It is, unfortunately, an all-too-common experience for women to be dismissed by doctors and the healthcare system when seeking care or trying to get an accurate diagnoses. This can happen across nearly every area of women's health—from figuring out an endometriosis diagnosis to explaining pregnancy symptoms—but one area where compassionate, knowledgable care can be particularly difficult to find is during the years surrounding menopause.
Melinda French Gates wants to change this. On the latest episode of "Nice Talk," French Gates talks about the strides her organization, Pivotal, has made in perimenopausal and menopausal care. She also explains just how far behind medical care is when it comes to period of a woman's life.
"Women for so long weren't the medical professionals. We weren't the scientists. We weren't the ones moving the funding. So we studied men's bodies, but we didn't necessarily study women's bodies in the way that we should have," French Gates says. "And so, consequently, our health system got set up for men."
And while some progress has been made, women continue to feel the effects of a system not made for them. Menopause remains a huge blind spot.
"Every woman goes through it, but it's sort of unspeakable, untreatable is the way we've looked at it in the past," French Gates says. "Of course, there are treatments now. There need to be a lot more treatments, in my opinion, but we need to not only be able to talk about women's experience there, we need to make sure they're getting good access and the right care."
The philanthropist notes that "only only a third of OB/GYNs are trained in perimenopause and menopause." So, she continues, "My investment to The Menopause Society is to get all OB/GYNs trained. Let's train primary care specialists so they understand the symptoms of menopause and perimenopause, and let's train healthcare professionals so that anywhere a woman touches the healthcare system, her symptoms are recognized, acknowledged, and she's sent for the right care."
French Gates also wants to see more studies funded on menopause and women's hormones, because "it's just long, long, long overdue." She points to the spotlight that was put on breast cancer research and the progress that has been made in oncology.
"Look how far we've come in breast cancer," she says. "It was the Susan G. Komen Foundation in Texas that started all the walkathons and runathons, right, for women's breast cancer. Then they took half of their money—so they took billions of dollars—poured into breast cancer research. Today, women routinely know to screen themselves. We know to go in for mammogram. We're preventing. We're catching breast cancer earlier. There are more cures."
French Gates says, "It takes all of us," and again points to how well-funded organizations like her own play an important role.
"I think it's women using their voice and males who are allies, but I also think it's the private sector," she says. "They need to make more investments and make changes in the workforce. I think in the public sector, the fact that the public is saying state and federal government need to be investing more in women's health ... And then I think philanthropists, too, because often we can help fund some of that early research that maybe others don't want to fund with taxpayer dollars."
French Gates sees menopause, reproductive health and every aspect of medical care for women as interconnected with their ability to thrive in our world. As she puts it, "If women want to be whatever they want to be in society, you first have to have your health because to do well in society, you have to be well."
For more from French Gates—including teaming up with Olivia Rodrigo for her Daisy Chain Fields festival—check out this week's installment of "Nice Talk." The episode is available everywhere you listen to podcasts.