to discuss my laundry list of symptoms had resulted in the same recommendation — hormonal birth control. I was willing to follow this guidance but felt there was a bigger picture and more holistic care plan that needed to be uncovered.
That is exactly what the team at Mohana has been building.
What is Mohana?
Mohana is a precision health platform to help women reduce the time and effort required to detect, understand, and act on hormonal imbalances. The company is an early-stage startup — and was twice awarded ‘startup of the year’ at Quebec Tech's prestigious annual competition, Bourse+.
Founder and CEO Dora Jambor was already going through her own health journey managing polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), when her mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Witnessing firsthand what untreated symptoms could escalate to, she decided to take action — pivoting from a career in machine learning and AI to build Mohana.
The care model emphasizes prevention and provides guidance on how to take action towards optimal health — incorporating lifestyle, diet, and supplement recommendations in an intuitive dashboard customized for every customer.
The team includes scientists and engineers who share a passion for using technology to create better health outcomes for women. Medical advisors from endocrinology, gynecology, and nutrition science also contribute to the platform.
Exploring Mohana's Features
Mohana’s platform has four main components:
A health assessment — covering symptoms, health background and goals.
An at-home blood test — a custom panel tailored to your specific symptoms and condition.
A tailored health plan — the latest science-backed protocols translated into actionable tasks.
An online dashboard — comprehensive test results with a daily tracker that helps you implement your health plan.
The cost is $297 for the three-month solution and includes processing your bloodwork. You can extend your plan and access to the app — as well as order follow-up blood tests for an additional fee. Note: testing is currently available in the US, excluding New York.
The Mohana blood test
Within five days of completing my online health assessment, my blood testing kit arrived. The instructions were easy to follow, and I was grateful that I didn’t have to make an in-person appointment and fight the Seattle morning traffic while fasting.
Mohana’s labs are CLIA and CAP accredited, and physician-reviewed. Their hormonal panels are designed to include only those biomarkers that consistently yield accurate and stable measurements in the at-home format.
One important note — there is a limitation with how much blood someone can collect with a finger-prick at home compared to venous tests with blood draws performed at a physical laboratory. This limits the number of biomarkers that can be tested using this method.
Mohana’s solution assembles custom panels for each member to measure the most impactful 10-17 biomarkers at a time. The goal is to maximize "catching the reds", to provide a better understanding of what may be causing your symptoms. This is a leap forward in precision consumer medicine compared to other at home blood tests on the market which measure the same biomarkers for everyone.
Currently, there are 57 biomarkers the team chooses from to customize a blood panel.
You can see in the section below that my panel did not include sex hormones (estradiol, FSH, LH, etc.) as I had recently gone back on hormonal birth control (which skews results). Instead, more helpful biomarkers were chosen based on my reported symptoms and health history.
Test results
About two weeks after my test, my results were loaded into my dashboard. While I was green across most, two were flagged for being out of range: glucose and hs-CRP. I learned I was experiencing declining insulin sensitivity, and high levels of inflammation (like, really high). Drilling down deeper into the information on each biomarker by clicking on those arrows you can see in the screenshot below was extremely helpful.
What I still don’t know is the root cause of these elevated levels. The dashboard listed some potential causes — several of which could be a fit for me:
Inflammatory conditions (endometriosis, PMDD, PCOS)
Metabolic imbalances
Gut imbalances
Hormonal contraceptives
Perimenopausal hormone fluctuations
Dietary sensitivities / intolerance / allergies
The Mohana action plan
Despite not knowing the exact root cause of my elevated biomarkers, the team was able to put together a precision action plan to target my symptoms based on the blood test result. In my case, the action plan focused on metabolic health, circadian alignment and supporting my gut microbiome.
At first glance, I thought some of the actions were a little silly (move after meals, get natural light for 30 minutes each morning), but over the course of my research I have heard these same habits echoed by other trusted experts in metabolic and hormone health.
I learned so much by reading all the detailed sections for each action in the app. Even more impactful to my journey was the thoughtful back-and-forth emails with Mohana’s CEO to answer my detailed questions — a benefit of being a beta tester of the platform.
This is what the action plan looks like on my phone. It’s meant to be a daily reminder and checklist to help you stay on-track to your care plan. You can ‘accept’ action plan components based on what you can realistically fit into your daily practice and then use the tracker to keep yourself accountable.
Is Mohana is a good fit for you?
Mohana was a good next step for me because I had already seen my OBGYN to discuss symptoms, and I had already received a pelvic ultrasound to check for cysts, fibroids, and other abnormalities. I was referred to a local specialist who was booking patients out 12 months in advance and I didn’t want to wait that long to find answers or solutions for my symptoms.
Seeing those out-of-range insulin sensitivity, and inflammation biomarkers was exactly what I needed to kick myself into gear on diet and lifestyle changes to support my metabolic health. And I have noticed positive results in my energy, digestion, mood, and more from implementing my care plan.
Mohana is a great option if you:
Are excited about blood testing with a kit from the comfort of your home.
Want personalized and detailed action plans to support your hormone health across diet, lifestyle modifications, and supplements.
Are experiencing hormone health symptoms and can’t find good care locally.
Visit https://www.mohanahealth.com/ to get started.
Mohana may not be the best fit if you:
Are in late-stage perimenopause or menopause and are no longer cycling.
Want prescription medication guidance (hormone therapy or other pharmaceutical options).
Want comprehensive labs to build a complete picture of your overall health.
Visit the Hormone Health Offers database to see if another option may be a better fit.
So, what’s next?
It’s been over four months since my blood test with Mohana, and I’m curious if my new habits have improved my glucose and hs-CRP levels. I am still experiencing gut/metabolic issues and wonder if gluten or dairy may be contributing. After additional research, I’ve decided to do further testing — this time using Function Health which partners with diagnostic lab Quest for venous blood draws and covers 100+ biomarkers.
I have a feeling I will be craving a Mohana + Function Health baby of sorts — the depth diagnostic blood panel of Function with the precision care plan from Mohana’s team that is focused 100% on women’s health.
Mohana Founder & CEO Dora Jambor indicates “We will launch an ‘upload your test results’ option in the future, where people will get guidance on what to test for, and they can get their tests done via their own local LabCorp/Quest clinics. This will allow people to look at a broader set of markers through a venous-draw blood test while still making use of Mohana’s care team and digital platform for guidance.”
This will also be a great option for anyone who has had recent bloodwork but was disappointed with the interpretation or lack of actionable recommendations given.
Do you have experience with hormone testing?
There seems to be a divide in the medical community surrounding testing and the usefulness of biomarker testing relative to costs. Simultaneously, I am seeing a growing number of consumer offers on the market.
I’d love to hear about your experiences with hormone health and other biomarker testing! Have you tried any at-home blood tests, or have you found success through traditional lab work? What were your results, and how did they impact your health journey?