Episode summary
The $360 Billion Market that Medicine Got Wrong for 20 Years
Summary
Menopause is being reframed as a major health-care and consumer market after decades of being dismissed as an inevitable part of aging. The segment argues that the condition affects half the world’s population, drives large productivity losses, and has created a wide gap between women’s needs and the care available to them.
The story centers on Naomi Watts, whose own early experience with perimenopause helped inspire Stripes, and on the rise of companies like Midi Health that are building insurance-covered telehealth and wellness offerings. Investors and founders describe a market that can support venture returns even with relatively low-cost solutions, but the segment warns that crowded demand also attracts hype, weak products and wellness marketing.
A major policy shift is the FDA’s rollback of long-standing black box warnings on hormone replacement therapy. Marty Makary says the agency corrected dogma that scared away a generation of women, while the segment notes that prescribing has begun to rise. Even so, the health system still lacks trained providers, and the key challenge ahead is separating evidence-based menopause care from products that merely claim to help.
Key takeaways
- The segment says menopause is a 360 billion dollar category and a major source of productivity loss, not a niche women’s issue.
- Naomi Watts’s personal experience with early menopause helped turn Stripes into a pro-aging brand aimed at women in perimenopause and menopause.
- Joanna Strober’s Midi Health became the first menopause company to reach a one billion dollar valuation, showing investor interest in midlife women’s health.
- Marty Makary says the FDA removed unsupported black box warnings on hormone replacement therapy and called the prior stance one of the greatest mistakes of modern medicine.
- The segment warns that women should favor FDA-backed products and consult a doctor because the menopause market is filling with claims and hype.
Notable quotes
“-It is a 360 billion dollar category”
“women had been talked out of it. But the mantra that women should avoid it at all costs took on a life of its own”
“There is 75 million women in the U.S. today going through menopause”
“We removed black box warnings that were not supported by the data”
“Look for the FDA brand. It's one of the greatest brands in the world”
How the episode opens
Westin: This is a story about market failure, failure of the markets to address something half of the world's population will experience, but has historically been largely ignored, menopause. For generations, women were told the physiological changes that come with aging were something they should endure quietly if they were told anything at all. Now, that silence is being broken by doctors, celebrity influencers, startups and investors who see menopause as one of the next big markets in women's health.
Our colleague Scarlet Fu brings us the story. -It's health care for half the world. -Menopause is hot.
-It is a 360 billion dollar category. -The plain wrong part was it's all over at menopause. Go to the corner, sit in the rocking chair and pull out your knitting needles.
That's changed significantly now. -Menopause is finally getting its big business moment after decades of being overlooked. Beauty brands, supplement makers, telehealth startups and investors are all racing to stake their claim on a growing market to provide relief to women whose ovaries stop producing estrogen.
But this gold rush raises a key question, which products and services actually help versus those cashing in on confusion? -We developed a report on the biggest unmet needs in women's health last year and established a 360 billion dollar ghost market. -For Carli Sapir, the opportunity is clear.
Menopause often hits during women's peak earning years, driving more than 150 billion dollars in global productivity losses and underscoring one of the biggest white spaces in women's health. -The market for menopause is specifically a huge market. There is 75 million women in the U.S.
today going through menopause. Just by comparison, there's only 400,000 IVF cycles in the U.S. today.
And that doesn't mean IVF is a bad place to invest. It just means the solutions have to be relatively expensive for the market size to be venture backable, whereas in menopause, even a relatively low cost solution, if it's effective, can have a venture outcome.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- women's health market
- menopause
- hormone replacement therapy
- fda warnings
- evidence vs wellness marketing
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Stripes
- Midi Health
- Amboy Street Ventures
Watch the episode
Watch “The $360 Billion Market that Medicine Got Wrong for 20 Years” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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