Have you ever asked yourself, why don't we know more about women's bodies? As a woman and as a physician who takes care of women, I ask myself this every single day. It really feels for the most part that women's bodies have been an afterthought in medicine. Don't forget it wasn't that long ago that we were completely excluded from clinical trials. When I think about the conditions that I treat daily, PCOS, endometriosis, adenomyosis, perimenopause, every single complication of pregnancy, my complaint is always the same. There's not been enough research and the reasons for these diseases, the solutions for these diseases, and any sort of management that I can offer to these patients. I even discussed this recently in the episode with my sister where I was talking about people putting money into women's research and asking, where is Melinda Gates? Well, it turns out she's been here all along. Melinda French Gates is the world's largest funder of women's health research. Starting in the early 2000s with the Gates Foundation, she contributed millions of dollars to the general health and understanding worldwide. She pushed heavily for funding for maternal health, contraceptive access, vaccine access, and reproductive health in low-income countries. In 2015, she launched Pivotal Ventures, which unlike the Gates Foundation, which had the greater global idea in mind, was solely for women's health. In that timeframe, she's donated millions of dollars to women's health, focusing on all aspects of the health of a woman, not just the things I had mentioned, but the larger picture. Cardiovascular health, brain health, mental health, autoimmune disease, and female-specific pathology as well. As a physician, I am frustrated every single day that I can't give my patients more. I am limited by the current science and medicine. I can't tell my patients why they have PCOS. I also don't have a single medication created just for PCOS. I can't explain to my patients why their hearts are doing what they're doing in perimenopause. I don't have a cure for PMDD. Just last week, a patient told me, 'Once a month, I want to off myself and I wish I had a solution.' And I wish I had one for her, but the money previously wasn't there to put into research so that we understood, 'Why do our bodies do this and what can we do to help?' Several weeks ago, Melinda Gates' team reached out to me and said, 'Hey Dr. Fran, Melinda's about to announce that she's going to donate even more to women's health research and we'd love for you to have a chat with her.' You want me to talk to you, the woman who's donated more money towards women's health research than anyone else in history. I was just a little nervous, as you can imagine, because I have some gripes. I have some things I want fixed, okay? And she made no promises, but she did listen. In the segment, you're going to hear why she feels so passionate about really supporting women throughout their reproductive lifetime. It's not just about pregnancy. It's not just about endometriosis. It's not just about perimenopause. It's supporting women because when they are well, they can do well. When they feel supported, they can support. When they have options, they can give options. I feel hopeful as both a woman and the doctor who treats women in knowing that someone hears us and is helping give us the thing that we've deserved all along. Welcome to I Did My Own Research. I'm Dr. Fran and today I'm joined by Melinda French Gates. Melinda earned her bachelor's degree in computer science as well as her master's in business administration from Duke. She's now most well known for her philanthropic work, previously co-chairing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest private charitable organization, and now works as a founder of Pivotal Ventures, which works to identify and implement solutions to problems affecting US women and families. I'm honored to have her here today as she just announced her new funding commitments to women's health, expanding her long-time focus on contraceptive access and maternal care with investments in midlife, menopause, and mental health care. With this new funding, Melinda's commitments to women's health exceeds $600 million and is arguably at the forefront of advancing women's health. I could not be more honored to have her here today. Melinda, thank you for being here.
Thanks for having me, Dr. Fran.
Could you tell us a little bit more about the new funding that you're putting towards women's health and really what your new focus areas and why is this now your focus?
Well, I'm really doubling down on the work that I've already been doing in the reproductive health space. So, contraceptive access as well as maternal care. But now I'm also adding on a new focus and that is midlife. We know that all women basically make this transition into their reproductive years and they're in their reproductive years into mid and later life. And yet, very little funding goes into the midlife time and women are facing lots of issues during that time and trying to and having trouble getting accurate health information or solves for their issues. And so, we really need to focus on that in my opinion. There's something that can be done about it.
You know, I say, if you live long enough, all women are going to go through menopause. And I think historically, we didn't have the information both scientifically, but also in our training to know how we can appropriately take care of our patients who are going through this. And really, if you think about it, women going through menopause are at the height of their lives, right? Their children, if they have them, are starting to be at an age where they're getting out into the world. They're at the height of their career and all of a sudden they go through this life change where they feel no support. And part of that from my point of view as a physician is that sometimes I don't know how to help because either we weren't getting the training we needed to or medically we don't have the tools to help our patients. And so, I know all women who are in that midlife part of their life, perimenopause, menopause, are looking forward to expanding the training and the tools that we have to take care of these conditions. So, I applaud you for seeing that very large group of women who so desperately want to be seen.
Thank you. Thanks for saying that.
You've said in the past that women need to be well to do well. And from what you've seen, how does supporting women's health translate into women having more power in all aspects of their life?
When you're well, you can go on to live your full potential. You can get the education you want, you can have the career you want, you can raise a family if you choose, you can start a business. But conversely, if you're not well and you're constantly dealing with chronic issues or pain or uncertainty about yourself, you really almost at times women literally do step back from the workforce. We hear this a lot in the perimenopause time of life. Just when they are at the crux of their career and doing really well, if they don't have their health, they can't stay doing the things that they want. And so what I know to be true is that you have to have your health to be able to step into your full potential and your full power. And that's just the truth.
Yeah. Is this something that you've seen in your own life with the women around you who start to enter different phases of their life and feel like I could do things better if I was just supported in my health?
Absolutely. I've met women who say all of a sudden they're dealing with restless legs syndrome or they are chronically underslept because they have severe insomnia and it just hits them all of a sudden. They're like, 'What is happening to me? Why am I up at 2:00 a.m. and I can't go back to sleep?' And they go searching for answers and even in my group of friends, which you know, we are so lucky to have good access to health care, they can't find solves. They can't find solutions and they'll go to doctor after doctor after doctor until maybe finally somebody has a solution for them or things that they can try. And part of it as you said is we aren't we're graduating people from OBGYN residency and only a third of them know about menopause. We're only training a third, much less primary care doctors or mental health doctors or you know, the first provider on the line.
Yeah, you're absolutely true. I mean, I've said myself that, you know, I only graduated from residency 5 years ago. I got one lecture on menopause in my entire training. I know everything there is to know about pregnancy that we know, but menopause I was like, I don't know a lot about anything. I really had to teach myself. I had to do courses, I had to talk to other doctors, I had to watch other healthcare professionals online to really feel, now, 5 years later, I feel I'm in a really good spot where I can really take care of patients. I know how I can work up problems, prescribe medications, but receive that in my training, and that's really unfortunate for the patients who I was taking care of before. So, finding ways that we can even just expand the training for trainees, and like you said, not just OB/GYN, but anyone who really takes care of women should be well versed in how their field of medicine is affected by menopause, cuz it's not just hot flashes and night sweats, but, you know, it's your bones, it's your muscles, it's your back, it's your kidneys, you know, all body, it's your brain. All parts of your body are affected by menopause, and everyone is responsible for taking care of patients in that part of their life.
What is another area of women's health that you feel like has not been well understood that you're trying to clarify now for people?
