Navigate Menopause with HotPause Health | 042 - It Has to Be Me

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tess Masters (00:00):
Oh, Melissa and Stacey, I was I'm so excited to be having this little chat with you, because I am so inspired by what the two of you have done with hot, pause health and will continue to do. I'm so excited to be part of the community. So can we start with this? It has to be me moment where you were working together and met at spoonful one and decided this does not have to be me anymore. We're going to go out and start this thing together.

Unknown (00:27):
Stace,

Stacey Ulacia (00:30):
I'll take it. You know, Melissa and I have worked together for years. And Tess, like you mentioned, we started at a company called spoonful one, and that company was working to reduce pediatric food allergies in children, and it's a place where we really learn to hone in more on our healthcare messaging and communication efforts. And it was a big success. It was acquired by Nestle health science, and after it was acquired, Melissa and I recognized how much we enjoyed working together, and that we wanted to continue on that path, but that we needed a new mission, and we had been analyzing the space where two working moms in our early to mid 40s and recognized that it felt like there was this huge gap in the perimenopause and menopause space, and that we Were both struggling to find reliable, credible science backed research resources and said, we can put our heads together on this. And can we create something, you know, a community, a platform for women to come and get the education and information that they need to empower their own healthcare journeys, especially in this time of menopause. So that's how we came to be. And, you know, we launched just in August, so we are still relatively new to the space, but it's been a really amazing launch. And you know, we've connected with so many like minded women in the space, and are just thrilled to be out here working to to improve women's health

Melissa Oliveira (01:57):
this way. Yeah,

it's so exciting because I sort of, I see the parallel already with the Food Allergy community and menopause and perimenopause, where there is this gap in the information gap in support, a way to verify the credibility and the reliability of the information that you're getting this sea of noise and Not, kind of knowing where to go and feeling like you're ripping your hair out and feeling that, that that loneliness that can happen when you've got a child with a food allergy, feels similar to the labyrinth of the perimenopause, menopause journey.

I mean, I think that's exactly where you know the impetus for this idea. Of course, we're two working mothers. Of course, we're in our 40s, of course, we had just come off of the pandemic, which was like Soul shattering, mind blowing, and then you went straight into all these symptoms where you thought you were losing your mind. And I, yeah, I think that oftentimes, you know, food allergy parents in particular, feel like, Did I do something wrong? Did I do something wrong? Is it my fault? I must have done something. I think that women in perimenopause feel the same way, like, what did I do? Why am I going crazy? Everybody else thinks that I am crazy, so I must be crazy. I've gone to my doctor and they're gaslighting me, and nobody seems to have answers. And I think with pediatric food allergy. It's not an exact correlation or, you know, but it is a proxy for, there was so much misinformation for so long, generational, and then it it did a 180 I mean, it literally was, as opposed to avoiding all those foods. It was, give them early, give them often, make them diverse. And so educating an entire generation is really hard and Stacy, and I just come out of doing that. And so it takes so much trust and credibility to move generational thought right. It's not like it's just going to happen overnight. Women are going to understand what's happening to their bodies. You're going to have to really educate providers. You know, I think only 30% of OB gyns in the United States of America even had training on menopause in their residency programs. They just don't have the information. So it's not their fault in many ways. It's like the woman, or I had a woman, the OB GYN who helped you give birth to your babies, might not be the same practitioner who's going to help you navigate perimenopause and menopause, because she might have not have that training. So it's really important to have this, you know, two sides of same coin, which is, you have women, and then you have the providers who can help them. And right now we have a real deficit. And so Stace and I looked at that and, well, we kind of did this before, yeah, do this again. It's just a little, you know, a little bit different, yeah.

So how did you merge your different talents together? Because your background. Is in communications and branding and messaging and putting systems in place. And the two of you have very complimentary but differing skill sets, so just talk me inside how you partnered up to put that, that box of tools together.

You go first, Jason, then you want me to

fill it in, Melissa and I might be the two most type A people on the planet that have come together. And so you pair both of our energy, our tenacity, our grit, our determination to get something done, and even if it's an area that we don't have deep expertise, we're willing to dig in and do the hard work to figure it out. And it is a little bit of a divide and conquer. I think, of course, we wish one of us was the marketing and communications expert and the other was the OBGYN, right. Like, what a perfect pairing that would have made for hot pause health but, but here we are, and you know, in areas that we do have gaps, we very quickly stood up a medical advisory board to help us with those gaps. So we have over 15 female doctors and experts that help guide us in everything where Melissa and I may fall short, from OB GYN to dermatologists to acupuncturists, mental health experts guiding our every move and all of the content that lives in our website. And then from a more technical perspective, you know, it really has just been a divide and conquer. Um, Melissa has had to learn lots of new talents. I have had to learn lots of new talents in areas that we didn't have, you know, deep bench strength. So

I will also say it's been, it's been fun to learn together, meaning, you know, you think that you could just be No. Would you end No, no. We could be a lawyer. We could be a developer. I mean, we could be so many things that we wish that we could just because we are so gritty and I think competitive, like we just want to go, when you have roadblocks, or you have these barriers, you just thought, I mean, I wish I could have just been a corporate attorney, because that would have just solved me, like I could have just gone, but you and saved me 10s

of 1000s of dollars. So I know, I know. Look, startups are so scary and so exciting at the same time, right? And we talk about this a lot on the podcast, how fear and excitement activate in the same place in the body. It's just an attachment to a different outcome, right? With fear, we buy into the fact that it's going to destroy us, and with excitement, we buy into the fact that it's going to be amazing. And it sounds like the two of you tap into the Type A Yeah, we've got the grit, the determination, we're going to make it happen. So what was it like for the two of you to leave your regular paychecks and the security of corporate jobs, to go out on your own with this startup and go, it has to be me, or it has to be us, in this case, to do this, to put this information out there and create this platform for women?

Yeah, yeah, I think it's totally vulnerable. And I think because we started and both understood the vulnerability that the other person was going through, that whether that's vulnerability as a mother, or vulnerability as formerly being, you know, a major contributor to household income and no longer having that, and that's security, or, you know, benefits and healthcare and all the 401, KS, and all the stuff that somebody else going through that same thing and understanding exactly that rawness. And, you know, there are days where, you know, I'll be crying, and Stace is, like, we got it. Don't give up. You know, fast forward, she'll be crying. I'm like, we got the states. We're going to crush it. And so I think that that ebbing and flowing and being able to understand true empathy, because we're in the same boat, you know, very, very similarly. Our kids are the same age, you know, we've had our career similarly and and being having somebody else buoy you, you know, and then vice versa, and be able to do that for them has been tremendous. I mean, I would say, I don't know if that answered your question, but no, I

really, I really love what you're saying about the camaraderie, the communion, the being able to elevate and celebrate each other through this experience, because it is a labyrinth, and there would be mixed emotions, you know, not just every day, but every hour. You know, I've obviously been in the startup world as well, and have multiple companies. I really get that journey viscerally, in terms of my body, where that sits. So I just want to ask you, when you're feeling that fear bubble up, or that uncertainty. What do you tether yourself to? To really remain anchored to this mission of, yeah, it has to be me to do this like we're putting this out for women, not only for ourselves, but for for everybody else. What's the scariest bit for you? And then how do you then anchor yourself back? I. I'll ask you first, Melissa,

Unknown (10:01):
I would say, what brings us back? And I think we do this a lot, is we go sometimes we can go really low, and it can be soul crushing, right? Like, oh, my god, everybody else is doing this. Or we're never going to get there. And then you realize we really, we crushed it. I mean, we legitimately crushed it, and we crushed it, yeah, yeah. Hype girls like, we literally are fluffing each other being like, you are amazing, you are beautiful, so smart and you but you have to do that, because you could just sink. I mean, it becomes quicksand, and it can happen so quickly that you have this this doubt. And I think that we do have the ability, and we often times, like, I got Stacey an intentions book, and we write, we, like, have intentions, and we manifest them. And it sounds crazy and we would juju, but it works. No, I'm

all about it. Are you kidding me? Should we swap? Should we swap journals? Yeah, be good, yeah.

Unknown (10:57):
But I mean, like, big red Italian journal. Write it down.

Yeah. Okay, so what about, in terms of Melissa? What about in terms of just yourself, like you've talked about what the two of you do for each other? What about for yourself when you're going, Gosh, I've partnered with Stacey, and I, you know, because I've been in partnerships where I think that. And then I'll, I'll get my rah ra pom poms on in public, and we'll do it together. But what do you do within yourself to kind of go, Okay, I'm going to step up today. I'm going to meet Stacy in this place. We got this

Unknown (11:31):
I think first I have to calm down. I mean, for me, I have to get really grounded. I have, you know, high octane, high energy, and I have to bring bring it down, get grounded and say, I literally have nothing to lose. I have nothing to lose. The worst case, the worst thing that could happen to me is I'm in the same place. I live in the same house, I live in the same town. I'm like, I don't know I lost everything, but what have I? What have I lost nothing? So I think that I have to mentally get over I have nothing to lose. And then I'm like, Oh, I have nothing to lose today. So there you go. So it takes away that, that fear, and I think that failure I've I've always loved failure, like I constantly failed. I feel all the time. And it's not that I'm a masochist and love doing it, but I just refuse to let it define me. I think that's

part of it. How do you define failure? Because we all have because

Unknown (12:27):
I don't. I mean I literally. I think that every stone leads to something else. So that is that really a failure? It doesn't even count as a failure. It's like that was just, that was just forward motion. And if you're in forward motion, if you don't learn, I would say that if you don't learn from that and you keep repeating behaviors or mistakes or, you know, I think Stacy and I done this a few times when we have had quote, failures and setbacks, and we have had to quickly identify them, understand what was going on, Change course quickly, and then go. So they're technically failures, because we've had some big speed bumps. But then, you know, you you pivot,

yeah, Stacy, what about for you? What? What? What inside of you keeps you going when you're terrified that this just isn't going to work. You know, this, this thing that you've created before you're about to meet Melissa in conversation?

Yeah. I mean, I think that fear is always there with any business and any company you always have that you know lurking in the back of your mind. But I think the thing that really regrounds me is, when we built this, we had a very specific mission, and we knew the size of prize, meaning we know how many women are out there, and there are millions of them to reach, and why not us, right? Like the size of prize is significant, and if we can be the ones to get out there in front of them with evidence based reliable information and resources, we win. So that fear is always there, but I can always reground myself in our mission, and knowing how many women are out there that need this help.

And how do you support Melissa when she's it's her turn for the meltdown today,

we're very open with one another, like in addition to being business partners, we're deeply committed as friends, and we talk about our personal lives, we talk about our work lives, and because there's so much transparency and openness there, you know, when Melissa goes down, I'm happy to pick her up. When I go down, she picks me up, but I think we always go back to each other's strength and highlighting each other's strength. Like Melissa, you gotta remember like your crush at this. We did this. We wanted this. Don't think about this minor little setback. Let's refocus on the things that have gone well and how we continue to optimize and go forward.

Yeah, so we. Talked before about your leaning into your strengths in PR, communications, branding, messaging, when you were getting ready to assemble this incredible advisory board of doctors and practitioners that were going to we're going to steer you into ensuring that every single thing that you put on hot pause health was evidence based up to the minute, credible coming from reliable sources. How did you assemble that board? Talk me through, how you brought on this team of advisors,

you know Melissa, single handedly, did that like I take no role or responsibility in the that effort at all. Melissa is someone that is deeply connected and prioritizes her partnerships and relationships. And you know her her business relationships and her personal relationships, and all those things you know accumulated to our medical advisory board from connections that she had and leveraged introductions that she made to other people you know together, of course, we detailed. What is it that we need? We need an OBGYN. We need a sleep expert. We need a dermatologist. We need some mental health experts. We we together. Did that work, but in terms of how did we go out and find the best of the best, Melissa has a connection to every single person,

and that's the truth. Okay, Melissa, we gotta dive inside of this sneak peek into these stars that are on on your advisory board.

Unknown (16:26):
Yeah, they're amazing. And I, you know, I think that Stacy is is absolutely right, that they are incredible women, I mean, and they have been in my orbit and now Stacy's orbit for a long time, many of them, you know, over 20 years.

So they're all women. Your entire board is women. So it's Women Helping Women

Unknown (16:46):
only, ladies, yeah, so the bits had to be the same, yeah.
Oh, I love that. That should be your hashtag. Okay.
So you know these brilliant, literally, so incredibly smart within their field. So Dr Ken Yuan is leading the sleep medicine specific to women at UCSF, and she's a professor at Stanford University within their sleep clinic that was founded by Dr Bill DeMint, world class sleep medicine. Doctor, you have Dr, you know, Beverly Joyce, Johns, Hopkins, yes. Phenom, you have Dr Marissa Chapman, dermatologist extraordinaire, University of Wisconsin, like the smartest women ever. And they were own. They were all on their own, little, I would say, orbits. And then you put them together as this consortium, this collective of power, and they're changing lives like they were having one on ones in clinic, and that is really important, but to be able to take one on one expertise, one on one provider, you know, experience and knowledge and thought leadership, and then literally extrapolate that to anybody who needs it, not that we're giving medical advice, but just rational. This is what's happening. These are this is what research is saying. This is what we know we can inference this. It really matters. And getting these women who are still in clinic, seeing patients day in and day out, they have their finger on the pulse of where women are hurting, where are the gaps, what? What's coming in? You know, I talked to Dr Chapman yesterday, and we were going to do, you know, a video next week, and it was going to be on hair and skin. She said, you know, Melissa, I think, I think we have to make hair its own thing, because it's becoming so much harder in my practice, because women's hair loss, we could do a whole like but she wouldn't know that if she wasn't in clinic and seeing her patients and knowing how deeply important that conversation is. So she said, Hey, let's, let's split these two and bifurcate them as topics. So I think that the power of these women coming together, the the expansive, you know, hundreds of years collectively, that they all have, is on the front lines,

working as practitioners with women and researchers with women. I love this so much. So let's talk about some of these amazing resources. And I love being in I've loved being in this community already, since I met you, getting the emails trolling about on the website, and if that's the right term, but I've quite enjoyed it. Let me tell you, going on my little journey in this world, what's the number one message that you want to share with women about perimenopause and menopause? If there was an overarching umbrella, is it you're not crazy, we're all in this together. Or what would like the number one thing be that would anchor every woman that would come into hot pause? Health to go, Yeah, you're in a really safe, great place. Here

you go, unless maybe, like, I think it would have to be like you're not crazy, your symptoms are real. And I think we hear that over and over from our community, is that when they go to their providers and they tell them what's going on, they're often dismissed, or they're often told, You're far too young. You know, you're only 40, like you're you're too soon to the game. And that's just not true. And we've learned from our medical advisory board and experts out there that, you know, it's about treating the symptom. It's not about, you know, measuring blood levels or, you know, the this and that sort of testing. It's really treating the symptoms that the woman is is is experiencing and believing that and trusting that. So if we can be the place where she feels like I'm not crazy, like I see this reflected in the symptoms, content that they have, and that directed me to a list of treatments I can explore with my health care provider. And I don't even have a health care provider that I like, so they'll help me find a new one. We've created this red line, this thread for them to say, come read about your symptom. Come learn about the treatments that are available. And we will help connect you with a doctor if you want to see an OB GYN. We'll connect you to them if you want to see an OB GYN and an acupuncturist, amazing. We can help with that too. You want to see an OB, GYN and a naturopath, perfect. It's your journey. It's your body. You know you best, but we will help you put all the pieces together to get the help that you need. I really

love this, being able to look up things that you have, and not within the wild, wild west of Google down I don't know what road to find out about why I'm losing my hair, or why my hair is so dry, or what I'm going to do about this to your example before about the hair, because so many of my friends are losing their hair. I am not, thankfully, but my hair is as dry as straw, right? Or it was, I should say, and then I had to, you know, find treatments that were going to help me with that. But there's all kinds of things right that can happen with the, you know, within our bodies, just hundreds and hundreds of things. So in terms of being this wonderful portal of discoverability for these practitioners, it is really a growing database of very credible referrals. How does a practitioner qualify to be referred by hot pause health to be one of your trusted practitioners that you would recommend?

Yeah. I mean, initially we went through the NAMS, the North American menopause society list. They have sort of a stamp of approval that these OBGYN have been trained in menopause. Those doctors are on our list. We are also inbound crowdsourcing recommendations from our community. So when you go to our top docs page, the first button you'll find is a doc is a doctor recommendation portal where they say, I have the most amazing OB everyone needs to know about them. They push that to us. We go check them out, and then we push those back out into the portal. So it's a two way street, of us aggregating what's going on in the medical community and providers that are coming in that way, but also crowdsourcing that from our community

members, from the members, so you can take ownership of this community and contribute to it. I really, really love that. Yes. So in terms you said, Stacy about we can connect you if you want to see an OBGYN, if you want to see a naturopath you want. So how does that work in hot pause health as a member, when you say, we can connect you, what does that look like on a practical level?

On a practical level, when you hit our top docs page on the left side, you can type in your zip code, and from there, there'll be a list of a variety of types of doctors across multiple specialties, which you can then filter down. So you type in your zip code, you say, I want a, no B, and a list will pop up if you live in you know what are called healthcare deserts, where there aren't a lot of opportunities and providers out there. We have also aggregated all of the top telemedicine companies that are out there, the Mid East, the gen eds, the alloys of the world, who are doing excellent work and the telehealth space, those providers are on there. So if you can't go see someone in person, we can connect you and help you find a telemedicine provider that you can get an appointment with virtually.

Yeah. I really, really love the way that you're putting this database together, or this this list of referrals, and that it will just continue to grow, which is so excited to grow Yes. So every single practitioner that is on that on the list of referrals has been trained in menopause, not

all of them. So some are menopause certified, and others are just amazing OBS that may not have gone through certification, but have come with a recommendation of saying like, yes, this person. And helped me through this.

Okay, great. So let's talk about some of the other resources so we can find great practitioners for the symptoms. We can read, you know, articles about these things. So talk me through how you're developing that content and how that content gets vetted. Because, my goodness, we all know, again, the wild, wild west of Google, where we'll click on an article that's just click bait that's been created by AI, that's been optimized so it shows up on the front page of Google. And you actually don't really know much about the credibility of the information. And we really are in that world now where there's just not, there's not a way to properly vet things. So I know that you are being very careful about the information that you disseminate to the community. So talk me through that process.

Unknown (25:50):
I would say that. So an example would be Dr Desai, who's on our medical advisory board, is a double board certified family physician, but also an obesity specialist. So that's not menopause, per se, right? But she has day in and day out patients who are coming to her women in midlife who have significant weight loss or weight gain, and they're saying, I need help, right? So if cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women in this country, one and three deaths, weight is a big part of that. Every day, when she has clinic and she has people coming in, she's seeing new topics. She's on the front line of research. She's doing CMEs to help, you know, build her acumen and intelligence about GLP ones. For example, there's a lot of information about GLP ones right now. So she is our source. She is the one who's going to say, hey guys, here are I want to talk about the five risks of GLP one women in midlife. I also want to talk about the five benefits for GLP ones in midlife. I want to talk about weight loss and in your mental health like she's she's going to be that barometer, and that that check, that sounding board, and that stop saying, Yes, this is in balance. This is out of bounds. We need to think more about this. And here's the research that's going to caveat that. So that's an example of, you know, whatever, two years ago, who knew what a GLP one was? We have to keep our finger on the pulse of what's impacting women's health. And so having that medical advisory board again on the front line, doing the work that they do is really imperative. So that's how we get these resources. And so that goes everywhere from social media, because a lot of people are getting, you know, their information off of that, and then it's on our website, and then it's in our newsletter. So anywhere that we can, you know, get women access to that kind of information to then go make their own decision, because you're the CEO of your own healthcare journey, like, go do what you want to do. I mean, as Stacey mentioned, you choose your own adventure. We just want to give you the information that we believe based on, you know, the relationship that we have with medical advisors and the people you know, our business advisors and whomever and our community saying, I loved this practitioner, I loved this product. So I think that has been tremendously helpful is having that access to these brilliant, brilliant doctors telling us this is what we need to talk about, and this is what's real, and this is what's totally bunk. And no, that's just on Tiktok. And and actually coming to us and saying, This is on Tiktok, I have patients coming in and asking me about x Can we please address this? Right? So that's that's helpful, yeah, and

to your point about peptides, and you know, GLP one agonist medications and injections. Um, obviously these peptides have been around for a long time, but obviously the ascension of ozempic and other GLP one agonist injections has really brought this to the fore and a greater awareness and the prolific usage of these things, because the studies are in their infancy on such a large pool of the population now, and more specifically to your point, women over 40 who would be using these medications in order to affect the outcomes that they want. We're going to be learning and the data is going to be changing. So in terms of the information that's on your website, what will your updating process be like moving forward? For example, let's say you have written an article, you know, in the last few months, and then a year from now, the science and the and the research is showing something a little bit different. Just talk me through that process of how you're going to be continually monitoring the validity of the information that's in the portal.

Yeah. I mean, that's part of the relationship we have with our Medical Advisory Board, right? Like they sit at the forefront of all of this, and we will be doing yearly reviews with them to go over the content that they've written, making sure that it is up to date and current and relevant and. Then it's, you know, incumbent upon Melissa and I and our medical advisory board to stay on top of trends, new data, new research, and make sure that all of that is always, you know, updated and fresh. Yeah, I

love your commitment to excellence in this area. Because why I love hot pause health so much is that the bar is so high the standard of the information,

it's a clear differentiator. And, you know, before Melissa and I took this jump, we felt like, gosh, there is nothing out there. I mean, this space is wide open. And now that we're in it, it's so clear that there is a lot more. Like when you're on social media and you're looking for this content, it feels like it's all we get served. It's all we see. We're entrenched with this information, and in that, you quickly see areas that may not be science back, that may not have, you know, deep expertise behind them. And that's something that you know, Melissa and I just will not waver on that. That is going to be the bare minimum for hot pause health, and that's, you know, a true differentiator from us and other, you know, players, or, you know, people providing information in this space. Yeah, I really do,

really, I really appreciate that commitment to excellence, because they're, you know, we're all suffering from info basically, you know, there's so much information out there, and, you know, a lot of people confuse quick fixes with quick wins, and I feel like we're not talking about quick fixes. We're talking about quick wins that can form a foundation for a sustainable, healthy lifestyle and a joyful menopause journey. You know, there is misconception that there's this monster called menopause that's coming to just make life after 40 a complete nightmare. And when you actually have community, credible information, incredible practitioners, you can love your body at any age, and I love that you're really creating a place where women can celebrate these opportunities. So in terms of the articles, I just want to make sure that I'm getting this right, that all of the articles and the information have been written by doctors and practitioners and medical practitioners, instead of some intern who's scraped it off, you know, AI,

Unknown (32:19):
so in

partnership, we've done it in partnership, you know, I've been in healthcare communications for years, and depending on which medical advisor it is and their level of comfort in writing, you know, I'm usually sitting down with them and doing an interview to gather all the data and information from them. Sometimes, I may put the information into a template and they build it out. Sometimes, I may take, you know, a strike at the first draft and they're editing, but anything that's on the website has been signed off and approved by the medical advisory board if it has their name on it. But oftentimes it has been a mutual, yeah, balance of this.

Love your transparency. Both Well, you have

to, I would do not, of course, this is

the thing I love the most about the two of you. Well,

Unknown (33:06):
it's not just nothing to hide. It's like in order to build trust and credibility, you have to say, Okay, well, we have these 16 really kick ass smart women, and they are absolutely at the forefront of what we are talking about at the same time as editorial people, and that's our background. We understand communication. We are going to go to multiple sources and figure out and vet and not just like, make bologna sausage, because it's your life. I mean, ultimately, you know, and there have to be different perspectives. I will say that there are different perspectives out there. Yes,

thank you for bringing that up. You're you're reading my mind. That was going to be my next question. It's like, this

is not a black and white. I think Stacey and I, one of the things that we constantly say is it is a yes, and you can have yes and everywhere. You can secretly have a Diet Coke sometimes, if you need to, but if you are eating. I mean, this happens in nutrition all the time, right? Like and you see this, whole foods, whole grains, you know, clean foods, etc. But if you have a Diet Coke, we're not going to tell and it is poison, kind of but like that, we have to have some grace for certain things. And I would say the same goes for hormones and hormone therapy. You know, there's a lot of black and white. Do your research? Do you have contraindicated indications? Maybe, but go, you know, like, explore it. And then, if you want to do naturopath, or you want fine, but get the information to then make an informed decision and have a yes. And I mean, doesn't matter, and I am to your point earlier, the science will change. There is no question that the science will continue to evolve like it always will. So if you look at, I mean, I was at an event a couple weeks ago now, and a very amazing, I would say, credible, OB GYN, we were talking about GLP lunch, because Melissa, I'm having my patients come in you. Of hair loss, who are on GLP ones. And I was like, oh, that's fast inch because, watch, it's going to come up because, again, it's we don't know what we don't know. So the conversation available treatments

are going to change and expand, and then how we can put these different modalities together. You know? I mean, I know a lot of the gastroenterology conferences are now embracing hypnotherapy, which used to be considered this crystal fruit for woo, woo thing, and now in terms of IBS and different treatments, hypnotherapy, when you put it together with better nutrition and other you know, conventional treatments can be incredibly effective for certain people, but maybe not others. So I love what you're saying about this. Choose your own adventure. There is no black and white one blanket strategy that's going to work for every woman. You get to decide in consultation with your practitioners, what is appropriate for you and your needs. And it's not just your body and your hormones and whatever other medical conditions you have. It's your personality, your lifestyle, what's actually going to be doable and sustainable for you? So in terms of the community, I actually am loving reading your emails, which is no surprise, because you're in communications, right? So of course, you're going to write great emails and great headlines and everything else. So I'm really clicking around every week and having a lot of fun exploring the content. Talk to me about the video content, because you're both really charismatic and doing interviews and that kind of Q and Q A style format. Not everybody wants to read articles on the internet. People want to listen to it in their ear pods while they're walking or on the treadmill or in the car, you know, as they're picking their kids up at the school line or whatever. There's so many different ways that we can digest content and immerse ourselves in the hot pause health world. So talk to me about how you're creating these videos and these interviews with these amazing experts. Yeah,

video based content is a focus for us in 2025 in partnership with our medical advisory board. We've recorded a series of videos asking, you know, the number one questions that we can find on Google search for OB, GYN, for dermatologists, for mental health experts. And we've captured that video footage. We're in production on a lot of it, but in 2025 hopefully in q1 and there will be a lot more video based content available on hot pause, health.com for people to get you know information through a different medium. Yeah, it's

really, really exciting. So let's talk about your dream for how this is going to expand, because it's already getting really deep. But it's very, very exciting to see this, this little all the tentacles, kind of like expanding, you know what you're talking about, more videos, which is fabulous, because I love to listen to podcasts and listen to interviews and watch videos. So where is this going? Moving forward in 2025

I would just say more, more, more of everything. I think it's, you know, I think Stacey and our more information interviews, like you said, with a with a diverse set of voices, with a diverse set of experiences. You know, next week, we're talking to Beth Schiffman, who's a Chinese medicine practitioner, and she's going to be talking about within Chinese medicine, that the Chinese refer to menopause as second spring. Your first spring is when you go through puberty, and Chinese is broken up into seven, so seven and then 14 is first spring, and second spring is at 49 which coincides with menopause. And it's this whole rebirth of a woman which is like, that's amazing. Like, What a fascinating perspective to have, and I think that really reach is going to be important for us, getting women access and opening that aperture, and making sure that she can learn about her symptoms and learn about treatment options, and then find a provider who can help her, and the more women that we can help. Say, you're not crazy. This is totally real, and you don't need to suffer. And here you go, you know, like, Here are the keys to the car. That's, I think the goal is just keep going. I mean, we have scratched the surface on the number of women who we can help and impact. And every time, you know, we did an event last week, there were 300 women in the audience, and you changed lives. Everybody who walked out probably, you know, hopefully, had a reframe. Was like, I'm not crazy and I do have symptoms, and I am going to go get help, and I am going to advocate myself. And I think that so often women, I mean, I'll speak for myself. I don't want to, you know, lump everybody together, but your mother, your provider, your wife, your community member, and everybody else gets first. Everybody else you know is taken care of before you are. And I think so much of what we're hopefully imparting on women is empowering them to say, go take care of yourself like this is not just about longevity. This is about your quality of life. If women. COVID a decade longer in chronic bad health, poor health than men. That's a problem. That's not cool. Why should we have to live a decade in poor health? So that should change. Yeah,

you talk about these events. So is that in your plan doing more live events? Are you going to be streaming events so people around you know that can't physically be there, can participate, like, what's your plan for that moving forward? Because when you just say more, I know that review are way more strategic than that, and more can just be more, right? And you're not, you're not throwing spaghetti at the wall. The two of you are way smarter than that. So let's get a little bit more granular about what you specifically want to be achieving this year in terms of how you can reach more women, how you want to keep you know, building and expanding this sense of community and belonging and and these touch points for people to be coming into this community and staying,

yeah, I mean, you're right. It is much more strategic. And, you know, our main goal is to continue to reach as many women as possible, audience, acquisition, bring them to us, funnel them to us. And we have a lot of different, you know, ways that we're going about that, from, you know, small in person events to, you know, potentially virtual webinars, where we open up access to some of our medical advisory team, where people can get that direct access to ask that burning question. We will continue with, you know, all of the standard things that we're working on. And I think one of the things that Melissa and I also keep at the forefront is the humor of this. You know, you say you love opening our emails. You love, you know, we think that that humor is a big piece of this. And so making sure that, you know, we sort of keep that at the forefront of our efforts in 2025 shedding just a little bit of lightness on some of these really heavy topics to keep women feeling like, I mean, who wants to read some like doom and gloom, awful blog about how you know, menopause is going to be horrible forever, you know, whereas we can, you know, frame the conversation differently and instill a little bit of that humor paired with the science, paired with a resource just Continuing to amplify that and turn that up in ways to keep women coming back. You know, we also opened up a private Facebook community. We know women feel really comfortable, you know, in the Facebook platform, I think, you know, it's been around so long, and so many of us have been in private Facebook communities that that feels really safe. So that's continued to grow, where we share a lot of resources there, you know, the in person events, the webinars, all of it will just continue to cultivate our community and in as many ways as we can. Yeah, you

know, I'm feeling so grateful that we're in the era of celebrating the older woman, and menopause isn't a dirty word that you've got to say behind closed doors and kind of almost sort of hide the fact that you're not menstruating anymore and that you have over 50 or you're over 40, right? So I really appreciate some of the personalities who are stepping out, like Naomi Watts, for example, where you know, in that recent interview with Drew Barrymore, she was really honest about her first sexual encounter with Billy Crudup, and how she was, you know, hiding in the bathroom, taking her patch off, and then he was like, We're the same age. What can I do to help you? You know, when women are openly sharing their stories, and it doesn't have to be a celebrity, it can be any kind of a woman. But I feel like, and maybe it's just because I'm an older woman that the portal is open for me. But I feel like, you know, society, this has been an ignored part of the medical community, women specifically. And we know that medical research has mostly gone to male, you know, studies and things over the years, but that is shifting, and you are absolutely part of that movement, though. So thank you for, you know, putting your flag, you know, in this in this place, and building, building, this incredible village, so to speak. So what? What is some of the feedback that you're already getting from your members about what they really need and want the most? What's some of the feedback that you're getting that's informing how you're building out this village.

I can't go states, no, no, I'm gonna

say mine. I'm just, I'm just getting in the two of you have to go, which one of us is taking this? Maybe I should call on you.

We're both. We're both just so eager. I'll say mine, and then, Melissa, you can say yours. I think that we hear consistently, like, I can't find a doctor that will help and that seems to be a big issue. And part of the reason that we've spent so much of our time and energy and effort on our doctor portal to connect women to a doctor that will help them, because at the crux of it, if you don't get help from a provider, you're probably. Going to continue to struggle, no matter, no matter how many blogs or community forums you belong to, you're at some point probably going to have to see a healthcare provider. So I think that's been some of the biggest feedback that we've gotten is, you know, even at these in person events, and, you know, feedback from friends and communities like, I didn't realize this, I need to do something like there are more than 34 symptoms of menopause. I didn't realize that my frozen shoulder was probably perimenopause. I gotta go talk to someone about this. Who should I go see? And I think that's been kind of resounding, or at least has stuck out in the back of my mind the most. But Stacey, I love

that you brought that up first, because that is absolutely the number one thing that my dietitians and I hear in our 60 day menopause reset, right? The 1000s of women that we have in our community go my doctor is gaslighting me to your point, Melissa, earlier in our conversation, it's just menopause. You've got to ride it out. You're never going to be able to lose weight. You're over 50. What do you expect? I mean, some of these quotes that we hear is astonishing, and I know that you're hearing the same thing and and not you will have to see a healthcare provider. You have to have an annual checkup and get blood to get that data every year of your life, and over 40 becomes even more paramount that you have a medical team that doesn't just include a general practitioner, but an OBGYN, but a dietitian, and any other specialist you may see to help you stay in better health at every phase of life, and that changes when you're 40 and then when you're 50, and then when you're 60, and then when you're 70, and every year in between. So we have to be making data driven decisions with our practitioners. So thank you for bringing that up first, because that is absolutely what we see as well. So, Melissa, What? What? What would you add to that? I would add that

we often hear just like, tell me what to do, right? Is it? Tell me what to do. Should I do hormones? Or is it tell me what? Oh, my God, the sun. Sorry, Tim, tell me what to do about nutrition or women want the information, and they will do it. They will go they will execute against it. But they really want that information, and I think that that empowerment piece for them, women so often are feel like they're not in control, that they can't do X, Y or Z, but when you say you're totally in control, here's this amazing toolbox that's yours and go, you know, we I do think that women love connection physically and in person too. We are seeing that women are like, are you going to do an event? Are you going to, you know, have something? And this event that we had last week was beautiful. It was this really wonderful gathering 300 women who just wanted to be together and share this conversation, and the questions would have gone all night, right, like we had a Q A at the end. It would have been an all nighter on menopause. But women have questions, and they can they should just keep asking them and refuse to take an answer that they don't believe Serves them right? And I think that that, to me, is the questions aren't going to go away, so keep asking them and prioritizing yourself.

Yeah, this prioritizing yourself piece is starting to feel like it's more of a comfortable conversation. To your point earlier about everybody else gets, gets, gets the best of us, and we get the rest. And sometimes that little sliver is very, very small, and depending on our upbringing, we often don't give ourselves permission to even take action on that little sliver. Right? That the shoulds. I should be taking care of my kids, my husband, my job, my whatever, rather than me, that this, this self care thing, is being reframed in a really beautiful way, particularly in this second spring that you're talking about, right? Where, I don't know about the two of you, but I think over 40 you sort of start to not care as much about some of this other stuff, right? You're like, Screw it. I got nothing to lose. To your point earlier, right? So, yeah, it's, it's, it's just such a great space to be in right now. We're really, we're we really are in the era of women ascending, you know, and really expanding into their power. So on a personal level, I want to ask both of you what, what you're getting out of this, because, you know, when you're working on something and you've got this mission of helping other women, but then you kind of got the keys to the candy store where you're kind of able to shape this in a way that also helps you navigate perimenopause and menopause moving forward, right? So it kind of is this baby and the gift that keeps on giving. So Stacey, I'll ask you first what see I'm getting better right at the tail end of the interview, ask them individually, what, what, on a personal level, has been some of the greatest stuff that you've gotten out of this. Yes,

I mean, to your point, we've learned so much about perimenopause and menopause, we never would have probably allowed our size ourselves to dive this far into it, given ourselves this much information. And so we've really said, if we have all this information, everyone else should too, right? We've done the hard work on the research. Getting all the content, all this information like this has to just be evangelized, so everyone has access to this. So I've just learned so much. I'm only 41 but probably squarely in perimenopause, where I probably would have let my symptoms go for another five years, where I ever even considered doing something about it. So, you know, from my own health care journey, it's been incredible. From a business perspective, we've learned so much in terms of areas. We have deep expertise in areas we've we we absolutely do not that's been an incredible education and path. And you know, I think we're just thrilled about reaching as many women with this information as we possibly can. Yeah,

I want to ask you, Stacy, something that you said before kind of caught my attention, about the frozen shoulder, right? That these are all things we know about, the hot flashes and the sweats and the brain fog and the belly fat and the, you know, pain during intercourse, and the blah, blah blah We know about those big ones, right? They get all the menopause madness. Press, yeah, in your point, there are all these other things that we don't associate with declining protective hormones, estrogen and protective hormones. When they're in decline, it sets the rest of your system out of balance. So what are some of the surprising symptoms that can be associated with menopause? You talked about frozen shoulder. What are some of the other just strange ones that you go, Oh my goodness, yeah, that happens with a lot of women in perimenopause and menopause.

I mean, we had no idea. But, like, frozen shoulder comes up all the time. We had absolutely no idea before we started this. You know, things like Restless Leg Syndrome, yes, I think people know insomnia, hot flashes, night sweats. You know, low libido, but you know reoccurring UTIs, hair loss. You know osteoporosis, of course. You know, as estrogen declines, you know, you're at higher risk for osteoporosis, brain fog. You know, I think is a huge one. I, you know, women in the workplace. I think we hear this a lot where it's like, I can't come up with the word, like it's on the tip of my tongue, and then I can't say the word. And that the medical name for it is, is brain fog. And that's a, that's a really common and and, you know, hard symptom of perimenopause and menopause, that they think they're going crazy, they think they're early to dementia, and they may just have, you know, low levels of estrogen. So there's lots of crazy ones out there. And making sure you know that women know you know that those are symptoms, so that they can work to treat them. Yeah, I

got trigger finger, and that could be, you know, you can get that at any age. And I went to a specialist, and then another specialist, and then I found this incredible woman. And she said, Oh, Tess, you have no idea the amount of women over 40 in perimenopause and menopause over 50 that come in with trigger finger, and they've never, ever and she started telling me about all these things, just like, you know, frozen shoulder it was, it's just fascinating. So, Melissa, what have

you don't know. What you don't know, I don't know. And so unless we're reaching them with this, their their brains are never going to go, Oh, my frozen shoulder is probably perimenopause, unless they're getting served that kind of information.

Absolutely Amen to that. Yeah, Melissa, what? What have you learned? What are some of the juicy things you've learned by working on

Unknown (53:45):
us? I would say, you know, you asked, What would you know now that we've done it? I'm like, I would do the same thing. Meaning, it is so invigorating. Every day is new. It feels really powerful, like it feels just empowering to be making this happen. I would say where I find I think we're going to hopefully have impact and change is policy and advocacy. So we have a portion of our website that's about advocacy and some of the pieces of legislation that are really important to this country and in the US. Now you have an international audience, but we're behind. We're really, really, really behind, and there needs to be changed. And I feel like being a part of that change has been really galvanizing. And like, it just feels good. It feels really intentional. And every day you wake up with this purpose. It's not like, oh, gosh, should we really be doing this? It's like, yeah, because if you don't do this, who else is going to change policy in this country? And so, yeah, getting women access to that, that their voices matter and that they can impact change, not just on their own health care, but for other women too. I just think that's been really, really

gratifying. Yeah. Yeah, be the change you want to see. And yeah, policy absolutely changes when people come together and speak up and advocate. So thank you so much for bringing that up that this is such a big piece of this is that we do have to change legislation. We do have to change access to information and resources and medical treatment and so forth. So do you have a community outreach mandate in your company? You know where you're going to then be, you know, supporting local advocacy groups, or how's that going to work in terms of hot post hot pause, health, what's your what's your dream for that? In terms of being part of that? You talked about generational change earlier. You know, absolutely helping to do that, or you're contributing to organizations who are doing that. What's your vision for that piece of it? I

Unknown (55:57):
think that right now, we are actively getting women the information of what legislation is happening, what we believe is going to be in change, whether that's the, you know, unboxing of the black warning, the black box warning on vaginal estrogen, or it's crazy, really great legislation right now, like just letting women know that they can go advocate for that, and they are citizens, and they have the right to mandate that with their elected officials. So just giving that, you know, permission to say, this is this is happening, so get involved. So we're continuing to push that. And of course, everybody has their own political ideologies. But in many ways, I think states, and I feel like this is an a political like, this isn't like everybody. You know, menopause research, if you have a mother or sister or a daughter, that's just, you know, it's everybody. So yeah. And

I just want to point out, dear listener, that hot pause, health is a free resource. This is not a membership subscription site. I just realized that I didn't make that clear to everybody. So please enter the world here at hot pause health.com you can find the community on Instagram and Facebook and, oh gosh, LinkedIn. I mean, seriously, it's such an extraordinary resource. So thank you so much. I always close every conversation with the same question. So I'm going to ask it to the two of you who've been so bold and seizing your it has to be me moment with this startup and this this company, for somebody who has a dream in their heart and feels like they don't have what it takes to make it happen. What would you say to them? So I'll ask you first, Stacy,

I guess I would say, and this is just, I think how I would come at this is find someone to go at it with you. You know, it's a really brave jump to make I don't think I would have been brave enough to jump it alone without Melissa. So I guess my tip would be like, find someone to join your journey and your mission and your dream alongside you, to bolster one another, to help bring it to life.

Oh, I love that. What would you say, Melissa, it's hard going second, isn't it?

I would echo Stacy, but I would also say, truly, there's no such thing as failure, because it's just the journey. And if you're going forward, that's all that matters, that your growth and your vantage point and your perspective, and all of that is cumulative, and just go you don't be afraid of failing, because doesn't mean anything, unless you assign it that definition, because it's just about progress and moving forward. So that's what I would say.

I love it. What a great note to end on. Just go for it. I'm so excited to see how hot pause health grows, and I will continue to be a very enthusiastic member of the community. So thank you so much for what you're doing.

Unknown (59:16):
Thank you, Tess.

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