The Women’s Health Crisis Nobody Talks About
Women’s health is underfunded, underresearched, and underdiagnosed. Despite making up half the global population, women receive only 6% of private healthcare investment. That disparity slows scientific progress. It also leaves millions of women waiting years for diagnoses of conditions that directly affect their quality of life.
Why Women Are Left Behind
Many common conditions — endometriosis, perimenopause, polycystic ovarian syndrome — take an average of seven to ten years to diagnose. Doctors often dismiss women’s symptoms. Standard lab tests look at individual biomarkers in isolation. Crucially, most clinical research has historically used male subjects as the default. So the result is a system that struggles to detect what it was never fully designed to find.
A new AI-powered startup, Xella Health, aims to change that — one biomarker at a time.
How Xella Health Was Born
The story behind Xella Health is personal. When Kelly Lacob was just 14 years old, her mother received an ovarian cancer diagnosis. After 14 years in remission, the cancer came back during Lacob’s first year at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Lacob then graduated early and moved home to care for her mother full time.
A Founder’s Firsthand Perspective
That experience gave Lacob a direct window into the gaps in women’s healthcare. She saw how even patients with access to quality care struggled to get clear answers.
“Even when we have access to great quality healthcare, we still have so many questions,” says Lacob. “What should we be asking the doctor? How do we know about the latest research? What else are you doing to support my mother’s health?”
Two and a half years ago, biotech executive Jesus Ching approached Lacob with an idea. Together with biosciences executive Adriana Dantas, the trio began mapping how women’s health could be fundamentally improved. Their analysis drew heavily from Lacob’s mother’s healthcare journey. Furthermore, it drew from years of biomarker research that pointed to the same conclusion: traditional diagnostics were missing the full picture.
Xella Health launched in June 2026, backed by $4.7 million in funding from Precursor Ventures, Swizzle Ventures, Capital F, and Ulu Ventures. However, the platform is currently unavailable in New York and New Jersey, with plans to expand into those states by 2027.
What the Platform Actually Does
Xella Health is an AI-powered precision health platform built exclusively for people with XX chromosomes. The platform combines biomarker testing, clinical guidance, and AI analysis to give women earlier, more accurate answers about their health.
The Conditions Xella Health Targets
The platform screens for more than 130 conditions that affect women. Among the most commonly flagged are:
- Polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PCOS variants)
- Perimenopause
- Endometriosis
Xella Health analyzes approximately 100 biomarkers, alongside health history, life stage, and female-specific reference ranges. Traditional lab tests, by contrast, evaluate biomarkers in isolation. Xella Health instead looks at what the entire biological system is signaling together.
The Member Journey
Members start by completing a detailed health questionnaire. They then schedule a blood draw at a local partner lab. Xella Health processes results through its federally certified, CAP-accredited dry lab, which then translates findings into a personalized healthcare roadmap. Additionally, each member connects with a certified telehealth physician to review results and create an immediate clinical action plan.
“By moving beyond isolated lab values and toward whole-system pattern recognition, we’re helping make women’s healthcare earlier, more personalized, and more precise,” says Lacob.
How AI Powers the Diagnostics
Xella Health’s proprietary AI analyzes billions of data points. It draws from clinical inputs, multilayered biomarkers, peer-reviewed research, and expert-developed care pathways. However, the AI does not work like a traditional diagnostic tool.
System-Level Pattern Recognition
Rather than flagging one abnormal lab result, the AI maps relationships between biomarkers. It identifies what may regulate them. Then it analyzes how those biomarkers affect other systems in the body. The result is a diagnostic picture that goes far beyond what a standard blood panel can reveal.
This approach is especially valuable for conditions that are notoriously difficult to detect in early stages. Endometriosis, for example, often shows no single obvious biomarker. However, when the system looks at patterns across dozens of markers simultaneously, early signals become visible.
Clinical Guidelines Built In
Xella Health layers clinical guidelines and peer-reviewed research directly into its AI analysis. Consequently, the recommendations members receive reflect both cutting-edge science and established care standards — not one or the other.
Generative AI: Helping Women Understand Their Own Health
Alongside its diagnostic AI, Xella Health also uses generative AI to help members interpret their own data. Members can enter previous health information into the system. The AI then integrates that data, interprets it, and presents findings in plain, accessible language.
Turning Data into Clarity
Healthcare data is notoriously hard for patients to understand. Lab results arrive as numbers without context. Medical terminology creates additional confusion. Xella Health’s generative AI addresses both problems. It translates clinical findings into language that women can actually act on — and connects those findings to the broader health picture the diagnostic AI has built.
Privacy and Data Security
Xella Health complies fully with HIPAA. Patient data is never sold to third parties or used for advertising. Members may request deletion of their account and all associated data at any time. Therefore, women can engage with the platform with confidence that their most sensitive health information stays protected.
Membership, Pricing, and Availability
Annual membership costs $499. This fee covers access to the health platform, biomarker testing, personalized reports with clinical and integrative health recommendations, and asynchronous messaging with a dedicated clinical team. Importantly, the membership is eligible for Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).
What Members Get
- Full access to the AI-powered health platform
- Blood testing at a local partner lab
- Personalized health roadmap based on 100+ biomarkers
- Telehealth physician consultation
- Asynchronous messaging with a clinical team
- FSA/HSA eligibility
Additional screenings are available at an extra cost. These include deeper fertility insights, perimenopausal analysis, and individual health timelines.
Xella Health already has a 15,000-person waiting list. Nevertheless, prospective members can sign up directly through the platform.
Why This Matters for the Future of Women’s Health
Precision medicine has long existed — but it has not been equally accessible. High-end longevity clinics and concierge healthcare practices offer this level of testing and analysis to wealthy patients. Xella Health’s goal is to make that same precision accessible to every woman.
A Shift That Is Already Happening
“Making precision healthcare as accessible to as many women as possible — which right now is so exclusive and elite,” Lacob says. That mission aligns with a broader shift happening across health AI. Increasingly, AI tools are moving from research labs into direct patient care, and women’s health is emerging as a key frontier.
“One of the things that’s just really exciting is healthcare for women is going to look so different in the next 12, 24 months,” Lacob says. “Making sure that women don’t feel gaslit anymore, that they have a trusted community, a trusted source of truth where they can go.”
For the millions of women who have spent years seeking answers, Xella Health represents something rare: a healthcare system that is finally designed around them.
