Steel Roses is a podcast created for women by women. Social pressures for women are constant. Professionals, stay at home moms, working moms, we are here to tell you that you are not alone! This podcasts primary focus is providing real honest content shedding light on the daily struggles of women while also elevating women's voices.
All women are experiencing similar pressures and hurdles, and yet, no one is talking out in the open. If these topics continue to only exist as whispered conversations then we further permeate a culture of judgement and shame.
Join Jenny weekly as she discusses topics that effect women in a relatable, honest way.
Women’s health is finally getting the attention, research, and respect it has deserved for decades. In this episode, we’re talking about the long-overdue shift happening in women’s healthcare and why 2026 may be a turning point for how we talk about women’s pain, menopause, perimenopause, endometriosis, mental health, and medical gaslighting.
Inspired by a post connected to Melinda French Gates and the call to stop tolerating women’s suffering, this conversation explores what it means when women are no longer expected to silently push through pain, brain fog, mood changes, anxiety, depression, or symptoms that are too often dismissed. For generations, women have been told their symptoms are “normal,” “stress,” or “all in their head.” That dismissal has delayed diagnoses, minimized suffering, and kept too many women from getting the care they need.
We take a closer look at menopause and perimenopause as major health and longevity milestones, not just lifestyle inconveniences. Hormonal changes can affect mood, mental health, sleep, energy, relationships, and overall quality of life, yet many women are still left without clear answers or support. We also discuss the connection between midlife hormone changes, anxiety, depression, and the importance of taking women’s mental health seriously.
This episode also dives into endometriosis, including how updated diagnostic approaches may help reduce the years-long delay many patients face before receiving answers. By recognizing symptoms earlier and allowing clinical diagnosis in appropriate cases, more women may be able to access treatment and support without invasive surgery being the first barrier.
We also explore the rise of specialized women’s health platforms, increased investment in women’s health research, and the powerful impact of women advocating for women. From better care access to stronger leadership and more honest conversations, this shift has the potential to change lives.
If you’ve ever felt dismissed by a doctor, struggled to explain your symptoms, or wondered why women’s pain is so often ignored, this episode is for you. Press play for a hopeful, honest conversation about where women’s healthcare is headed and why our voices matter.
Subscribe to Steel Roses Podcast, share this episode with someone who needs it, and leave a review to help more women find the support, validation, and information they deserve.
Hello everyone, this is Silver's Podcast. This podcast was created for women by women to elevate women's voices. I am so excited to be recording today because I saw something online that really got me very excited. Some of you probably have already known this if you've been listening for a while, or if you if you listen to a lot of the episodes, I think you might pick up on the fact that women's health is a passion topic for me. There's such a lack of information out there, or there's such a lack of research. I mean, there's such a gap in women's health that it's it's concerning. I mean, it's can't been concerning for decades, but now there's finally um a glimmer of hope.
I saw in LinkedIn a post that came up, starting with a quote from Melinda French Gates that where she said 2026 is the year we finally stopped tolerating women's suffering and medicine is actually starting to show up. So the post itself goes on to read: In 2026, menopause is being treated as a serious medical and longevity infliction point rather than a lifestyle inconvenience, with the FDA removing its 22-year hormone replacement therapy black box warning in 2025, paving the way for more accessible care. Studies show that menopause symptoms significantly disrupt daily function for most women, yet more than 80% never see care, a statistic that underscores decades of underrecognition. Women's brain health directly linked to menopause is now estimated as a $250 billion research and investment opportunity, representing 26% of the famous $1 trillion women's health gap, um, i.e. trillion dollars in lack of research, which is actually so sad and depressing. This post specifically is discussing menopause and women's health. Now, menopause I've talked a lot about. I talk about perimenopause, I talk about menopause, I've interviewed women about their menopause experience. And I had the great pleasure of working on a women's health account for about three years and learned quite a bit of information that I was never told about my own body, which is astounding because you know, you get your baseline general health classes, but it stops at a certain point. If you decide not to obviously go further into educating yourself on it on your own, it stops at a certain point. That's the same for medical professionals. At a certain point, the research stops if they're not going down the path of actually focusing in on women's health. So I saw this post, reposted it in LinkedIn. I was super pumped about it. This is amazing. Then I'm like, let's go a little bit deeper, right? So I Googled it, um, the quote itself that this is the year that we stopped tolerating women's suffering. So the results that came up, medical science and venture capital are finally treating women's health as a massive economic and clinical priority rather than a lifespan inconvenience. After decades of dismissing female pain, the industry is launching specialized platforms, overhauling diagnostic guidelines, and removing decades old prescribing restrictions. A sweeping industry-wide shift is actively redefining how women's health
is managed. Endometriosis guidelines, the ACOG recently overhauled its guidelines to allow for clinical diagnosis based on symptoms based on clinical diagnosis based on symptoms alone. This removes the requirement for invasive surgery to start treatment, cutting years off the average diagnostic delay. That is massive. So for endometriosis specifically, I know quite a bit here because I have endometriosis. And for endometriosis specifically, what ends up happening is that the only way to truly diagnose it is to do uh minimal invasive surgery. They essentially will go in laparoscopically and look to see if they can find endometriosis in your uterus. That's that to get you really have to push and prod and prod and push and complain and go to the hospital and this and that. I mean, I'm talking if this is no joke when it says uh it cuts years off the average diagnostic delay because my diagnosis came by accident. It was having really, really painful monthly cycles. It sort of just came out of nowhere when I was about 26. And I went to the emergency room for it to one month because my mom started freaking out. She's like, I don't know what the hell is going on. I'm not really sure what to do here. Let's just go to the hospital. So I go to the hospital in this incredible amount of pain. And the doctors there are like doing, you know, they took the immediate assumption is, oh, you're pregnant. I wasn't pregnant, and I knew I wasn't pregnant, but that was their immediate assumption. That was the first one. Then we get to, okay, well, we're just gonna do a read a bunch of tests. We didn't really find anything at the end of the day. They called it PID. PID is pelvic inflammatory disease. So PID is a general diagnosis given by doctors when they don't know what is going on with your uterus. That's what that is. PID covers a wide range of symptoms, but it will, it's really in place there because it's like, well, we don't really know what this is. Seems like something's inflamed. We're gonna call it PID. That's what they said to me. Not those words specifically, but they literally we just don't know what it is. So we think it's pelvic inflammatory disease. It wasn't. Uh long story short, you know, I ended up going um to um have surgery on my um on my abdomen because I had a cyst on my ovary. And the doctor, um, that actually shows up when you do scans. Endometriosis doesn't. So the cyst shows up, but they're like, you know what, that's probably what's causing you so much pain. Let's go ahead and get that removed. When they went in to get it removed, that's when they saw that I had a massive amount of endometriosis, endometrium in my in my uterus, my ovaries. It was pretty much everywhere, and that's why I was in so much pain. Flash forward to now. This is fantastic. So if you go to your doctor and you hit the mark for specific symptoms that align with endometriosis, they can start treating you. This is such a big deal. There are countless advocacy organizations out there that have patient checklists and doctor checklists for when you actually go to your doctor or where you can like check off, like, oh, you know, I've had this symptom, this symptom, and this symptom. These resources are free. They're downloadable and they are online. If you look them up, you could just look up atriosis resources if you suspect that you have that. Uterine fibroids, same thing. There's advocacy organizations that support um that will support you and provide you with materials to educate yourself, but also to be prepared to go talk to your doctor. This is massive.
Menopause care following the FDE's removal of its 20 tier, 22-year black box warning on hormone replacement therapy. Medicine has reclassified menopause as a critical longevity milestone. The amount of women that lost their lives when they hit menopause. I'm gonna do a quick Google because let me see here. Doing a quick Google menopause on women because um the amount of women that have taken their own lives due to menopause because of what they go through during menopause. Some of some women go through it incredibly severely. They lose their lives, they they take their own lives because they can't take it anymore. And it's this massive internal struggle that they're ashamed and don't know what to do, and told that it's all in their head, and this is the outcome. The highest suicide rates for women occur during midlife from ages 45 to 54. Period that coincides with paramenopause and menopause. While overall female suicide rates vary, women experiencing early menopause or premature ovarian insufficiency faces significantly increased risk of suicidal ideation and attempts. The research is there, the data is there, but now the actual industry is catching up. This is a big deal. This is a massive milestone in our lives that deserves recognition, it deserves attention. We need to pay attention to this because even if you don't have it severely, you will still experience symptoms. You guys have heard me complain about it many times now at this point. Like it's it's a lie, it's a lot to take in. And then for people to not believe you and people to tell you it's all in your head, you know, when I went to the doctor begging for help with my parametopause and with the hormone shifts, because I was felt myself falling into a deep dark hole of depression. I had to beg. I had to badger them. I had to really, I got to a point where I just couldn't take it anymore. The biggest motivating factor for me to get help was my kids because I don't want them to grow up with a mom who is screaming at them for two weeks of the month or crying uncontrollably two weeks of the month or just in a deep, depressed state for two weeks end of the month. Why the hell should we accept that? So this is like such a such a huge shift. Let me see here. I want to go back to my original. Specialized infrastructure companies dedicated exclusively to female health are scaling rapidly to meet demand. For instance, MIDI Health and insurance covered platforms for perimetopause, menopause, and metabolic health recently reached a $1 billion valuation, valuation to serve patients across all 50 states. Mental and brain health menopause-related cognitive issues are finally receiving the attention they deserve, with women's brain health emerging as an estimated $250, $250 billion investment opportunity. Yes, there's money to be made here. Like obviously, we're gonna prioritize ourselves as soon as we see that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Outside of the fact that they're gonna cash in on us, which they will, there's help. There is going to be help. There's going to be a light at the end of the tunnel, people. This is massive. This is huge. This is incredibly huge. When I've talked to my grandmother, no, she just turned 90. Oh my gosh, why is it escaping me? 97 years old. She, when I talked with her about this, she said there is no way this would have never come up. She was so proud that we're even discussing this today because it would have never come up. Go take a walk. Have your husband take you out to dinner. Lay down for a few minutes. Have you seen a therapist? Like, we need actual legitimate help, not nonsense recommendations. And this is
it. Now, I will admit when I saw the original post, I'm not saying I live under a rock, but apparently I do. Sorry, everybody. I really wasn't familiar with Melinda Gates. So Melinda French Gates is a global philanthropist, author, and advocate for women and girls. She was previously married to Bill Gates, who and she co-founded and led the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for over two decades. And now she heads Pivotal, which is an organization dedicated to advancing women's power and influence. Beautiful. Women helping women. Like, we need more of this. This is what we need, you know, like for us to advocate for each other, we would be incredibly unstoppable. I mean, really, really think through that. If women took a step back and really looked at everything in front of them and realized there's more than enough to go around. And there's more than enough. And that in order to get ahead, you do not need to crush your competition. I mean, if every woman could get on board with that and understand that if we support each other and pull each other up the ladder together, I mean, the things that we could achieve would be astounding. Organizations that have women on their leadership boards perform perform statistically better than organizations that have a predominantly male leadership board. Like the proof is in the pudding, people. We are fantastic and we need to start really recognizing it. Then I got a little bit more curious and I said, well, you know, let's go a little bit deeper. What are the 2026 advances? Or what's 2020? Oh, what are 2026 advances
in women's health? Um, this one actually gave me a list of conferences. Typically, when I don't do women's health anymore at work, but um, and just so you guys know, the medical side of things, every year there's conferences all throughout the year and different medical societies, different disease states come together and they present information, they present data. This is where all the doctors will travel to to get their education. They're gonna learn new technology, learn about new drugs. They sit in at things called symposium product theaters, and they get to learn all this new information. This is the exciting part of my job. The parts that I know are it's making a difference. This is it, this is the impact. And so every year there's these massive conferences, and all the doctors come together and they just thought new information. So I'm gonna dig further into the women's health conferences this year. I'm gonna take a look and see what's being presented, who's presenting what, and then I'll get back to you because that actually is what's going to be dictating the presentations that happen at these medical conferences, is actually what dictates what the market is going to do. That's how you can tell what the market is going to do, is if you can decipher those conferences. More to come on this, but guys, I mean, May 2026, huge light for us that's coming down the line. So I'm incredibly excited. I hope you are too. Um, I hope you found this information, this episode informative. If you have any specific topic requests, is if there is a disease state that you're curious about that you would like me to look into, please do not hesitate to reach out. I like to do research.
I will fact check, I will make sure I get a solid amount of information, and then I will present it to everybody. You can email me at Steel Roses Podcast, uh, SteelRosespodcast at gmail.com. You can also reach me on LinkedIn and Instagram and Facebook. So please find me, reach out to me, and I will do whatever topic you need me to look at in relation to women's health. Thank you so much for being with me today, and I will see you on the next one. Take care.
.jpg)
