I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few months in rooms with HR and benefits leaders. At conferences, dinners, one-on-ones. And lately, the conversation has shifted.

A few years ago, much of that conversation was about making the case — that women’s health benefits were essential for recruitment and retention; that fertility coverage isn’t a perk but a clinical need. That argument has largely been won. These benefits are now table stakes.

The conversation today is different. With healthcare costs continuing to rise — and CFOs scrutinizing every line of spend — the question is no longer should we offer these benefits? It’s how do we know they’re working?

Is a benefit working if it’s “sticky” and employees like it? If utilization is high? Or does working mean something more specific — that members are getting the right care, that clinical outcomes are improving, and that the investment is delivering measurable economic value? Because those are very different standards. And right now, too few benefits are being held to the right one.

It’s Time to Rethink and Redefine “Value”

Progyny recently partnered with global survey leader Dynata to find out the latest priorities of employers, and the results from the 200 employers reflect the tension of this inflection point. Women’s health and family-building benefits are clearly going mainstream, with most employers now offering core benefits and planning to prioritize them in 2026.

But while 51% say their benefits meet employee needs “very well,” nearly as many (48%) report lingering gaps in depth, coordination, and consistency across different life stages. Employers have adopted solutions to cover discrete moments — fertility, maternity, occasionally menopause — but the full journey, as experienced by members, often remains fragmented.

61% point to lack of ROI as a persistent problem, and 74% report moderate to high point solution fatigue. The data shows employers plan nevertheless to keep adding solutions — but what I’m hearing on the ground is something different: growing impatience and demands for clear value.

Which raises the central question: what does “value” actually mean here?

I owe my working definition of value to Jim Winkler, chief strategy officer of the Business Group on Health, who captured it most succinctly: value means clinical outcomes that drive an economic impact that work well for the member. Three requirements, each essential:

1. It’s not enough for a benefit to be “sticky” and liked by members — though member experience is critical.
2. It’s not enough to point to enrollment numbers or app downloads.
3. What matters is whether the benefit produces better clinical results, whether those results translate into real economic impact, and whether the experience is good enough that members engage when it matters most.

At Progyny, value starts with clinical outcomes validated for every patient: a 23% higher live birth rate, 41% fewer retrievals per live birth, a 61% lower multiples rate — driving roughly 30% in employer cost savings. Results that are repeatable, backed by the industry’s largest sample size, and grounded in a decade of relentless commitment to the member experience.

And, while compounded costs for sponsored plans in the US rose 27% from 2022–2025, Progyny’s rose just 5% over the same timeframe. So, with HR leaders being called to the mat by their CFOs, I understand the pressure — but I feel confident Progyny’s clients are getting the year-over-year outcomes and value they’ve come to expect from us.

We’ve Seen This Pattern Before in Digital Health

This moment in women’s health and family building benefits should look familiar to anyone who’s watched digital health evolve. First comes early adoption. Then proliferation of offerings as vendors stake out their piece of the lifecycle, and employers assemble best-of-breed portfolios hoping the whole adds up to more than the sum of its parts.

And then the evidence catches up.

One of the most instructive examples comes from outside women’s health. In 2024, the Peterson Health Technology Institute assessed eight widely used digital diabetes management tools. Their conclusion was stark: most failed to deliver meaningful clinical benefits and even increased healthcare spending. Only one demonstrated genuinely differentiated clinical impact.

Among employers and health plans, the report validated what many had already suspected: engagement metrics are not outcomes. Member satisfaction is an important goal, but it is clinical impact that drives economic value. In a reality where employers are investing in health solutions to achieve a sustainable cost equation for their benefits, the burden of proof needs to be fundamentally higher.

After years of explosive growth, women’s health is now in a similar spotlight. And despite nearly 3 out of 4 employers reporting point solution fatigue…roughly the same number (76%) are looking to add point solutions with proven results.

How Vendor Sprawl Opens Accountability Gaps

So, what’s the reality of how this plays out for an employer? Here’s one scenario I’ve seen more than once. A large employer invests in myriad solutions — a fertility benefit here, a maternity or parenting solution there. On paper, it looks comprehensive. In practice, costs keep climbing. And when they ask their vendors why, no one can tell them.

Why? The answer is as simple as it is complicated. When multiple vendors touch the same population, accountability diffuses. Whether outcomes are good or bad, it can be difficult to attribute the source of impact and the levers driving results. Despite all the investment.

The same dynamic compromises member experience. I’ve talked to employers sending hundreds of benefit-related communications a month — each vendor optimizing for its own engagement metrics, with no coordination. When everything competes for attention, what matters most gets lost. The member experience becomes noise.

Women’s health and family building are not episodic or transactional experiences. They are deeply personal lifelong journeys that require a whole-person, relationship-based approach to care. At Progyny, that differentiation shows up not just in our member-centric focus across the full journey — from preconception through menopause — but in how we measure and report it. Because you can’t improve what you don’t track, and you can’t be accountable for outcomes you don’t own.

Delivering Value Requires Aligning Every Part of the Care Journey

It’s worth stepping back to recognize what this industry has accomplished. When Progyny was founded a decade ago, comprehensive fertility benefits were rare. Postpartum care was an afterthought. Today these benefits are mainstream and expanding into every corner of the economy. As our survey reveals, even slower moving sectors like manufacturing these benefits have increased in importance by 85% since just last year.

But sustaining that progress requires going deeper. Solutions can’t deliver patient-level outcomes if they don’t go deep enough to align all the stakeholders and components of the care journey. The clinical model, the member experience, the provider network — every piece has to be deliberately reworked and aligned for the cost equation to actually work. That’s what Progyny has spent a decade doing, and it’s why we can stand behind our outcomes and cost trend data with confidence.

The conversation in the rooms I spend time in has shifted because something real is changing. The reckoning is here — and for the women and families these benefits are meant to serve, that’s not a reason for alarm. It’s a reason for optimism, if we rise to meet the moment.

The post Women’s Health Benefits Have Gone Mainstream. It’s Time for a New Standard of Accountability. appeared first on Progyny.

No two fertility journeys look exactly alike. Factors like age, medical history, relationship status, and family-building goals all play a role in determining the right path forward—but with so many options available, knowing where to start can feel overwhelming.

In this episode, Dr. Janet Choi and Lissa Kline put real-life fertility scenarios on the table, exploring the stories of individuals and couples at different stages of their family-building journeys. From trying to conceive and egg freezing to IUI, IVF, genetic testing, fertility preservation, and more, they discuss how fertility specialists think through each situation and the treatment paths that may be recommended. Let’s get into it!

Hosts:
Dr. Janet Choi, Chief Medical Officer, Progyny
Lissa Kline, LCSW, SVP, Provider and Member Services

Resources:

• Progyny: How to Best Time Intercourse When Trying to Conceive (TTC) 
• Progyny: What is IUI? 
• Progyny: What is IVF? 
• Progyny: IVF and Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection 
• Progyny: LGBTQ+ Family Building Options 
• Progyny: Egg Freezing 101 
• Progyny: Fertility Preservation After a Cancer Diagnosis 

The DocTalk series, where we discuss current events on the full spectrum of women’s health and family building and what they might mean for you. From news, research studies, pop culture, and everything in-between, we’re going to break it all down and sift through the noise with the help of our expert Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Janet Choi and host, Lissa Kline, LCSW. This show does not constitute medical advice.

The post Finding the right fertility treatment appeared first on Progyny.

For years, many smaller to mid-sized employers assumed fertility and family building benefits were out of reach. The need was there, but the cost uncertainty often was, too. That’s starting to change.

Smaller to mid-sized employers are under growing pressure to offer benefits that help them compete for talent, support employees through major life moments, and close gaps in care. But traditional utilization-based models have often made those benefits difficult to adopt, especially for employers that need more predictable costs.

For brokers, that shift creates a real opportunity.

The challenge isn’t demand, it’s the model

Employees increasingly expect support across life stages, from fertility and family building to pregnancy, parenting, and menopause. Smaller to mid-sized employers are feeling the same pressure as larger organizations. TriNet’s 2025 State of the Workplace report, focused on emerging trends in small and medium-size businesses, shows that employers are placing more focus on benefits as a way to compete for talent and support retention.

The report also found growing employer recognition of fertility coverage, with “extremely important” responses increasing to 29% from 25%, and “moderately important” responses increasing to 31% from 28%.

Larger employers have already responded. More than 40% now offer fertility benefits. At the same time, 1 in 6 people experience infertility, reinforcing the scale of need.

But smaller to mid-sized employers often face a different reality. Even when they want to offer expanded benefits, unpredictable utilization, high-cost claims, and administrative complexity can make adoption feel risky. As a result, many employers either delay offering fertility and family building benefits or settle for limited solutions that may not fully meet employee needs.

A more predictable path forward

The biggest shift in the market isn’t demand – it’s benefit design.

Fully insured, premium-funded models are making fertility and family building benefits more accessible by giving employers a way to offer meaningful support at a more predictable cost.

Instead of variable utilization-based spend or limited coverage in carrier-based models, employers can access a model designed to support:

• Fixed monthly costs
• More predictable budgeting
• Reduced financial exposure
• Streamlined implementation
• A guided member experience

That changes the conversation from, “Can we afford the risk?” to, “How can we offer a competitive benefit while controlling cost?”

Why this matters for brokers

For brokers, this creates a new way to bring value to smaller to mid-sized employer clients who may have been priced out of fertility and family building benefits in the past.

It can help you:

• Identify clients with unmet needs in your existing book
• Differentiate your offering in a competitive market
• Start new conversations around talent, retention, and benefits strategy
• Introduce a high-demand benefit category with a predictable funding model

Modern solutions, such as Progyny Select, are helping change what’s possible for smaller to mid-sized employers. Progyny Select is a first-of-its-kind, fully insured supplemental plan designed to bring Progyny’s proven fertility and family building model to smaller to mid-sized employers. It supports employees through pivotal life events, including fertility treatment, adoption, surrogacy, pregnancy, parenting, and menopause support.

Learn how to spot the opportunity

Curious which clients in your book may be a fit?

Download our guide, How to add a new revenue stream without adding risk, to learn how brokers are identifying opportunities, positioning the conversation, and helping smaller to mid-sized employers offer fertility and family building benefits with more predictable costs.

Progyny Select must be presented alongside major medical based on its licensure and additional participation criteria established by Progyny Select. Individuals selling Progyny Select need to be licensed in the State of Washington. The benefit is implemented with an effective date that aligns with employers’ major medical coverage. However, there is no medical plan integration or variation by medical carrier. When groups add Progyny Select, all employees/members who are 12 years and older, and enrolled in medical will be automatically enrolled in Progyny Select.

Progyny Select Supplemental insurance plans are insured by Progyny Health Insurance Company of Washington. All limited insurance policies contain exclusions and
limitations. For full details on coverage please refer to your specific plan documents, application, and certificate of coverage. Progyny Health Insurance Company of
Washington is located at 1102 A Street, Suite 300, Tacoma, WA 98402.

The post Brokers have a new opportunity in fertility and family building benefits appeared first on Progyny.

If you’re at risk for high blood pressure during pregnancy or after delivery, your healthcare provider may recommend that you check your blood pressure at home.

This helps them know how you’re doing and make adjustments to medicine, if needed. And if your numbers are high, that’s a sign to call your provider.

In this video, we’ll show you how to take your blood pressure at home.

What if my numbers are high?

Be sure you know the blood pressure numbers your provider recommends for you, and what to do if your numbers are high. For example, here are common guidelines.

If either your top or bottom number is high, wait a few minutes and check your blood pressure again. If one of the numbers is still high, call your provider or get medical care.

Call your provider if:

• Your top number is 140 or higher, or
• Your bottom number is 90 or higher

Call your provider or get immediate care if:

• Your top number is 160 or higher, or
• Your bottom number is 110 or higher

Again, these numbers may vary from person to person, so be sure to ask your provider what is considered high for you and when you should call.

Your team can help you

You might find it helpful to take your blood pressure in front of your healthcare team for practice and to ensure your monitor is set up correctly.

Reach out to your health plan as well – a blood pressure monitor may be covered as part of your insurance.

Finally, remember that your Progyny Care Advocate is always here to provide guidance and support.

Explore related topics in this series

• High blood pressure in pregnancy: Get informed to stay safe
• My partner is at risk for preeclampsia: How can I help?

Disclaimer: The information provided by Progyny is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for medical guidance.

The post How to take your blood pressure at home appeared first on Progyny.

While every path is unique, family building within the LGBTQ+ community involves distinct considerations as individuals and couples navigate their options.

To help us better understand the family building options available, we’re joined by Dr. Quetrell Heyward from Spring Fertility here in New York. From family building options to navigating costs, benefits, and access to care, he shares practical insights to help you make informed decisions about your future. Let’s get into it!

Hosts:
Dr. Janet Choi, Chief Medical Officer, Progyny
Lissa Kline, LCSW, SVP, Provider and Member Services

Guest:
Dr. Quetrell Heyward, Fertility Specialist at Spring Fertility 

Resources:

• Progyny: LGBTQ+ Family Building Options
• Progyny: What family building resources are available for the LGBTQ+ community? 

The DocTalk series, where we discuss current events on the full spectrum of women’s health and family building and what they might mean for you. From news, research studies, pop culture, and everything in-between, we’re going to break it all down and sift through the noise with the help of our expert Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Janet Choi and host, Lissa Kline, LCSW. This show does not constitute medical advice.

The post LGBTQ+ family building options appeared first on Progyny.

You may have heard of PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), a condition affecting about 1 in 10 women.*

As of May 2026, PCOS has a new name: PMOS (polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome). This change is meant to help patients find clarity and support, earlier and more easily.

Why is PMOS a better name?

PCOS was misleading because it doesn’t accurately capture the nature of the condition. It centered on ovarian cysts – although they are not the main feature. In contrast, PMOS emphasizes the condition’s hormonal and metabolic nature.

“For decades, the name ‘polycystic ovary syndrome’ pointed patients and providers toward ovarian ‘cysts’ that aren’t actually cysts at all. That misdirection contributed to delayed diagnoses, with studies suggesting that up to 70% of affected individuals go unrecognized,” says Dr. Nicole M. Marchetto, an OB/GYN and reproductive endocrinologist at Shady Grove Fertility.

“The new name gives patients and their care teams a clearer starting point so the right conversations happen sooner.”

Names and words matter

Women with PMOS often struggle to get diagnosed. Healthcare providers may think of it as a gynecological condition, but its root cause is hormonal. Misunderstanding may delay effective, comprehensive treatment. As Dr. Marchetto explains, PMOS better reflects the wide-ranging effects on physical and emotional health:

“PMOS is not just a reproductive condition – it’s a multisystem syndrome. Individuals with PMOS face elevated risks of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and mental health challenges including anxiety and depression. The new name signals that comprehensive screening and long-term health monitoring matter just as much as managing cycles or fertility.”

PMOS signs and symptoms

PMOS experiences vary, and not everyone has the same symptoms. The most common include:

• Irregular periods or missed periods
• Difficulty getting pregnant
• Weight gain or difficulty losing weight
• Acne or oily skin
• Excess hair growth on the face or body
• Hair thinning on the scalp
• Insulin resistance or prediabetes
• Fatigue
• Anxiety or depression

Early diagnosis and support are key

When PMOS isn’t treated effectively, it may raise other health risks, including:

• Type 2 diabetes and heart disease
• Acne, excess hair growth, or thinning hair on scalp
• Anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders
• Thickened endometrium (which may lead to heavy menstrual bleeding, bleeding between periods, bleeding after menopause, and increased cancer risk)

Fortunately, early diagnosis and care help reduce risks and improve well-being. Personalized care plans for PMOS may include:

• Lifestyle support (healthy eating and physical activity)
• Weight management support
• Fertility evaluation and treatment, including medicine to help with ovulation
• Hormonal medicine to help regulate your menstrual cycle or other symptoms
• Medicine to help with insulin resistance
• Emotional well-being support

Dr. Marchetto stresses that individualized, comprehensive care is essential. “The best outcomes happen when patients have a coordinated care team that sees the full picture, not just one piece of it.”

Seeking support

Talk with your provider or seek out a specialist if you have symptoms or questions about PMOS. Specialists knowledgeable about PMOS include:

• Endocrinologists
• Reproductive endocrinologists
• Gynecologists
• Internal medicine doctors with expertise in metabolism

If you’re not sure or have any questions about your symptoms, it’s always OK to bring that up with a provider. They are there to listen, support, and work with you. Your Progyny Care Advocate is also here to help connect you with resources based on your needs and goals.

*Note: “women” is used to refer to women, girls, and people with ovaries.

Disclaimer: The information provided by Progyny is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for medical guidance.

The post PCOS is now PMOS: a better name in hopes of better care appeared first on Progyny.

When we started Apryl, we made a very specific bet: fertility benefits would not stay a US-only conversation.

At the time, the US market was already moving. Employers were starting to understand that fertility and family-forming support was not a niche perk, but a benefit that mattered deeply to employees and could become a real differentiator for companies competing for talent.

Outside the US, the conversation looked very different.

In Europe and Asia, many employers had a different starting point. They were not used to funding healthcare directly in the same way US employers are, because public healthcare systems already existed. Fertility support was therefore often seen as something the healthcare system should cover – or, at best, something nice for an employer to add.

But when we looked closer, the gaps were obvious. The WHO estimates that 1 in 6 people globally experience infertility in their lifetime, a rate that holds consistent across high-, middle-, and low-income countries alike. Yet public coverage was often partial, narrow, or tied to specific eligibility criteria. In some countries, access depends on age, diagnosis, marital status, sexual orientation, or the type of treatment. In others, the treatment might be legal but expensive, difficult to access, or culturally sensitive to talk about. The result was a patchwork of support that left many women and families with unmet needs and employers without a clear way to bridge the gap.

That is why we built Apryl in 2019. We believed that global employers would eventually need a better way to support fertility and family forming outside the US – not by copying the US model, but by building something that understands local healthcare systems, laws, costs, and cultural realities. We knew that meaningful support would require deep regional expertise, because what works in one country can be inaccessible, inappropriate, or ineffective in another.

At the time, that required a lot of market education. We were fundraising, building the product, speaking to customers, supporting members, fixing edge cases, writing decks, and doing whatever needed to be done that day. It was intense and scrappy, but the conviction was clear: global companies would eventually need global fertility benefits, and those benefits would have to work locally.

When the buyer conversation changed

When Apryl joined Progyny two years ago, in June of 2024, one of the biggest changes was the buyer conversation.

Suddenly, we were much closer to U.S. decision makers responsible for global workforces. These were benefits leaders who already understood the value of fertility benefits because they had seen the impact in the U.S. Their question was not, “Why should we pay for this?” It was, “How do we make this work for our employees outside the U.S. as well?”

That shift mattered because it moved the conversation from education to execution.

Apryl had built the global-first foundation: the technology, local market knowledge, speed, and willingness to work through complicated country-by-country realities. Progyny brought employer trust, clinical expertise, operational discipline, and experience supporting large, complex clients.

Together, we were able to take something we had believed in for years and build it at a meaningful level of scale.

Why local reality matters

The reason global fertility and women’s health benefits are hard is that the details change everywhere.

By 2024, 55 percent of countries had fertility rates below the replacement level, according to the UN’s World Fertility 2024 report. Demand for fertility support is not a niche or future concern. It is already widespread, and public systems were not built to meet it at scale.

What is covered through public healthcare? Which treatments are legal? Which family structures are recognized? What does access actually look like? How much does care cost locally? How do culture, stigma, language, and regulation influence whether someone even feels comfortable asking for help?

A global benefit cannot answer those questions with one policy and a translated landing page.

That has been one of the biggest lessons from building Progyny Global: care only works when it reflects local reality. What works in Germany may not work in India. What is accessible in the UK may not be available in Brazil. Public healthcare coverage can look strong from the outside and still leave employees with real gaps when they actually need care.

For employers, this means fairness is more complicated than offering the same amount or the same policy everywhere. A meaningful benefit must account for local costs, laws, access, and culture.

For employees, it means they should not have to become experts in healthcare systems, reimbursement rules, treatment pathways, or country-specific regulations just to understand their options.

What changed in two years

Joining Progyny changed the pace immediately. It gave the original Apryl platform access to a much larger client base, deeper operational expertise, and the ability to build for global employers at a level we could not have reached alone.

In a short amount of time, we expanded from a fertility-focused platform into a comprehensive global women’s health offering:

• Support in 120+ countries
  Not as a theoretical global footprint, but as a benefit that works across different healthcare systems, legal frameworks, currencies, cost levels, and cultural expectations.
• 14 languages – growing to 30 by the end of 2026
  We built language support into every layer of the experience, from the platform to live PCA consultations, because understanding your options clearly should never be a barrier to care.
• Three connected programs: fertility and family forming, pregnancy and postpartum, and menopause
  This has been an important evolution. Women’s health does not happen in isolated moments, so the support should not be built that way either.
• The Progyny Card
  One of the biggest barriers in fertility care is the upfront cost. The Progyny Card helps reduce that burden by making it easier for members to access care without paying large amounts out of pocket first.
• Country-specific customizations
  This is probably the least visible work, but some of the most important. Local compliance, cultural sensitivities, benefit design, reimbursement flows, and healthcare realities often determine whether a benefit actually works in practice.

This is where the Apryl-Progyny combination has been most powerful: we were able to move faster and build at greater scale, while staying close to the local details that made the original platform valuable in the first place.

What this means now

What should be clear by now is that global women’s health benefits are no longer an edge case. They are becoming part of how serious employers think about supporting their workforce.

But the answer cannot be a U.S. benefit exported into other markets. And it also cannot be a loose collection of local exceptions that becomes impossible to manage. It has to be something more practical: one global framework, with enough local intelligence to actually work country by country.

That is the space Progyny Global is building in.

What I love is that the original bet behind Apryl still sits at the center of the work. The difference is that it now has the scale, experience, and employer trust of Progyny behind it.

That is what Progyny Global represents today: a new standard for global women’s health benefits. And in many ways, we are still at the beginning.

The post From Startup Vision to Global Scale: Two Years of Progyny Global appeared first on Progyny.

Everyone’s path to building a family is unique. And the type of support you may be looking for will change over time. We’re ready to adapt along with you and provide the right support for you, in the moment you need it.

Select the scenarios that apply to you to see how your Progyny Care Advocate (PCA) can help, along with other forms of support that may be available to you through Progyny. Please review your Member Guide to confirm your specific coverage and which benefits are included for you.

Contact us for personalized support

No matter where you are on your journey, Progyny is here when you’re ready. You can call your PCA team during business hours or send a secure message through your Progyny member portal or app anytime.

The post How can Progyny support my family-building journey? appeared first on Progyny.

Becoming a parent can be a mentally and emotionally challenging process long before parenthood begins, from trying to conceive, throughout pregnancy, and even months into the postpartum period.

In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month and Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month, in this episode of DocTalk, we wanted to shed light on the hormonal changes, life stressors, and shifting circumstances that can impact mental health along the way.

Today, we’ll break down what’s happening in the body and brain during TTC, pregnancy, and postpartum, how these changes can affect mental health, and how to recognize when common experiences like the baby blues may signal something more serious, such as postpartum depression or anxiety, and when it may be time to seek support.

Hosts:
Dr. Janet Choi, Chief Medical Officer, Progyny
Lissa Kline, LCSW, SVP, Provider and Member Services

Resources:

• Progyny Blog: Why mental health is the missing piece in family building benefits
• Progyny: Mental Health Report
• Pospartumdepression.org: Statistics on postpartum depression
• Survey: The female quotient
• American Pregnancy: Baby Blues

The DocTalk series, where we discuss current events on the full spectrum of women’s health and family building and what they might mean for you. From news, research studies, pop culture, and everything in-between, we’re going to break it all down and sift through the noise with the help of our expert Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Janet Choi and host, Lissa Kline, LCSW. This show does not constitute medical advice.

The post Mental health from fertility to postpartum appeared first on Progyny.

The second trimester (weeks 13 to 27) is often called the “sweet spot” of pregnancy. For many people, early symptoms ease up, energy returns, and pregnancy starts to feel more real — especially as your baby grows and you may begin to feel movement.

If it’s not the best part of pregnancy for you, that’s OK. Every pregnancy is different.

Physical changes

One of the most exciting and visible changes happens during this time — your baby bump appears!

You may also notice several changes as your body adjusts to pregnancy hormones and your growing baby:

• Less nausea and fatigue
• Increased appetite
• Mild swelling in your hands, feet, or ankles
• Bleeding gums
• Nasal congestion or mild nosebleeds
• Round ligament pain (spasms in your low belly/groin area)
• Skin changes like linea nigra (a dark line down your abdomen) or melasma (dark patches on the face)

These changes are common but always check with your healthcare provider if something feels concerning.

Your baby’s development

Your baby is growing quickly! Their facial features are aligning, and their fingers and toes are becoming well-defined. By month 4, they’ll have eyelids, eyebrows, eyelashes, nails, and hair. They will also be able to stretch, so you might also start feeling your baby move. They may even do flips throughout this trimester.

This first movement is called quickening. Initially, the feeling of movements may not be regular. Usually around 28 weeks, they become more consistent and predictable.

In the last few weeks of the second trimester, your baby can also hear you. If you talk to your growing belly, you might notice movement in response!

Prenatal care and appointments

You’ll continue regular prenatal visits, typically every 4 weeks. During this trimester, your provider may:

• Check your weight, blood pressure, and baby’s growth
• Listen to your baby’s heartbeat
• Offer screening tests for genetic conditions, if needed
• Find out the sex of your baby during the anatomy scan (around 18 to 22 weeks)
• Screen for gestational diabetes (usually between 24 to 28 weeks) and anemia (low red blood cell count)

You may also receive these injections:

• Tdap: It’s a vaccine that’s recommended at 27+ weeks and helps stimulate your body to produce antibodies against tetanus (lockjaw), diphtheria (bacterial infection), and pertussis (whooping cough). These antibodies help protect your baby after delivery until they are old enough to get the vaccine themselves.
• Rho(D) immune globulin: It helps to prevent complications if you and your baby’s blood types don’t match. Your provider will likely recommend it if your blood type is Rh negative.

These visits are also a good time to ask questions and start talking about your birth wish list.

Nutrition and lifestyle

As your baby grows, your nutritional needs increase slightly. Try to focus on a balanced diet with protein, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Your provider may also suggest eating iron-rich foods to support increased blood volume. And staying hydrated remains important, too.

You can usually continue or begin light to moderate exercise if your provider approves. Walking, prenatal yoga, and swimming are common options.

Emotional well-being

Every pregnancy is different. While some people may feel more emotionally stable during this trimester, others do not. Either way, it’s important to pay close attention to mood changes. You might feel:

• Relief as early pregnancy symptoms improve
• Excitement as your pregnancy becomes more visible
• Occasional stress or anxiety about what’s ahead

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or down all the time, it’s important to talk to your provider about it.

When to call your provider

Contact your provider if you have:

• Vaginal bleeding
• Severe abdominal pain or cramping
• Persistent headaches or vision changes
• Sudden swelling in your face or hands
• Decreased fetal movement (later in the trimester)
• Signs of infection, like fever or painful urination

Looking ahead

While every pregnancy is different, many people find the second trimester brings a welcome balance of comfort and anticipation as they move closer to meeting their baby. As it progresses, you may begin preparing for the third trimester and your baby’s arrival. This can include thinking about childbirth education classes, pediatricians, and parental leave.

Progyny is here for you. Please contact your Progyny Care Advocate for support.

Disclaimer: The information provided by Progyny is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for medical guidance.

Recommended reading

• What to consider when choosing a pediatrician
• How to create your parental leave plan
• What to expect during the third trimester

The post What to expect during the second trimester appeared first on Progyny.