At this year’s Milken Global Conference in Los Angeles, I sat down with Emmy-award-winning journalist, author, and women’s health advocate Tamsen Fadal—a tireless force reshaping how society understands menopause and midlife health. Through her books, public speaking, and a documentary now seen in 400 cities across 42 countries, Fadal spotlights the medical and cultural blind spots that leave women underserved.
“When we were talking about investing in women’s health, the future of women’s health… I think we’re seeing the need in so many different ways,” she told me. “It’s exciting anytime I see it being brought to the global scale… I know that we’re gonna get somewhere, and it’s a matter of time, and it’s about innovation, and it’s about research, and of course, it’s about dollars.”
Those dollars matter: despite women comprising over 50% of the population, only a small percentage of medical research funding specifically supports women’s health. And while cardiovascular disease kills more women than men each year, only a fraction of heart disease research is focused on women. Globally, less than 2% of medical research funding targets reproductive health—an issue that spans from pregnancy to menopause.
Fadal zeroes in on the perimenopause and menopause phase: “I focus mostly on perimenopause and menopause, and that just is kind of like very, very small sums in the grand scheme of things,” she explained. That smallness ripples through clinical training too. Surveys show that under a third of OB-GYN residency programs offer any menopause curriculum, and fewer than 1 in 5 residents feel comfortable managing menopause.
“It was surprising to me, too. Women’s health in general, but particularly in midlife, was not something that was studied… A lot of this wasn’t taught in medical school, in particular about perimenopause and menopause, so it’s really been a game of catch up,” Fadal says of this educational void.
For women navigating symptoms like hot flashes or brain fog, this gap can be frustrating—and dangerous. Fadal urges patience and persistence in medical consultations: “If they walk into a doctor and a doctor says, ‘Oh, this is just all in your head,’ or ‘this is normal,’ to really push forward.” Evidence links untreated menopausal symptoms to heightened risks for heart disease, osteoporosis, and cognitive decline.
So how do we bridge that gap? Fadal points to storytelling’s power. “The only thing that has really moved the needle, in a lot of ways, is storytelling.” Her documentary’s reach confirms the impact, and it’s part of a broader cultural moment. Femtech—apps and devices focused on periods, fertility, and menopause—has rapidly become a multi-billion-dollar industry. Meanwhile, federal support for women’s health research is finally starting to grow.
Still, women spend significantly more time in poor health compared with men, and this gap is most acute during midlife. The workplace cost of menopause in the U.S. alone was recently pegged at $1.8 billion in lost productivity.
All of which underscores Fadal’s core mission: elevate the conversation—and let dollars, data, and storytelling follow. At Milken, her message was clear: women’s health isn’t a sidebar—it’s central to societal well-being. And thanks to her work, it’s finally getting the spotlight it’s long deserved.
Watch my full conversation with Fadal below.
