Melinda French Gates: Inside Her $600 Million Mission for Women's Health

Melinda French Gates joins Tamsen with a major announcement, a huge new donation toward women’s midlife and menopause care, and she’s making it right here on The Tamsen Show.

Melinda has pledged $2 billion to women and families in her lifetime, and this new commitment expands her women’s health work into menopause for the first time. In this episode she breaks down what the funding means for perimenopause and menopause care, why so many women get dismissed by their doctors, and how she plans to fix it, starting with the people we turn to first: our doctors.

Right now only about a third of OBGYNs are trained in menopause. Less than one percent of aging research even looks at it. Melinda is putting real money and her name behind changing that, and this conversation is about what that shift will mean for you, your friends, your daughters, and the generations coming up behind us.

We also cover:

• Why the funding goes toward training doctors instead of going straight to women
• Why it took Melinda three doctors to get the right care, even with every resource available to her
• The bone health and cardiovascular risks no one warns you about
• How menopause could have its own Susan G. Komen moment
• What she learned about navigating big transitions and building your next chapter
• The daily non-negotiables and decades-long friendships that keep her grounded

Melinda’s latest book, The Next Day, is a must-read on navigating life’s biggest transitions. You can find it here