Joanna Strober speaks on panel of women’s health experts at the White House – December 2024
“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction,” Virginia Woolf famously declared in 1929. Nearly a century later, women are still fighting for rooms—but now, they’re medical ones. The tough truth is this: in 2025, we’re not just seeking physical spaces, but entire healthcare systems actually designed with women’s bodies and experiences in mind. Just as Woolf’s contemporaries needed financial independence to write, today’s women need affordable access to specialized healthcare to thrive. Simple as that.
It’s this parallel that Joanna Strober, CEO of Midi Health, refers back to throughout our recent conversation. In the sterile corridors of modern medicine, she tells me women have too often found themselves “speaking into a void, their symptoms dismissed, their experiences minimized.” She shares that change is finally coming, driven by innovators who understand that women’s healthcare needs a room of its own—a space where menopause isn’t a whispered word, and where decades of medical gender bias are finally being addressed through technology, accessibility, and personalized care. Strober is not alone; in recent years, we’ve seen a surge of companies entering this space. She shares, however, that for her, it was her own lived experience of menopause, specifically the visible gaps in support, that motivated her to create Midi Health.
Pioneering Change in Women’s Healthcare
A seasoned entrepreneur and healthcare pioneer, Strober has dedicated her career to addressing gaps in healthcare. After successfully scaling her previous company focused on childhood obesity prevention, she pivoted her attention to what she saw as an even bigger challenge she herself lived firsthand: the lack of specialized care for women in midlife. Under her leadership, Midi Health has grown to serve over 10,000 women per week with their menopause journey, via a network of 250 specialized clinicians. Having closed a $63M Series B round in September, the company mission is firmly grounded in making expert care more accessible through insurance coverage and telehealth services.
The Growing Need for Specialized Menopause Care
“Women are looking for a room of one’s own for women’s healthcare,” explains Strober, “the healthcare that’s out there has not been created for us women nor by us women. We want to match women’s care with experts who understand women’s care.”
There is no denying the numbers tell their own story. We have seen a stark funding disparity in healthcare research and development for women’s needs, painting a clear picture of a long-known but rarely acknowledged systemic gender bias. While the U.S. military allocated $294 million to erectile dysfunction medications between 2011 and 2021—(equivalent to the cost of four F-35 fighter jets), a bill to allocate funding for overall menopause and mid-life women’s health research is battling its way through Congress. The proposed funding which stands at $275 million, nearly 6.5% less than the amount spent on blue pills. This underscores an urgent need to reassess how we allocate healthcare research resources, demanding not just increased funding but a fundamental shift in how we prioritize women’s health.
From Taboo to Trending: The New Menopause Narrative
WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 2: Halle Berry joins female senators at a news conference in Washington at the … [+]
At the same time, we are seeing a surge of celebrity voices and TikTok influencers breaking taboos around menopause and women’s health. This cultural shift comes at a crucial moment, as a new generation of women witnesses their family members’ struggles with conditions like osteoporosis and Alzheimer’s, and the market is starting to respond.
However, Strober cautions that hype brings its own challenges. While menopause has become a buzzword in startup circles, trending from Silicon Valley to Wall Street, she shares that the spotlight effect risks trivializing the true medical complexity at hand. In distinguishing between effective solutions and what she terms “snake oil,” with market-entrants scrambling to profit off products that make big promises but lack scientific backing, Strober argues that this is where personalized care becomes paramount. Ensuring women are discussing their unique journey with dedicated professionals. A privilege that for many women has been beyond the bounds of affordability.
Menopause Meets Technology
Democratizing access to quality care stands at the forefront of this revolution, as currently some specialists charge upwards of $1,500 for a consultation—a fee Strober herself paid before it became one of her lightbulb moments to start Midi Health. “We’re trying to give insurance-covered care to women for these issues and give them the right information on what they should take. It might be a skin cream, it might be a protein, it might be fiber, it might be hormones,” she explains. “More choice is great, but with that comes responsibility. Companies need to back their promises with proof, not just clever marketing.”
Sept 2024- Midi Health raises $63M Series B
AI For Menopause
Strober believes Artificial Intelligence plays a crucial role in this transformation, though perhaps not in the way many might expect. While the healthcare industry races to adopt AI solutions, Midi Health takes a measured approach. She shares that we need to reconsider the opportunity AI provides to women who have been largely left behind by modern medicine. “We believe that AI enhances efficiency in provider training, streamlines billing processes, and aids in chart reviews without replacing human providers. This technology-driven approach has the potential to create the world’s largest dataset on women’s health outcomes, optimizing treatment protocols while ensuring patient privacy,” she explains.
As healthcare technology advances, our focus remains on blending innovative solutions with personalized care. Strober emphasizes, “We are fundamentally a care company. AI will not replace human care providers—it will complement them.”
A Comprehensive Approach to Women’s Health
The current era of women’s healthcare signifies a significant paradigm shift, offering hope for progress long overdue. By integrating technological innovation, enhancing accessibility, and ensuring affordability in personalized care provision, we are moving towards a future where women’s unique health needs are not only acknowledged but actively addressed and prioritized.
Just as Woolf advocated for women to have their own spaces, women are now asserting their rightful places in the realms of medicine and care networks. As we embark on this new chapter in women’s health, a clear message emerges – we deserve better. Women of all ages should be able to thrive in a society where their health is celebrated openly, supported by technology that transforms centuries of silence into a chorus of understanding.
