Show Caption
Melinda French Gates is donating $215 million to improve women's health, including during menopause.French Gates has previously pledged $1 billion to help women and families following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.Melinda French Gates has learned that when men don't do the right thing, people look to women for answers.She's had plenty of them. The philanthropist and author has given more than $400 million to fund women's health in the past two years. She has advocated for access to contraceptives and abortions.Now she's donating $215 million to improve women’s health, including during menopause, her first investment in midlife women.“I'm both using my voice here and my money to say this is incredibly important,” she tells USA TODAY. “We ought to be pouring a lot more money into this area so that women can thrive and so that they can step into their full power.”'There's so much more we can do'French Gates, 61, has long been vocal about helping women.She spent 24 years with the Gates Foundation, which she co-founded with her then-husband Bill Gates, giving away more than $100 billion, much focused on global health, including maternal care and health inequities. (The couple divorced in 2021, and while details of the agreement were kept private, it included a reported multi-billion dollar fund to support French Gates' philanthropic work. She she left the foundation in 2024 and began Pivotal.)Her commitment shifted after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade and left abortion rights up to states and led her to pledge $1 billion to help women and families. "For too long, a lack of money has forced organizations fighting for women's rights into a defensive posture while the enemies of progress play offense," she said at the time. "I want to help even the match."French Gates' latest donation is inspired by what she's seen in her extensive travels — from women's clinics in Tuscaloosa, Alabama to schools in Malawi — and in her own life.Whether she’s walking with her friends through Seattle on a misty Monday morning or on a ski trip with friends when “one of the women had to literally leave the table because she had a hot flash,” menopause is a big topic.Some of her friends, she says, visited multiple physicians before receiving treatment. One in 5 women goes a year before a doctor diagnoses her menopause, according to one survey. Another showed that 5% of women seeking help for perimenopause or menopause saw 11 doctors before getting help.French Gates considers herself lucky. Her three closest friends are a few years older. “As they started to face this journey, they would be sharing with me what they knew, what they didn't know, the misinformation,” she says.She knows she is privileged with incredible access to top quality health care. (Let’s just say she isn’t struggling to get her estrogen patches.) Even so, she says her physician was late to prescribe her hormonal therapy.“We are way behind what we ought to know about this phase of life for women. We're way behind on knowing exactly how the hormones change and at what time. We're way behind on sharing information with women,” she says.As she started paying it forward to other women, including younger women in her book club, she felt a responsibility to do more.“I was like, these are things you need to know. And I started to realize that we are trying to inform one another as women,” French Gates says. “There's just so much more we can do here to make sure everybody's trained properly, but also that we get the right information out.”The investment begins with $10 million to the Menopause Society to train providers from gynecologists to family physicians. The funds will also continue to support access to contraception and train doctors in menopause care, as well as advance research and care for conditions that uniquely or disproportionately affect women.Most doctors – even gynecologists – don't receive adequate training on menopause during medical school, according to one study. Less than one-third of the almost 100 obstetrics and gynecology residency program directors recently surveyed said they received training in their residencies.“We still have so many more women to reach and this is going to go a long way to help,” says Stephanie Faubion, medical director of the Menopause Society and director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Women's Health. Faubion says the grant will help make care accessible and affordable. There are areas without trained menopause providers, and only about two-thirds of menopause-certified providers report that they take insurance.“For too long, this stage of life — this perimenopause and menopause phase — was honestly invisible,” French Gates says. "It was like a woman was just expected to deal with it behind the scenes.”Melinda French Gates wants to change the normsWhether they are grappling with maternal depression or trying to get treatment for menopause, women shouldn’t have to find solutions on their own, French Gates says.“Women's health for too long has been under prioritized and underfunded," she says. For every dollar spent globally on health research and innovation, five cents goes towards women’s health. "We need to change that because we know that when we do make the right investments in women's health, then women can thrive,” she says. “Man is the default in medicine, right? That's where the research has been done."The result is that the burden shifts to women — a pattern she has seen throughout her career. She was reminded of it yet again earlier this year when her ex-husband’s name appeared in files released earlier this year of late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and media outlets asked her about it."Whatever questions remain there of what I don't — can't even begin to know all of it — those questions are for those people and for even my ex-husband. They need to answer to those things, not me," she told NPR's "Wild Card" podcast in February.Women and victims, many of whom were girls when they first reported being abused, should not alone carry the load of uncovering the crimes these men committed and holding men accountable, she says.“Sometimes on these societal issues we're using the women by default to either answer or to solve a problem. I think we need to rethink that as a society and say, ‘You know, who's responsible for which pieces?’” she tells USA TODAY. “How do we change these norms?”'Mom is living her best life now'French Gates sees righting the balance, particularly in health care, as a core part of supporting women leaders.With 1 in 10 women leaving the workforce because of menopause, and another 1 in 5 considering retiring early, it can lead to fewer women leaders at a time when they make up fewer than one-third of top jobs.“They are at the prime of their career. Just when the woman's about to step into the CFO role, or step into the CEO or president role, like she has all this training and knowledge and experience,” she says. “I think we want that put into the workforce not taken out. You have to be healthy to be able to do well at your job or at home.”French Gates sees hope for women in their 50s and 60s.“They're just incredibly enriching years. And I feel lucky, to be alive and thriving at this age,” she says. “They have been some of the most, satisfying and productive years of my life. You know, I feel like my youngest says, ‘Gosh, Mom is living her best life now.’ ”Laura Trujillo is a national columnist focusing on health and wellness. She is the author of "Stepping Back from the Ledge: A Daughter's Search for Truth and Renewal," and can be reached at ltrujillo@usatoday.com.
