Melinda French Gates Directs $215 Million Toward Women's Health, Adding Focus on Menopause

Melinda French Gates announced a $215 million commitment to women's health that includes menopause and midlife health as one of three key pillars. This marks the first time she has directed major philanthropic resources toward perimenopause and menopause. She has also given $100 million to Wellcome Leap, an organization that funds research on under-researched women's health conditions.

That money has already supported studies on women's cardiovascular disease. "As a world, we still really are not focused on these years that women go through called perimenopause and menopause. And yet those are women's very productive years," French Gates told Fortune.

She described women in middle school and high school parenting years who continue working while seeking care for symptoms and often lose workdays. Initial partners include the Menopause Society, which trains frontline health care workers to treat patients during perimenopause and menopause.

French Gates has previously directed women's health funding through the Gates Foundation and now through her firm Pivotal.

Pivotal's portfolio contains 13 early-stage companies and 27 funds. Holdings include Haven, which treats migraines; the women's health clinic Tia; and the pregnancy care startup Millie. French Gates said she seeks medically-backed startups.

On the policy side, Pivotal will back requirements for provider education, expanded insurance and Medicaid coverage, and workplace protections. French Gates also wrote in a New York Times op-ed that public education campaigns are another route for change.

French Gates cited data showing women live in poor health for nine years longer than men over their lifetimes, with half of those years occurring during midlife at peak productivity.