Melinda French Gates has announced $215 million in new funding through her organization Pivotal focused on women’s reproductive and midlife health, bringing her total women’s health funding over the past two years to more than $600 million. The announcement was made alongside an op-ed in The New York Times calling for what she describes as a “menopause revolution.”
The new funding includes $40 million to Co-Impact for an initiative embedding mental health support into maternal and primary care, particularly in Africa, and $10 million to The Menopause Society to improve menopause care in the U.S. by educating healthcare practitioners and expanding outreach in underserved areas. The U.S. currently has approximately 6,000 counties where patients have critically low access to menopause-competent clinicians, according to the Menopause Society’s medical director Dr. Stephanie Faubion.
Pivotal’s women’s health strategy spans three pillars: philanthropy, policy advocacy, and investment in startups and funds. The organization’s portfolio includes 13 early-stage companies and 27 funds, including Haven (migraines), Tia (women’s health clinics), and Millie (pregnancy care). On the policy side, Pivotal will support provider education requirements, expanded insurance and Medicaid coverage for menopause treatments, and workplace protections. French Gates describes this as a two-to-three year “testing phase.”
