September 29, 2025 • 46 mins
Menopause doesn’t pause at the office door. It shows up in sleep loss, hot flashes, brain fog, anxiety—and too often, in silence. We wanted to break that pattern. So we sat down with Dr. Joanne Armstrong, VP and Chief Medical Officer for Women’s Health and Genomics, and benefits leader Carmilla Tan to unpack how CVS Health scaled a menopause support strategy across retail stores, call centers, pharmacies, clinics, warehouses, and corporate teams—without losing the human touch.
We talk candidly about the barriers women face: undertrained clinicians, misdiagnosis, stigma, and the time squeeze that pushes care to the bottom of the list. Then we map the fixes. You’ll hear how we trained MinuteClinic clinicians with Menopause Society education, expanded networks with menopause-trained providers, and used data science to proactively connect people to care. We share the playbook for culture change—CRGs like WISE, manager training, peer groups guided by clinicians, and even a simple breathing exercise that makes saying “menopause” feel normal. It’s practical and scalable: comprehensive coverage, over-the-counter credits for symptom relief, robust EAP sessions, and flexible access through retail, virtual, and phone-based care.
This conversation also looks beyond day-to-day symptoms to long-term health. We dig into cardiovascular risk, bone health, mental health, and the habits—sleep, nutrition, movement, community—that set the stage for the next decades. If you’re an employer, you’ll leave with clear steps: assess your women’s health strategy, inventory what you already offer, use a menopause-friendly checklist to spot gaps, and bundle benefits into a simple guide people can actually use. If you’re navigating midlife, you’ll find language, resources, and community to make your journey easier—and more supported.
If this resonated, subscribe, share it with a colleague, and leave a quick review. Want the checklist or to explore accreditation? Visit midovia.com or menopausefriendlyus.com and let’s build workplaces where women thrive.
With more than 20 years in the field both as a practicing OB-GYN and health policy expert, Dr. Armstrong’s mission is to help solve for women’s health needs through clinical, policy and societal lenses. Dr. Armstrong is vice president and chief medical officer of women’s health and
genomics at CVS Health. She is also associate professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTH).
Carmilla Tan is the head of benefits for CVS Health. In this role,
Carmilla leads strategy, implementation and oversight of the
company’s benefits and well-being programs to meet the diverse
needs of more than 300,000 colleagues.
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Email Us: info@midovia.com
MiDOViA is dedicated to changing the narrative about menopause by educating, raising awareness & supporting women in this stage of life, both at home and in the workplace. Visit midovia.com to learn more.
The information, including but not limited to, text, graphics, images & other material contained on this website are for informational purposes only. No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
April Haberman (00:00):
Welcome to the MiDOViA Menopause Podcast
Business Edition.
Your trusted source forinsights on menopause and
midlife in the workplace.
Each episode featuresmeaningful conversations with
inspiring guests.
Tune in and enjoy the show.
Kim Hart (00:16):
Welcome everybody.
We are in menopause month.
This is the Super Bowl of thosein the menopause business.
So thanks for joining us today.
We are excited to have Dr.
Joanne Armstrong and CarmillaTan, both from CVS Health.
Dr.
Armstrong is the vice presidentand chief medical officer of
women's health and genomics.
(00:39):
That's a hard word to say.
She is a physician, a healthpolicy expert, and a national
leader in women's health andgenomics.
And at CVS, she directs thestrategy, program development,
and innovation to improveoutcomes and reduce disparities
for women across the U.S.
Carmilla Tan leads the benefitstrategy for CVS Health,
(01:01):
overseeing programs that supportwell-being of more than 300,000
colleagues.
She previously headed GlobalBenefits at Bank of America and
held actuarial and leadershiproles at Brighton Health Plan
Solutions, IBM, Mercer, NYLCare, and Guardian Life.
We are excited to have youboth.
Thanks for joining us today.
(01:23):
Great to be here.
Thanks for having us.
Yeah, sure.
So Dr.
Armstrong, as a women's healthclinical leader, what motivated
you to champion menopausesupport at CVS?
Dr. Joanne Armstrong (01:34):
Great.
So, you know, you know, as yousaid in the introduction, I'm
the head of women's health, andwe really spent a lot of time
thinking about the needs ofwomen across their lifespan.
So when you take a step backand say, like, who are women in
this ecosystem and how do youthink about it?
Um, a few things are reallyimportant and they relate to how
(01:55):
women experience a menopausejourney.
Uh so women are the dominanthealthcare consumer and decision
maker in their homes and in ourcountry.
They make about 80% of allhealthcare purchasing and
homeless decisions.
That's a lot.
It translates to 80% of a $5trillion health spending um
activity in the country.
(02:16):
Women have a lot of challengesactually in making sort of good
decisions for themselves and inmany cases for their families.
So, what are some of thosechallenges?
Women have enormous pressure ontheir time.
About two-thirds of all careunpaid caregivers in the country
are women.
About 15 or so percent of allhouseholds in the country are
led by single women.
(02:37):
And um that puts a lot ofpressure on them.
About a third of women say thatthey miss care because of time
and cost.
Another challenge of women'shealth is many of the areas, uh
the conditions that womenexperience over their whole life
course are under research atsort of a national science
(02:57):
level.
It means that there's a lotabout women's health that we
just don't know, observedoutcomes that we just don't know
a lot about.
And menopause actually sits alittle bit in that in that
space.
And then importantly, a lot ofwomen's health is uh just pure
clinical care is stigmatized forhistoric reasons, maybe
cultural reasons, it'ssurrounded by embarrassment, so
(03:20):
that women don't talk about it,um, and in many cases don't know
how to get education around theconditions that they
experience, and when they do umperhaps there's some shyness or
embarrassment about it, and allof that leads to poor outcomes.
So menopause actually sits sortof at the nexus of all of those
challenges, right?
And so what does it mean?
So now we're gonna drop downinto menopause.
(03:43):
So um just in terms of theexperience, all women, if they
live to the age of about 51,will go through this life, of
course.
Um, about 80 ish, 80-ishpercent of women are embarrassed
to talk about it, and thatembarrassment is like in their
families, in their workplace,with their physicians, and so a
lot of needed care um justdoesn't take place.
(04:05):
So we know that about a thirdof women are misdiagnosed um
when they present with menopauseuh symptoms, thinking that it's
some other condition.
Some of the reasons why thathappens is the workforce is
woefully undertrained in thisspace.
About 20, maybe 30% ofphysicians say that they have
been formally trained inmenopause.
(04:27):
So when women do recognize thesymptoms, say complex that they
have, bring themselves to aposition where they can talk
about it, they enter a clinicalpractice, and um, most of the
physicians that they willencounter are not formally
trained to help support it.
So that is a large cohort ofwomen.
You know, Carmela will talkabout like this sort of false
(04:47):
idea that things happen inhealthcare in one silo, but they
don't come into a workplace.
That's just not true.
Um, so that's what, you know,that's sort of a high-level
issue in terms of what womenexperience, lots of disruptive
symptoms, um hot flashes, moodchanges, sleep disturbances.
If you don't sleep well, it'svery hard to perform at the top
(05:08):
of your game, you know, the nextmorning.
Um, and then a bunch ofcognitive changes, you know,
short-term um um memorychallenges, etc.
Um if only this wereshort-lived, and a lot of people
think like, you know, menopauseis a single point of time in
time, it's not the average uhset of symptom complexes last
(05:30):
about seven years, but the longtail of it can be as much as 14
years for women.
And um, it happens both pre youknow, pre-menopause and after,
and technically I should saywhat menopause is is that point
in time after which menstrualperiods stop for 12 months.
So it's kind of a look backdiagnosis, but the whole
process, which really representshormonal changes in the
(05:52):
function of the ovary, overyears before that menopause the
technical definition ofmenopause hits, and then years
after.
So we talked about the externalsymptoms, these disruptive
symptoms, but there's a lot ofother medical changes that are
happening under the surface, notfully appreciated by women, but
(06:12):
really critical in terms ofsetting the stage for our health
for the next 30, 40 years.
Some of those changes includelike changes in cholesterol and
lipid profiles, which influenceheart health.
You know, we have a prettyquick elevation or escalation of
cardiovascular disease in womenafter menopause.
Estrogen is important inmaintenance of um bone
(06:33):
structure.
So you start as menopause, asestrogen levels wane, you start
seeing osteopenia andosteoporosis, that's bone loss,
mental health challenges, um,rates of depression, anxiety
increase.
So all of these are reallyimportant things that are
happening under the surface, butwithout a conversation about
what it means and how do youthink about holistic health?
(06:56):
And for these women, it's achallenge.
Um, and it is common.
You know, nine to ten womenwill have some type of menopause
experience.
And when, as I said, it doesn'trespect the front door of your
home.
And then when you walk intowork, you know, there's
absentees and productivityissues, etc.
So, you know, creating astrategy, bridging these gaps,
(07:17):
thinking really strategically,pragmatically about what you can
do to help women in all theplaces that we live, work, and
play, right, have solutions,understand what this is about,
and then build solutions.
And a lot of that involves theworkplace.
April Haberman (07:31):
Yeah, absolutely.
And I love um, I love thatholistic approach.
Um, having worked alongside CVSHealth, we know that you took a
holistic approach when youintroduced menopause support
within your organization.
And I think I'll pass this oneover to you, um, Carmilla, from
a benefits perspective, um, Dr.
(07:51):
Armstrong unpacked a lot ofreasons why menopause support,
midlife support, women's healthis important to look at in the
workplace and the why.
But from a benefitsperspective, why focus
specifically on menopause?
Um, from CVS Health'sperspective, why was investing
in menopause support a businesspriority for you specifically?
Carmilla Tan (08:15):
Again, April and Kim, thanks for having me.
This is a great discussion, andI always love presenting with
Dr.
Armstrong.
So, as head of benefits at CVSHealth, maybe we'll start a
little bit about who we are andthen share a little bit about
our journey.
But, you know, we are thenation's leading health
solutions company with more than300,000 colleagues.
(08:36):
You may know our brands.
We have Aetna, CAREMARC, theMinute Clinic.
Hopefully, uh, you're customersof our CVS pharmacy, and we
have clinics like uh Oak StreetHealth and Signify Health.
We have a view of a unifiedcapabilities to help uh members
and patients.
So we have healthcare benefits,we have um uh pharmacy benefits
(09:00):
uh manager, we have um retailpharmacies and many clinicians.
You know, by the numbers, um wehave about 9,000 CVS um
pharmacy retail locations, wehave a thousand walk-in medical
clinics, we have hundreds of uhprimary care clinics, um, we
have the leading pharmacybenefits manager, and you know,
(09:22):
our ethna business um takes careof more than 36 million people.
And when you think about ourdiverse colleagues, right, and
with diverse needs, 300,000colleagues.
Um, you know, the types of workthat our colleagues go to every
day, um sometimes they are instores, they're in pharmacies,
they're in warehouses ortransportation, um, clinician
(09:45):
corporate offices, and you know,some people are on call centers
and also focused on technology.
When it comes to benefits atCBS Health, we pride ourselves
in offering great benefits forgreat people.
We offer a variety of programsand resources uh designed to
meet the needs of our colleaguesand their families.
(10:05):
Um, we're focused on physical,emotional, and financial
wellness because all three arereally interconnected.
Um, you know, the agingworkforce uh continues to play a
vital role for our company,right?
Midlife women are now leadersand key valuable contributors.
You know, there are nearly, Ithink, 75 million women in the
(10:27):
workforce, 20% are going throughmenopause.
And, you know, menopausal womenum specifically will soon make
up the biggest demographic ofthe U.S.
Umce.
And then to make it personal toCBS Health, 70% of our
workforce is made up of women.
So we have a real focus onwomen's health.
(10:49):
Um, to stay competitive, weneed the best minds, especially
in clinical care, pharmacy, datascience, all sorts of careers.
And having women at the table,um, and Dr.
uh Joanne Armstrong is one ofmy MV advisors.
I, you know, whenever I have aquestion, uh, she's so great to
talk to and I get her thoughts.
So we design solutions thatmeet the needs of our
(11:12):
colleagues.
And, you know, job seekers careabout women's health support,
and there's a clear demand formenopause care and resources.
Kim Hart (11:20):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, that's a that's great.
And and uh, I think many peopledon't realize how broad a
business you have at CVS Health.
Like, you know, everything fromwarehouse to frontline, you
know, frontline workers tooffice workers.
And so it's a really greatexample of what you can do to
support women in diverse workworkplaces.
(11:41):
Um, Dr.
Armstrong, you've been workingon women's health support well
before you joined the Medovia ummembership.
And when we first met you,there was only a few things that
you you hadn't done uh forwomen in this space.
Where did the journey begin foryou?
Dr. Joanne Armstrong (12:00):
Um, so it was a long journey.
I think you can hear fromCarmilla like how important
women are, right?
Internally, it's a hugeconstituent group, right?
And she she talked about thisdemographic movement that's
happening, right?
It's gonna be a key part, key,key part of the workforce.
So some of it begins with justunderstanding like who are you
(12:22):
as a company, who are you as aculture, who are you serving?
Um, some of the ways that weget insights from that are just
like different ways of listeningto women, right?
What are their barriers?
What are they facing innavigating their health?
And I shared some of thoseearly on.
Um, and then as we started sortof coming down the funnel to
say, what does this mean inmidlife care, menopause in
(12:44):
midlife care, um, we reallystarted thinking very
intentionally about what thosebarriers are, right?
And it probably took us about ayear and a half of all this
intentional work um before wegot the accreditation.
But but as you noted, it was,you know, it was work um really
systematically thinking aboutwhat is the problem, what's the
(13:05):
barrier, how how do we approachthat?
So the barriers we talked aboutum before, some of those are
just for the clinicians.
What does training look like?
How do we bring training intoour own environment?
We have about 900 minuteclinics, nurse practitioners
that are providing primary care,uh including longitudinal care.
(13:25):
How do we get them trained upto understand what menopause is
and perhaps what it is not sothat they can help in this
space?
What do the network of otherphysicians look like for our
customers, including Aetna?
Can we get menopause trainedproviders in there?
We cannot wait a generation oreven two generations so that all
the residents are trained inmenopause and then become
(13:47):
available to uh women uh in theworkforce in the United States.
So those are some of thebarriers, and other big ones are
education um stigma.
How do we talk about it?
Like how do we build a floorunderneath our colleagues here
and you know, customers, womenwork, and other organizations so
that they are both umappropriately educated about
this, um feel empowered so theycan talk about it, perhaps um
(14:11):
get coaching and some otherservices so that they um can
move sort of into a healthjourney.
So we've done all of that.
As I said, to do that, like youcan hear that it really takes
an enterprise-wide commitment tothis part.
Carmela is my thought pro uhpartner, my key and uh
important, you know, worksister.
April Haberman (14:31):
Listeners can't see, but she just made a little
heart.
Dr. Joanne Armstrong (14:37):
Because she has the voice of our
colleagues, 300,000 people, 70%of whom are women, right?
Very pragmatic.
What are pragmatic things thatwe can do to help to translate
these ideas into actuallyconcrete solutions for um folks?
So we work with um our benefitleads for sure.
Uh, we work with um our networkstrategists so that we can
(15:00):
bring providers that are able todeliver the care right now.
Uh, we work with datascientists to say how do we
connect people to the servicesthat we have just built.
Um, we work with our frontstore.
What are the products andservices that are that are there
that help women?
Um, and how do we make it easyand convenient?
And there are many other waysthat we did that.
So, what I want to say here isthat it is an enterprise um
(15:22):
approach.
It takes many different sort offolks that Carmella talked
about in the in the early partof the call, like who are we as
CBS help?
And then um joining Modoviareally helped us refine it,
right?
Identify the gaps.
And we had a few gaps um um andum helped us sort of put kind
of some um capabilities in placeum that we could sort of adapt
(15:45):
rather than build ourselves.
So that's sort of how we did itover about a year and a half.
unknown (15:49):
Yeah.
April Haberman (15:50):
Well, what you're really talking about is
that um cultural shift.
It's it's a holistic approach,but it it's a long-term
sustainable solution.
Um, and and we love that.
Medovia really puts a stake inthe ground with that um
menopause friendly meanssomething to us, and it equates
(16:11):
to cultural change.
And it does take reallyeveryone committing to it within
the organization to make thathappen.
Um, I'll I'll throw the nextquestion out to either one of
you, Dr.
Armstrong or Carmilla.
You mentioned, Dr.
Armstrong, that there were afew gaps that needed to be
filled.
(16:32):
And we've heard from severalindividuals from your
organization that when youjoined the membership, you used
our menopause friendlychecklist, which by the way, um
listeners, you can download thatfor free from our website.
But you used that to identifythose gaps.
And then we came in alongsideyou to fill those gaps.
Can you share what some ofthose action steps were?
Dr. Joanne Armstrong (16:57):
I can start and then Carmelo, maybe
I'll hand it to you.
Um, some of the gaps that wehad were kind of formalized
educational content.
We already had what we call ourcolleague resource groups,
where we sort of talk and usethat venue where we're actually
talking to our own colleagues,providing education, et cetera,
but more sort of online contentuh we didn't have.
(17:17):
Um, I think we sort ofrecognize that in order to feel
comfortable talking aboutmenopause at work, you need to
also train other folks in theecosystem, managers perhaps,
talk to senior leaders, becomfortable about, you know,
talking about this topic atwork, but we needed the
training.
Um, you know, the the checklistshowed us that we really didn't
(17:39):
have, you know, managercontent, for example.
And that really helped us atAdobe, helped us fill that gap.
Um, Carmelo, do you want toshare some of the work that
you've done um to sort of makeall the information available to
our colleagues?
Carmilla Tan (17:52):
Yeah, and and before that, you know, I will
say when when Dr.
Um Joanne Armstrong pulled thistogether, I remember we did
this breathing exercise, um, youknow, Dr.
Joanne, where we go inhale,exhale, say the word menopause,
and everyone goes.
And all together now.
All together.
And it's funny because youknow, some people think you
(18:13):
actually need to be in menopauseto even think the word, much
less say it out loud.
And so, you know, just the workworking together has been great
because you know, we had men onthe group, we had, you know,
people in in differentdemographics, and just having,
and even like when we won theaward, and you know, going back
to the stigma, we had leaderstalking about you know the
(18:34):
accreditation, and you know, um,and the this is not sacred,
these are not sacred words.
And so it was that reallygreat.
But you know, just going backto um, you know, your your
original question, you know,here at CVS Health, we have our
colleague resources group.
Um, it's voluntarycolleague-led and represents,
you know, a wide range ofprofessional culture, all with
(18:57):
other affinities and interests,and many large employers have
CRGs.
Um, and so we worked with them,we have more than 29,000
colleagues who um participate inone of our 17,000 CRGs.
I'm sorry, 17 CRGs.
And so one of the CRGs that umDr.
Joanne and I participate in isthe WISE CRG, Women Inspiring
(19:21):
Success and Excellence.
And this is a team ofpassionate leaders uniting our
voices to elevate and inspirewomen across the world.
I love that mission.
And so going back to that focuson holistic care for female
colleagues navigating midlifechanges, you know, that
checklist was really importantbecause as we thought about, you
know, opportunities and whereyou know we could, you know,
(19:43):
strengthen what we alreadyoffer, right?
Education, peer support, andcoaching, training, benefits,
right, um, to make sure thatspecialized benefit programs and
these resources and trainingscould, you know, it's not enough
to have the message and theprogram.
You actually need tocommunicate it um throughout the
(20:03):
organization.
And I I feel really strongly,uh, Dr.
Joanne, that just our efforts,including the work of our CRGs,
really amplified some of the umcommunications related to what
we offer in terms of menopausesupport.
Dr. Joanne Armstrong (20:19):
Oh, that's great.
I like to offer there what'sinteresting when we hosted our
first CRG discussion on let'stalk menopause, um, we had um, I
think 800 to 1,000 people signup within about 24, maybe 36
hours.
Yeah.
Um, so that really illustratesthat there is this need for
(20:40):
information education community,right?
And a place to talk about thisand importantly to get
resources, right, to get pointedin the right direction.
So that was a bit of an ahamoment.
It was about a year ago or so.
We have had subsequent umconversations like that with our
colleagues.
We've got a number of themplanned also for this month.
Uh, but I use it just as aproof point uh that um
(21:04):
colleagues want this, they needthis, and um, it represents sort
of this opportunity actuallyfor everybody, all employers, to
kind of think about um howyou're serving the health needs
and the wellness needs of theirof employees.
Kim Hart (21:18):
Yeah, on that note, um, Carmilla, why why did you
decide that the accreditationmattered for your employees?
And thinking about that, haveother companies in the broader
business community, have youmade an impact?
Have you heard from others?
Like you guys are doing amazingwork.
Let's talk about it.
What are you doing?
Right.
Carmilla Tan (21:36):
Absolutely.
You know, for us, pursuing theManipause-friendly accreditation
really validated the work thatwe've been doing to help ensure
our colleagues have access tothe resources they need to live
as healthy as possible.
So, and as a result, um, wewere so proud, so proud that we
were the first US company toreceive this accreditation.
(21:59):
Uh, it was really great seeingthis external validation of our
commitment to women's health.
And our goal is not to be theonly employer to receive this
recognition.
You know, we're talking to ourpeers on the why and the how.
You know, every meeting I go towhere there are benefits
leaders, I always say, I'll showyou the way, just ping me.
(22:20):
Uh, I'll show you like the gameplan, what you need to do.
Um, but it really is, itenables the whole organization
to say, hey, this is not asacred word.
We can talk about it.
And given that all employershave women, um, you know, it it
really is so doable.
And so um, you know, again, alot of companies, you have all
(22:43):
the basic um sort of buildingblocks to um get this
accreditation.
It's just a matter of puttingit together and you know, taking
your taking you up Madobia onyour your checklist um to see
the path on on how to get thisaccreditation.
Kim Hart (22:58):
Yeah, thank you.
April Haberman (22:59):
I love that.
The the roadmap, right?
The roadmap um is what peopleare looking for.
But um to your point, Carmilla,most organizations have um a
lot of the a lot of theessentials that we would call it
in place.
They just don't know it.
So it's bringing it alltogether and putting that
puzzle, the pieces of the puzzletogether.
(23:21):
I think um, you know, at thispoint in the podcast, we've
probably sparked curiosity.
Um, I'm sure we have.
I'm sure that a lot oforganizations and individuals
that are listening are curiousnow.
And I'm wondering if we candive just a little bit deeper.
Um, either Dr.
Armstrong or Carmilla, or maybeboth.
(23:42):
Can you share some of thespecific initiatives that CVS
put into place?
You mentioned the holisticapproach, you mentioned
communications and training andeducation and manager training,
but I'm thinking about some ofthe special small pieces that
perhaps we haven't mentioned.
I believe you have coverage forsupplements within your CVS
(24:07):
locations, or at least they haveum, you know, a credit to spend
towards supplements if theychoose that supplemental care.
Um perhaps you're coveringhormone therapy.
Can you can you talk a littlebit about some of those specific
initiatives that have reallymade a difference?
Dr. Joanne Armstrong (24:25):
Um I can start, Camille, if that's if
that's good, and uh, you know,we can just go back and forth.
So there are a number of youknow things, right?
So um we talked about educationand how we use um our colleague
resource groups um to sort ofyou know to create a place where
(24:46):
we can be educated, et cetera,and then turning that into
actual real uh training materialthat's in our uh learning
center.
We've created peer support andcoaching uh programs for our
colleagues.
Um these peer support sessionsare guided by professional
clinicians so that colleaguescan you know interact, ask
questions, learn about it.
(25:07):
Um we've talked about our let'stalk menopause team channel.
We have this is popping all daylong with people, you know, and
it's really a group support umissue, you know, learning from
each other.
Um, you know, in the healthcaredelivery side, we brought the
menopause society in to trainour Minute Clinic nurse
practitioners.
(25:28):
We've also worked with ournetwork folks to bring in um uh
provider groups that aremenopause society trained,
right?
And I talked about that,including using data science to
say these are patients that mayactually benefit from this, you
know, in proactively lettingfolks know um that these
services are available, and wedid that actually for tens of
(25:49):
thousands of people.
Um we looked at a formulary orto make sure that it is
comprehensive and it is.
And then um, we have some plansthat have um what are called
over-the-counter um benefitsthat they can use basically
supplemental dollars formenopause and other related
(26:10):
health services, and that's inplace as well.
Um, Carmel, do you want to talkabout sort of how um, you know,
how your team work to sort ofput it together in a in a way
that people sort of canunderstand their benefits
comprehensively?
Carmilla Tan (26:25):
And so for our colleagues, our own CVS
colleagues, um, we provideaccess to clinicians trained in
menopause care, and we haveofferings tailored to support
midlife health.
So we also have it, it's greatto have these, you know, assets
that we can influence.
Um, so we have in-person andvirtual services at Minute
(26:46):
Clinic within network virtualproviders specializing in
menopause.
The specialty actually matters.
Um and you know, we also havefor our colleagues who are in
our company um sponsored medicalplans, we cover medically
acceptable means of diagnosisand treatment of menopause.
For all our colleagues, um, weactually put it all together,
(27:09):
and I'm sorry you can't see mebecause this is not a video
podcast, but we have ourmenopause and midlife uh cure
support guide, um, which has allthe you know important
information to navigate um lifeevents, which menopause is, for
all our colleagues.
And as with any of our lifeguides, we we also translate
this into Spanish.
(27:30):
Um, and so you know, sometimespeople need to, it's not enough
to have the policy.
You need to make sure that youcan bundle it in a way that
people can absorb it and say,oh, yep, that that's me.
And you know, how do I gonavigate?
And then, you know, as we said,you know, physical, emotional,
financial, the emotional part isis also important, right?
The no-cost confidentialcounseling available through our
(27:54):
EAP program.
You know, we offer up to 20visits, um, confidential
counseling, you know, per year.
So real making sure that youhave like a holistic support for
your for your colleagues.
Kim Hart (28:06):
That's great.
And you know, I when we'vetalked to some of the companies,
they're like, there, uh wedon't we have too many
employees.
I don't know how we wouldimplement something like you
know, what you're talking about,but you have over 300,000
people in, as we said earlier,in many different environments:
office, retail stores, pharmacy,clinical.
You talked about all that.
How do you look across all ofthose environments and kind of
(28:29):
make sure that you're servingall of those folks in a in an
appropriate way, in a way thatthey that meets them where they
are?
Carmilla Tan (28:39):
Yeah, I think just understanding that um, you
know, there really is differentbackgrounds, health needs, and
situations for whether you havea thousand, a hundred
colleagues, a thousand, or threehundred thousand.
And personalizing care to meetthe unique features and
conditions of people's needs isreally important and necessary
(28:59):
to make sure they have access togood quality health care.
You know, we're focusing onmenopause and personalized care
for this demographic.
There are other life stages andconditions that can be
personalized too, but we'restarting with, you know, with
menopause.
And so being able to trainmanagers, empower them with
(29:21):
resources.
You know, we talked about thatbreathing exercise, which,
ladies, I think we need to do atthe end.
April Haberman (29:26):
The you know, I was gonna say we should have
started the podcast like that.
Carmilla Tan (29:31):
Yeah, that's not a sacred word.
Um, but you know, just havingsome, you know, people who can
understand that, hey, this thisis real, and being able to shy
away from the stigma or beingable to just say the word and
also being, you know, umactively listening for hey, you
know, I think we have benefitsspecific to that.
(29:51):
We have a lot of flexibleresources that are available to
women, um, wherever that whereand when works best for them,
whether it's resources.
Sources for living or virtualand in-person minute clinic
services, you know, it reallyhelps with the physical and
emotional wellness.
April Haberman (30:10):
Carmilla, I love that example of the breathing
exercise that you mentioned.
And I know we've talked a lotabout cultural change and
cultural shifts.
Do you have any other goldnuggets like that?
Um, examples that you can giveus of how you've really seen the
culture shift within yourorganization?
(30:31):
Because that stigma issomething that we hear often.
We know that menopausemenstruation, women's health in
general sometimes can carry thatstigma.
And it's hard to get people inorganizations talking about a
topic that they're not usual orare not used to talking about.
Are there any other goldnuggets that you have that are
(30:53):
examples of how you've seen thatculture shift?
Carmilla Tan (30:56):
Yeah, you know, I'll say, you know, Dr.
Joanne and I have done severalum conversations together.
And it it really is a sign thatthere's an audience out there.
Again, we're 70% women.
Why wouldn't we talk aboutwomen's health?
Um and so it's a sign that, youknow, our employees and also
other employers are are eager tohear more about menopause
(31:19):
support.
Um, we've seen great engagementinternally.
Um, and you know, even lateron, you know, I think Dr.
Joanne is hosting a uhManipause documentary viewing
party.
Um so that that is going to bevery cool with our colleagues.
Um I'll just say personally, Ilove working here at CVS Health
(31:40):
because we can, you know,influence, you know, business.
Um, we can take care of ourcolleagues.
We have a mission, and we'rereally focused on making sure we
have the best minds thinkingabout you know these these you
know problems and findingsolutions for them.
So thank you, Dr.
Joanne, for for working withfor us being able to work
together.
April Haberman (31:59):
Yeah.
A party sounds like fun.
Yeah.
A speaking party, first of all.
Yeah.
That's yeah, I would love that.
That's fantastic.
You know, um, Kim and I oftensay we work with so many
organizations, um, you know, whowho we would work for at the
end of the day if we weren'tdoing what we're doing with
(32:20):
Medovia and what you're doing atCVS Health is remarkable.
And we both have said, yep,that's an organization we would
work for.
So we can we can uh applaud youon that front.
Yep.
Kim Hart (32:34):
So Dr.
Armstrong, what's next, what'sthe next steps in this health
space, in the in this space forCVS?
Dr. Joanne Armstrong (32:41):
Well, um, so you know, the recognition
that employers are reallyimportant, right?
We spend employed women, we alltalked about how large part of
the workforce this is.
We spend 40 plus hours a week,right, in in an environment.
We want to bring our wholeselves to it.
So it's a health issue, it's ahuman talent, a human capital
(33:03):
issue.
And as we said, there is nofront door that closes that says
no one in the workplace, andyou know, all the symptomatology
goes away.
So when you think about it thatway, you know, our goal is to
bring this to employers to helpthem understand it is a
workplace health, wellness,productivity, and it's a
business issue as well.
Um, and so um what we aretrying to do is to kind of make
(33:28):
us not be the exceptional umcompany, although I think we are
an exceptional company.
Uh, and I think you know,behind Hermela, I mean, we've
got comedic people, wonderfullytalented teams that are very
passionate about um personalizedhealth for all people.
In this case, it'snon-processing women's health.
So, um, what we are trying todo, what's next for us is to
(33:49):
bring this to employers, uh, torecognize that it is so
important in women's lives thatwe bring alternative, creative,
innovative ways to bring healthto women, recognizing that women
have less time, more demands ontheir time.
So, bringing digital healthsolutions, retail health
solutions, telephonic healthsolutions.
(34:10):
And if you you know listen tohow Carmel and I talked about
this, we really leaned into it.
How do we bring telephonic uhproviders of menopause trained
uh, you know, care um to folks?
How do we use uh data scienceuh techniques to bring people to
the services they need?
So um a key focus for us goingforward is like scaling this for
(34:32):
other customers, um, keepingour own colleagues engaged, um
learning, bringing them newthings.
And you know, as Cameron said,we're gonna have a screening
this afternoon of um, you know,of a film for our colleagues,
right?
To sort of bring the voice ofother experts in the space to
them.
So um that's what we have uhplanned for um coming up.
And I would say the other thingis recognizing, you know, for
(34:55):
us and programming around thefact that menopause has a lot of
disruptive symptoms.
That's kind of a little bit ofwhat shows up at work.
But the, you know, two kind ofclicks down are medical
conditions that don'tnecessarily show up at work, but
are really important to sort ofum to optimize.
So cardiovascular disease, um,bone health, mental health,
(35:18):
those sort of come along thejourney of aging and and midlife
care and what we're doing someprogramming in that space.
April Haberman (35:24):
That's fantastic.
Uh it's it's the postmenopausalstage that you're mentioning
now with the bone health, thecardiovascular health.
And of course, there are thingswe can do uh as preventative
measures to ensure that we don'tend up with things like
osteoporosis, right?
So I love that that focus is uhreally for lifespan, uh not
(35:45):
just this one moment in timethat we often think about when
we think of menopause.
And I'll come back to thatoriginal um comment that you
made at the beginning of thepodcast, Dr.
Armstrong, that menopause isn'tjust a moment in time.
It's important that we followthis through, if you will.
I'm wondering, um, Carmilla, ifan organization is listening to
(36:08):
this podcast, what's one pieceof advice that you would give
them if they want to follow yourlead?
Carmilla Tan (36:14):
I think it it would be, you know, start with
assessing whether you have awomen's health strategy.
And if so, what it means inyour um organization.
Right?
You know, I I think about, youknow, early on, I didn't even,
you know, think about, hey, youmust, you just assume everyone,
all the doctors are trained oneverything.
(36:35):
But the reality is you you needspecialized training if you
have a specialized issue.
And so, you know, after youassess, you know, your strategy,
you know, offering tailoredbenefits is a is a good way, um,
and making sure it's you knowcomprehensive and holistic and
supporting um the population,which in this case is women.
(36:55):
It's so it's so important tomake a business case for women's
health and making sure thatwherever you are, whatever
company or plan you represent,that there is you know some
vision to um make sure you cancarry out support um for your
colleagues, your employees,their families.
And once you have all thepieces, and I'll I'll tell you,
(37:18):
if if you are in a company that,you know, whether it's a small
company or large company, Isuspect you already have the
business blocks to get theaccreditation.
So I would say go and find thechecklist.
Um, and I'm sure, you know,April and Tim, you'll find you
hopefully you'll link out to thechecklist.
And because most companies andplan sponsors have the building
(37:38):
blocks, it's just a matter ofputting it all together.
Kim Hart (37:42):
Yeah, that's that's great.
You know, we um have wanted tohave this conversation with you
since we started partneringabout a year and a half ago.
So it's really amazing to uh beable to come together today to
talk about this because you'vedone so much work.
Um, Dr.
Armstrong, what kind of messagewould you want to leave our
listeners with during this WorldMetopause Month?
(38:03):
Why does this work matter?
Why, why are you what would yourecommend for people that are
trying to move forward with thisstrategy in their own
workplace?
Dr. Joanne Armstrong (38:13):
Yeah, so it matters because there are a
lot of people affected by this,and it is a natural part of um
aging and the journey that we'reall on if we're again we're
fortunate enough to live toabout 50 or so.
Symptoms can be uncomfortable,they can be hard to talk about,
but it is a natural part ofaging, right?
And that is why we need to talkabout it.
We need to be educated to takeproactive steps.
(38:35):
Um, I think also important forwomen is recognizing that while
we kind of all experience this,um, the journey is very unique.
The set of symptom complexesare very different, how we
approach it may be different.
So, what is really key is umhaving access to resources and
using them, um, resources thatare you know trained and
(38:56):
knowledgeable and can behelpful.
I'd recommend to listeners thatum they look at the menopause
society.
Um you can search the portal ontheir website and find
providers that are trained.
They'll say I'm part of a myown community chat, and this
question comes up all the time.
How do I find a providertrained in menopause?
So that's that's one of theanswers.
(39:17):
Um, if you feel, if you're apatient and you feel like what
you're reporting is not being uhto your clinician is not being
affirmed, get another opinion.
We do this in all areas oflife, but it's really important.
Again, it set the stage forwellness through the rest of our
life.
Um thinking about managingholistic health, it's not just
about sleep disturbances, likewhen that's gone, you're you're
(39:39):
good.
It's that's not the case.
Actually starts before 50, andyou know, staying on a wellness
journey is really important,right?
So managing your sleep,managing your weight, thinking
about your diet, thinking aboutsocially how do we build
communities, and then one of thecommunities that's really
important is for this stage oflife.
So find your group.
You know, we have a wonderfulone at uh here at CDF Health,
(40:02):
and the chat goes off like allday long, but it just means that
people want to talk about it,they need to talk about it.
So there are other groups umthat like Lex Talk Menopause has
some really terrific umcontent.
So create that.
Um be free to talk about it, bea champion for people around
you uh to talk about it, andthat really helps um um
(40:22):
everybody else.
That's fantastic.
Thank you.
April Haberman (40:26):
I love that you mentioned community too.
Um, I think we often forgetthat.
Um, we talk about building yourtribe, building your community,
and having that support.
It's really key to happiness.
It's key to being able to shareour journey and for individuals
to feel like they're not alone.
So thank you for mentioningcommunity.
(40:48):
Um, as we wrap up here, we endall of our podcasts by asking
the question (40:54):
what piece of advice, best piece of advice
rather, have you ever received?
And it doesn't have to bemenopause related, it certainly
can be, but really anything,just from a personal
perspective, so we can sharethose little gold nuggets with
our listeners.
Uh, either Dr.
Armstrong or Camilla, whoeverwants to go first, I'd love to
(41:15):
hear from both of you.
Carmilla Tan (41:19):
I'm happy to go uh first.
So uh I'm an actuary by way ofbackground, and you know, the
advice that most actuaries getis risk is opportunity.
Um, and so some you know,sometimes you take a calculated
risk, but you know, risk isopportunity.
So whether it's this or someother um initiative or
(41:40):
opportunity, you know, take aswing.
Love it.
That's a good one.
unknown (41:46):
Dr.
April Haberman (41:46):
Armstrong, do you have something you'd like to
share?
Dr. Joanne Armstrong (41:48):
Yeah, I mean, I'm an optimist by nature,
and I think what I try toinfuse in my kids and people
around me is, you know, leadwith positive intention, enter
new interactions with positiveintention, keep that curiosity
there to ask why.
Why does this person think thisway?
Why is this system set up thatway?
And I think if you lead um likethat, you enter new situations
(42:12):
like that, you will bothsurprise yourself and you'll
find out actually where yourinterest and other people's
intersect.
Kim Hart (42:18):
Guys, those are good.
Those are good ones.
Thank you for sharing them.
Where can people find you andinformation about CVS if they
want more information?
Carmilla Tan (42:31):
Well, uh, I think it's at CVS.com uh is one place
to start.
But you know, whether it's theinternet, we're both on
LinkedIn.
Um, and again, uh if if anyemployers are out there
thinking, how do I get started?
Feel free to find me onLinkedIn and ask me.
I'm happy to share.
April Haberman (42:51):
Yeah, I think that's um, you know, that spirit
of um community, we hear, we'rehearing that thread throughout
this podcast.
And, you know, we need toapplaud you.
Let's take a moment um to, youknow, kind of give the little
hand shout out here and applaudyou because the listeners can't
necessarily see us, but we'recelebrating right now because
(43:13):
truly it has been a wonderfuljourney working with everyone at
CVS Health to bring you to thataccreditation.
But I applaud your efforts evenbefore you started working with
Modovia.
As listeners, you've heard uhwith the discussion today.
You really laid the groundworkbefore we even came into the
(43:34):
picture.
And so thank you for yourefforts in really um championing
women's health and supportingwomen's health.
We can't wait to see what youdo next.
Um, but mostly I want to thankyou for being a leader in this
space.
You did receive the firstaccreditation here in the US, so
bravo.
(43:54):
But what I love is your heartand your passion and your
willingness to share with otheremployers.
So thank you so much for yourpassion, your hard work, um, and
for being willing to pioneer.
You know, pioneering can behard, but it can also be
exhilarating.
And I feel the celebration hereas we sit on this call
(44:17):
together.
So thank you so much for allthat you do.
We appreciate the partnership.
Dr. Joanne Armstrong (44:22):
Great.
Thank you for that recognitionand thank you right back at you
for Adobe, who sort of kept uson a straight and arrow, being
very strategic focused on Visagaps.
Here's how we can help.
Um, so it's been a reallywonderful collaboration, both in
our company with Carmilla andteam and many, many others, and
with you as well.
So thank you.
April Haberman (44:42):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Let's go help more people.
Right.
We can advance women's health.
Pardon me?
Carmilla Tan (44:50):
Should we do our breathing exercise?
April Haberman (44:51):
Yeah, I was just gonna say we can't end without
doing our breathing exercise.
Carmilla, do you want to leadus with that?
And listeners do with us.
Okay, okay.
Carmilla Tan (44:59):
Everyone inhale, exhale, say the word menopause.
Menopause.
Menopause.
April Haberman (45:05):
I love that.
Okay, everybody's gonna starttheir day with menopause.
Let's break the stigma,everyone.
And for listeners, if you'reinterested in membership or
accreditation, we'd love for youto join other employers like
CVS Health.
You can reach us at medovia.comor menopausefriendlyus.com.
(45:26):
Either one of those websites,you can download the checklist
for free.
We'd love to come alongsideyou.
Kim, any words of wisdom beforewe end?
Kim Hart (45:36):
No, but I'll maybe I'll get to use your ending.
Hey everyone, find joy in thejourney.
And until next time, have agreat day.
Thank you, Dr.
Armstrong and Camilla.
April Haberman (45:48):
Thank you.
Thank you for listening to theMedovia Menopause podcast.
If you enjoyed today's show,please give it a thumbs up,
subscribe for future episodes,leave a review, and share this
episode with a friend.
Medovia is out to change thenarrative.
Learn more at Medovia.com.
That's M I D O V I A.com.
Welcome to the MiDOViA Menopause Podcast
Business Edition.
Your trusted source forinsights on menopause and
midlife in the workplace.
Each episode featuresmeaningful conversations with
inspiring guests.
Tune in and enjoy the show.
Kim Hart (00:16):
Welcome everybody.
We are in menopause month.
This is the Super Bowl of thosein the menopause business.
So thanks for joining us today.
We are excited to have Dr.
Joanne Armstrong and CarmillaTan, both from CVS Health.
Dr.
Armstrong is the vice presidentand chief medical officer of
women's health and genomics.
(00:39):
That's a hard word to say.
She is a physician, a healthpolicy expert, and a national
leader in women's health andgenomics.
And at CVS, she directs thestrategy, program development,
and innovation to improveoutcomes and reduce disparities
for women across the U.S.
Carmilla Tan leads the benefitstrategy for CVS Health,
(01:01):
overseeing programs that supportwell-being of more than 300,000
colleagues.
She previously headed GlobalBenefits at Bank of America and
held actuarial and leadershiproles at Brighton Health Plan
Solutions, IBM, Mercer, NYLCare, and Guardian Life.
We are excited to have youboth.
Thanks for joining us today.
(01:23):
Great to be here.
Thanks for having us.
Yeah, sure.
So Dr.
Armstrong, as a women's healthclinical leader, what motivated
you to champion menopausesupport at CVS?
Dr. Joanne Armstrong (01:34):
Great.
So, you know, you know, as yousaid in the introduction, I'm
the head of women's health, andwe really spent a lot of time
thinking about the needs ofwomen across their lifespan.
So when you take a step backand say, like, who are women in
this ecosystem and how do youthink about it?
Um, a few things are reallyimportant and they relate to how
(01:55):
women experience a menopausejourney.
Uh so women are the dominanthealthcare consumer and decision
maker in their homes and in ourcountry.
They make about 80% of allhealthcare purchasing and
homeless decisions.
That's a lot.
It translates to 80% of a $5trillion health spending um
activity in the country.
(02:16):
Women have a lot of challengesactually in making sort of good
decisions for themselves and inmany cases for their families.
So, what are some of thosechallenges?
Women have enormous pressure ontheir time.
About two-thirds of all careunpaid caregivers in the country
are women.
About 15 or so percent of allhouseholds in the country are
led by single women.
(02:37):
And um that puts a lot ofpressure on them.
About a third of women say thatthey miss care because of time
and cost.
Another challenge of women'shealth is many of the areas, uh
the conditions that womenexperience over their whole life
course are under research atsort of a national science
(02:57):
level.
It means that there's a lotabout women's health that we
just don't know, observedoutcomes that we just don't know
a lot about.
And menopause actually sits alittle bit in that in that
space.
And then importantly, a lot ofwomen's health is uh just pure
clinical care is stigmatized forhistoric reasons, maybe
cultural reasons, it'ssurrounded by embarrassment, so
(03:20):
that women don't talk about it,um, and in many cases don't know
how to get education around theconditions that they
experience, and when they do umperhaps there's some shyness or
embarrassment about it, and allof that leads to poor outcomes.
So menopause actually sits sortof at the nexus of all of those
challenges, right?
And so what does it mean?
So now we're gonna drop downinto menopause.
(03:43):
So um just in terms of theexperience, all women, if they
live to the age of about 51,will go through this life, of
course.
Um, about 80 ish, 80-ishpercent of women are embarrassed
to talk about it, and thatembarrassment is like in their
families, in their workplace,with their physicians, and so a
lot of needed care um justdoesn't take place.
(04:05):
So we know that about a thirdof women are misdiagnosed um
when they present with menopauseuh symptoms, thinking that it's
some other condition.
Some of the reasons why thathappens is the workforce is
woefully undertrained in thisspace.
About 20, maybe 30% ofphysicians say that they have
been formally trained inmenopause.
(04:27):
So when women do recognize thesymptoms, say complex that they
have, bring themselves to aposition where they can talk
about it, they enter a clinicalpractice, and um, most of the
physicians that they willencounter are not formally
trained to help support it.
So that is a large cohort ofwomen.
You know, Carmela will talkabout like this sort of false
(04:47):
idea that things happen inhealthcare in one silo, but they
don't come into a workplace.
That's just not true.
Um, so that's what, you know,that's sort of a high-level
issue in terms of what womenexperience, lots of disruptive
symptoms, um hot flashes, moodchanges, sleep disturbances.
If you don't sleep well, it'svery hard to perform at the top
(05:08):
of your game, you know, the nextmorning.
Um, and then a bunch ofcognitive changes, you know,
short-term um um memorychallenges, etc.
Um if only this wereshort-lived, and a lot of people
think like, you know, menopauseis a single point of time in
time, it's not the average uhset of symptom complexes last
(05:30):
about seven years, but the longtail of it can be as much as 14
years for women.
And um, it happens both pre youknow, pre-menopause and after,
and technically I should saywhat menopause is is that point
in time after which menstrualperiods stop for 12 months.
So it's kind of a look backdiagnosis, but the whole
process, which really representshormonal changes in the
(05:52):
function of the ovary, overyears before that menopause the
technical definition ofmenopause hits, and then years
after.
So we talked about the externalsymptoms, these disruptive
symptoms, but there's a lot ofother medical changes that are
happening under the surface, notfully appreciated by women, but
(06:12):
really critical in terms ofsetting the stage for our health
for the next 30, 40 years.
Some of those changes includelike changes in cholesterol and
lipid profiles, which influenceheart health.
You know, we have a prettyquick elevation or escalation of
cardiovascular disease in womenafter menopause.
Estrogen is important inmaintenance of um bone
(06:33):
structure.
So you start as menopause, asestrogen levels wane, you start
seeing osteopenia andosteoporosis, that's bone loss,
mental health challenges, um,rates of depression, anxiety
increase.
So all of these are reallyimportant things that are
happening under the surface, butwithout a conversation about
what it means and how do youthink about holistic health?
(06:56):
And for these women, it's achallenge.
Um, and it is common.
You know, nine to ten womenwill have some type of menopause
experience.
And when, as I said, it doesn'trespect the front door of your
home.
And then when you walk intowork, you know, there's
absentees and productivityissues, etc.
So, you know, creating astrategy, bridging these gaps,
(07:17):
thinking really strategically,pragmatically about what you can
do to help women in all theplaces that we live, work, and
play, right, have solutions,understand what this is about,
and then build solutions.
And a lot of that involves theworkplace.
April Haberman (07:31):
Yeah, absolutely.
And I love um, I love thatholistic approach.
Um, having worked alongside CVSHealth, we know that you took a
holistic approach when youintroduced menopause support
within your organization.
And I think I'll pass this oneover to you, um, Carmilla, from
a benefits perspective, um, Dr.
(07:51):
Armstrong unpacked a lot ofreasons why menopause support,
midlife support, women's healthis important to look at in the
workplace and the why.
But from a benefitsperspective, why focus
specifically on menopause?
Um, from CVS Health'sperspective, why was investing
in menopause support a businesspriority for you specifically?
Carmilla Tan (08:15):
Again, April and Kim, thanks for having me.
This is a great discussion, andI always love presenting with
Dr.
Armstrong.
So, as head of benefits at CVSHealth, maybe we'll start a
little bit about who we are andthen share a little bit about
our journey.
But, you know, we are thenation's leading health
solutions company with more than300,000 colleagues.
(08:36):
You may know our brands.
We have Aetna, CAREMARC, theMinute Clinic.
Hopefully, uh, you're customersof our CVS pharmacy, and we
have clinics like uh Oak StreetHealth and Signify Health.
We have a view of a unifiedcapabilities to help uh members
and patients.
So we have healthcare benefits,we have um uh pharmacy benefits
(09:00):
uh manager, we have um retailpharmacies and many clinicians.
You know, by the numbers, um wehave about 9,000 CVS um
pharmacy retail locations, wehave a thousand walk-in medical
clinics, we have hundreds of uhprimary care clinics, um, we
have the leading pharmacybenefits manager, and you know,
(09:22):
our ethna business um takes careof more than 36 million people.
And when you think about ourdiverse colleagues, right, and
with diverse needs, 300,000colleagues.
Um, you know, the types of workthat our colleagues go to every
day, um sometimes they are instores, they're in pharmacies,
they're in warehouses ortransportation, um, clinician
(09:45):
corporate offices, and you know,some people are on call centers
and also focused on technology.
When it comes to benefits atCBS Health, we pride ourselves
in offering great benefits forgreat people.
We offer a variety of programsand resources uh designed to
meet the needs of our colleaguesand their families.
(10:05):
Um, we're focused on physical,emotional, and financial
wellness because all three arereally interconnected.
Um, you know, the agingworkforce uh continues to play a
vital role for our company,right?
Midlife women are now leadersand key valuable contributors.
You know, there are nearly, Ithink, 75 million women in the
(10:27):
workforce, 20% are going throughmenopause.
And, you know, menopausal womenum specifically will soon make
up the biggest demographic ofthe U.S.
Umce.
And then to make it personal toCBS Health, 70% of our
workforce is made up of women.
So we have a real focus onwomen's health.
(10:49):
Um, to stay competitive, weneed the best minds, especially
in clinical care, pharmacy, datascience, all sorts of careers.
And having women at the table,um, and Dr.
uh Joanne Armstrong is one ofmy MV advisors.
I, you know, whenever I have aquestion, uh, she's so great to
talk to and I get her thoughts.
So we design solutions thatmeet the needs of our
(11:12):
colleagues.
And, you know, job seekers careabout women's health support,
and there's a clear demand formenopause care and resources.
Kim Hart (11:20):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, that's a that's great.
And and uh, I think many peopledon't realize how broad a
business you have at CVS Health.
Like, you know, everything fromwarehouse to frontline, you
know, frontline workers tooffice workers.
And so it's a really greatexample of what you can do to
support women in diverse workworkplaces.
(11:41):
Um, Dr.
Armstrong, you've been workingon women's health support well
before you joined the Medovia ummembership.
And when we first met you,there was only a few things that
you you hadn't done uh forwomen in this space.
Where did the journey begin foryou?
Dr. Joanne Armstrong (12:00):
Um, so it was a long journey.
I think you can hear fromCarmilla like how important
women are, right?
Internally, it's a hugeconstituent group, right?
And she she talked about thisdemographic movement that's
happening, right?
It's gonna be a key part, key,key part of the workforce.
So some of it begins with justunderstanding like who are you
(12:22):
as a company, who are you as aculture, who are you serving?
Um, some of the ways that weget insights from that are just
like different ways of listeningto women, right?
What are their barriers?
What are they facing innavigating their health?
And I shared some of thoseearly on.
Um, and then as we started sortof coming down the funnel to
say, what does this mean inmidlife care, menopause in
(12:44):
midlife care, um, we reallystarted thinking very
intentionally about what thosebarriers are, right?
And it probably took us about ayear and a half of all this
intentional work um before wegot the accreditation.
But but as you noted, it was,you know, it was work um really
systematically thinking aboutwhat is the problem, what's the
(13:05):
barrier, how how do we approachthat?
So the barriers we talked aboutum before, some of those are
just for the clinicians.
What does training look like?
How do we bring training intoour own environment?
We have about 900 minuteclinics, nurse practitioners
that are providing primary care,uh including longitudinal care.
(13:25):
How do we get them trained upto understand what menopause is
and perhaps what it is not sothat they can help in this
space?
What do the network of otherphysicians look like for our
customers, including Aetna?
Can we get menopause trainedproviders in there?
We cannot wait a generation oreven two generations so that all
the residents are trained inmenopause and then become
(13:47):
available to uh women uh in theworkforce in the United States.
So those are some of thebarriers, and other big ones are
education um stigma.
How do we talk about it?
Like how do we build a floorunderneath our colleagues here
and you know, customers, womenwork, and other organizations so
that they are both umappropriately educated about
this, um feel empowered so theycan talk about it, perhaps um
(14:11):
get coaching and some otherservices so that they um can
move sort of into a healthjourney.
So we've done all of that.
As I said, to do that, like youcan hear that it really takes
an enterprise-wide commitment tothis part.
Carmela is my thought pro uhpartner, my key and uh
important, you know, worksister.
April Haberman (14:31):
Listeners can't see, but she just made a little
heart.
Dr. Joanne Armstrong (14:37):
Because she has the voice of our
colleagues, 300,000 people, 70%of whom are women, right?
Very pragmatic.
What are pragmatic things thatwe can do to help to translate
these ideas into actuallyconcrete solutions for um folks?
So we work with um our benefitleads for sure.
Uh, we work with um our networkstrategists so that we can
(15:00):
bring providers that are able todeliver the care right now.
Uh, we work with datascientists to say how do we
connect people to the servicesthat we have just built.
Um, we work with our frontstore.
What are the products andservices that are that are there
that help women?
Um, and how do we make it easyand convenient?
And there are many other waysthat we did that.
So, what I want to say here isthat it is an enterprise um
(15:22):
approach.
It takes many different sort offolks that Carmella talked
about in the in the early partof the call, like who are we as
CBS help?
And then um joining Modoviareally helped us refine it,
right?
Identify the gaps.
And we had a few gaps um um andum helped us sort of put kind
of some um capabilities in placeum that we could sort of adapt
(15:45):
rather than build ourselves.
So that's sort of how we did itover about a year and a half.
unknown (15:49):
Yeah.
April Haberman (15:50):
Well, what you're really talking about is
that um cultural shift.
It's it's a holistic approach,but it it's a long-term
sustainable solution.
Um, and and we love that.
Medovia really puts a stake inthe ground with that um
menopause friendly meanssomething to us, and it equates
(16:11):
to cultural change.
And it does take reallyeveryone committing to it within
the organization to make thathappen.
Um, I'll I'll throw the nextquestion out to either one of
you, Dr.
Armstrong or Carmilla.
You mentioned, Dr.
Armstrong, that there were afew gaps that needed to be
filled.
(16:32):
And we've heard from severalindividuals from your
organization that when youjoined the membership, you used
our menopause friendlychecklist, which by the way, um
listeners, you can download thatfor free from our website.
But you used that to identifythose gaps.
And then we came in alongsideyou to fill those gaps.
Can you share what some ofthose action steps were?
Dr. Joanne Armstrong (16:57):
I can start and then Carmelo, maybe
I'll hand it to you.
Um, some of the gaps that wehad were kind of formalized
educational content.
We already had what we call ourcolleague resource groups,
where we sort of talk and usethat venue where we're actually
talking to our own colleagues,providing education, et cetera,
but more sort of online contentuh we didn't have.
(17:17):
Um, I think we sort ofrecognize that in order to feel
comfortable talking aboutmenopause at work, you need to
also train other folks in theecosystem, managers perhaps,
talk to senior leaders, becomfortable about, you know,
talking about this topic atwork, but we needed the
training.
Um, you know, the the checklistshowed us that we really didn't
(17:39):
have, you know, managercontent, for example.
And that really helped us atAdobe, helped us fill that gap.
Um, Carmelo, do you want toshare some of the work that
you've done um to sort of makeall the information available to
our colleagues?
Carmilla Tan (17:52):
Yeah, and and before that, you know, I will
say when when Dr.
Um Joanne Armstrong pulled thistogether, I remember we did
this breathing exercise, um, youknow, Dr.
Joanne, where we go inhale,exhale, say the word menopause,
and everyone goes.
And all together now.
All together.
And it's funny because youknow, some people think you
(18:13):
actually need to be in menopauseto even think the word, much
less say it out loud.
And so, you know, just the workworking together has been great
because you know, we had men onthe group, we had, you know,
people in in differentdemographics, and just having,
and even like when we won theaward, and you know, going back
to the stigma, we had leaderstalking about you know the
(18:34):
accreditation, and you know, um,and the this is not sacred,
these are not sacred words.
And so it was that reallygreat.
But you know, just going backto um, you know, your your
original question, you know,here at CVS Health, we have our
colleague resources group.
Um, it's voluntarycolleague-led and represents,
you know, a wide range ofprofessional culture, all with
(18:57):
other affinities and interests,and many large employers have
CRGs.
Um, and so we worked with them,we have more than 29,000
colleagues who um participate inone of our 17,000 CRGs.
I'm sorry, 17 CRGs.
And so one of the CRGs that umDr.
Joanne and I participate in isthe WISE CRG, Women Inspiring
(19:21):
Success and Excellence.
And this is a team ofpassionate leaders uniting our
voices to elevate and inspirewomen across the world.
I love that mission.
And so going back to that focuson holistic care for female
colleagues navigating midlifechanges, you know, that
checklist was really importantbecause as we thought about, you
know, opportunities and whereyou know we could, you know,
(19:43):
strengthen what we alreadyoffer, right?
Education, peer support, andcoaching, training, benefits,
right, um, to make sure thatspecialized benefit programs and
these resources and trainingscould, you know, it's not enough
to have the message and theprogram.
You actually need tocommunicate it um throughout the
(20:03):
organization.
And I I feel really strongly,uh, Dr.
Joanne, that just our efforts,including the work of our CRGs,
really amplified some of the umcommunications related to what
we offer in terms of menopausesupport.
Dr. Joanne Armstrong (20:19):
Oh, that's great.
I like to offer there what'sinteresting when we hosted our
first CRG discussion on let'stalk menopause, um, we had um, I
think 800 to 1,000 people signup within about 24, maybe 36
hours.
Yeah.
Um, so that really illustratesthat there is this need for
(20:40):
information education community,right?
And a place to talk about thisand importantly to get
resources, right, to get pointedin the right direction.
So that was a bit of an ahamoment.
It was about a year ago or so.
We have had subsequent umconversations like that with our
colleagues.
We've got a number of themplanned also for this month.
Uh, but I use it just as aproof point uh that um
(21:04):
colleagues want this, they needthis, and um, it represents sort
of this opportunity actuallyfor everybody, all employers, to
kind of think about um howyou're serving the health needs
and the wellness needs of theirof employees.
Kim Hart (21:18):
Yeah, on that note, um, Carmilla, why why did you
decide that the accreditationmattered for your employees?
And thinking about that, haveother companies in the broader
business community, have youmade an impact?
Have you heard from others?
Like you guys are doing amazingwork.
Let's talk about it.
What are you doing?
Right.
Carmilla Tan (21:36):
Absolutely.
You know, for us, pursuing theManipause-friendly accreditation
really validated the work thatwe've been doing to help ensure
our colleagues have access tothe resources they need to live
as healthy as possible.
So, and as a result, um, wewere so proud, so proud that we
were the first US company toreceive this accreditation.
(21:59):
Uh, it was really great seeingthis external validation of our
commitment to women's health.
And our goal is not to be theonly employer to receive this
recognition.
You know, we're talking to ourpeers on the why and the how.
You know, every meeting I go towhere there are benefits
leaders, I always say, I'll showyou the way, just ping me.
(22:20):
Uh, I'll show you like the gameplan, what you need to do.
Um, but it really is, itenables the whole organization
to say, hey, this is not asacred word.
We can talk about it.
And given that all employershave women, um, you know, it it
really is so doable.
And so um, you know, again, alot of companies, you have all
(22:43):
the basic um sort of buildingblocks to um get this
accreditation.
It's just a matter of puttingit together and you know, taking
your taking you up Madobia onyour your checklist um to see
the path on on how to get thisaccreditation.
Kim Hart (22:58):
Yeah, thank you.
April Haberman (22:59):
I love that.
The the roadmap, right?
The roadmap um is what peopleare looking for.
But um to your point, Carmilla,most organizations have um a
lot of the a lot of theessentials that we would call it
in place.
They just don't know it.
So it's bringing it alltogether and putting that
puzzle, the pieces of the puzzletogether.
(23:21):
I think um, you know, at thispoint in the podcast, we've
probably sparked curiosity.
Um, I'm sure we have.
I'm sure that a lot oforganizations and individuals
that are listening are curiousnow.
And I'm wondering if we candive just a little bit deeper.
Um, either Dr.
Armstrong or Carmilla, or maybeboth.
(23:42):
Can you share some of thespecific initiatives that CVS
put into place?
You mentioned the holisticapproach, you mentioned
communications and training andeducation and manager training,
but I'm thinking about some ofthe special small pieces that
perhaps we haven't mentioned.
I believe you have coverage forsupplements within your CVS
(24:07):
locations, or at least they haveum, you know, a credit to spend
towards supplements if theychoose that supplemental care.
Um perhaps you're coveringhormone therapy.
Can you can you talk a littlebit about some of those specific
initiatives that have reallymade a difference?
Dr. Joanne Armstrong (24:25):
Um I can start, Camille, if that's if
that's good, and uh, you know,we can just go back and forth.
So there are a number of youknow things, right?
So um we talked about educationand how we use um our colleague
resource groups um to sort ofyou know to create a place where
(24:46):
we can be educated, et cetera,and then turning that into
actual real uh training materialthat's in our uh learning
center.
We've created peer support andcoaching uh programs for our
colleagues.
Um these peer support sessionsare guided by professional
clinicians so that colleaguescan you know interact, ask
questions, learn about it.
(25:07):
Um we've talked about our let'stalk menopause team channel.
We have this is popping all daylong with people, you know, and
it's really a group support umissue, you know, learning from
each other.
Um, you know, in the healthcaredelivery side, we brought the
menopause society in to trainour Minute Clinic nurse
practitioners.
(25:28):
We've also worked with ournetwork folks to bring in um uh
provider groups that aremenopause society trained,
right?
And I talked about that,including using data science to
say these are patients that mayactually benefit from this, you
know, in proactively lettingfolks know um that these
services are available, and wedid that actually for tens of
(25:49):
thousands of people.
Um we looked at a formulary orto make sure that it is
comprehensive and it is.
And then um, we have some plansthat have um what are called
over-the-counter um benefitsthat they can use basically
supplemental dollars formenopause and other related
(26:10):
health services, and that's inplace as well.
Um, Carmel, do you want to talkabout sort of how um, you know,
how your team work to sort ofput it together in a in a way
that people sort of canunderstand their benefits
comprehensively?
Carmilla Tan (26:25):
And so for our colleagues, our own CVS
colleagues, um, we provideaccess to clinicians trained in
menopause care, and we haveofferings tailored to support
midlife health.
So we also have it, it's greatto have these, you know, assets
that we can influence.
Um, so we have in-person andvirtual services at Minute
(26:46):
Clinic within network virtualproviders specializing in
menopause.
The specialty actually matters.
Um and you know, we also havefor our colleagues who are in
our company um sponsored medicalplans, we cover medically
acceptable means of diagnosisand treatment of menopause.
For all our colleagues, um, weactually put it all together,
(27:09):
and I'm sorry you can't see mebecause this is not a video
podcast, but we have ourmenopause and midlife uh cure
support guide, um, which has allthe you know important
information to navigate um lifeevents, which menopause is, for
all our colleagues.
And as with any of our lifeguides, we we also translate
this into Spanish.
(27:30):
Um, and so you know, sometimespeople need to, it's not enough
to have the policy.
You need to make sure that youcan bundle it in a way that
people can absorb it and say,oh, yep, that that's me.
And you know, how do I gonavigate?
And then, you know, as we said,you know, physical, emotional,
financial, the emotional part isis also important, right?
The no-cost confidentialcounseling available through our
(27:54):
EAP program.
You know, we offer up to 20visits, um, confidential
counseling, you know, per year.
So real making sure that youhave like a holistic support for
your for your colleagues.
Kim Hart (28:06):
That's great.
And you know, I when we'vetalked to some of the companies,
they're like, there, uh wedon't we have too many
employees.
I don't know how we wouldimplement something like you
know, what you're talking about,but you have over 300,000
people in, as we said earlier,in many different environments:
office, retail stores, pharmacy,clinical.
You talked about all that.
How do you look across all ofthose environments and kind of
(28:29):
make sure that you're servingall of those folks in a in an
appropriate way, in a way thatthey that meets them where they
are?
Carmilla Tan (28:39):
Yeah, I think just understanding that um, you
know, there really is differentbackgrounds, health needs, and
situations for whether you havea thousand, a hundred
colleagues, a thousand, or threehundred thousand.
And personalizing care to meetthe unique features and
conditions of people's needs isreally important and necessary
(28:59):
to make sure they have access togood quality health care.
You know, we're focusing onmenopause and personalized care
for this demographic.
There are other life stages andconditions that can be
personalized too, but we'restarting with, you know, with
menopause.
And so being able to trainmanagers, empower them with
(29:21):
resources.
You know, we talked about thatbreathing exercise, which,
ladies, I think we need to do atthe end.
April Haberman (29:26):
The you know, I was gonna say we should have
started the podcast like that.
Carmilla Tan (29:31):
Yeah, that's not a sacred word.
Um, but you know, just havingsome, you know, people who can
understand that, hey, this thisis real, and being able to shy
away from the stigma or beingable to just say the word and
also being, you know, umactively listening for hey, you
know, I think we have benefitsspecific to that.
(29:51):
We have a lot of flexibleresources that are available to
women, um, wherever that whereand when works best for them,
whether it's resources.
Sources for living or virtualand in-person minute clinic
services, you know, it reallyhelps with the physical and
emotional wellness.
April Haberman (30:10):
Carmilla, I love that example of the breathing
exercise that you mentioned.
And I know we've talked a lotabout cultural change and
cultural shifts.
Do you have any other goldnuggets like that?
Um, examples that you can giveus of how you've really seen the
culture shift within yourorganization?
(30:31):
Because that stigma issomething that we hear often.
We know that menopausemenstruation, women's health in
general sometimes can carry thatstigma.
And it's hard to get people inorganizations talking about a
topic that they're not usual orare not used to talking about.
Are there any other goldnuggets that you have that are
(30:53):
examples of how you've seen thatculture shift?
Carmilla Tan (30:56):
Yeah, you know, I'll say, you know, Dr.
Joanne and I have done severalum conversations together.
And it it really is a sign thatthere's an audience out there.
Again, we're 70% women.
Why wouldn't we talk aboutwomen's health?
Um and so it's a sign that, youknow, our employees and also
other employers are are eager tohear more about menopause
(31:19):
support.
Um, we've seen great engagementinternally.
Um, and you know, even lateron, you know, I think Dr.
Joanne is hosting a uhManipause documentary viewing
party.
Um so that that is going to bevery cool with our colleagues.
Um I'll just say personally, Ilove working here at CVS Health
(31:40):
because we can, you know,influence, you know, business.
Um, we can take care of ourcolleagues.
We have a mission, and we'rereally focused on making sure we
have the best minds thinkingabout you know these these you
know problems and findingsolutions for them.
So thank you, Dr.
Joanne, for for working withfor us being able to work
together.
April Haberman (31:59):
Yeah.
A party sounds like fun.
Yeah.
A speaking party, first of all.
Yeah.
That's yeah, I would love that.
That's fantastic.
You know, um, Kim and I oftensay we work with so many
organizations, um, you know, whowho we would work for at the
end of the day if we weren'tdoing what we're doing with
(32:20):
Medovia and what you're doing atCVS Health is remarkable.
And we both have said, yep,that's an organization we would
work for.
So we can we can uh applaud youon that front.
Yep.
Kim Hart (32:34):
So Dr.
Armstrong, what's next, what'sthe next steps in this health
space, in the in this space forCVS?
Dr. Joanne Armstrong (32:41):
Well, um, so you know, the recognition
that employers are reallyimportant, right?
We spend employed women, we alltalked about how large part of
the workforce this is.
We spend 40 plus hours a week,right, in in an environment.
We want to bring our wholeselves to it.
So it's a health issue, it's ahuman talent, a human capital
(33:03):
issue.
And as we said, there is nofront door that closes that says
no one in the workplace, andyou know, all the symptomatology
goes away.
So when you think about it thatway, you know, our goal is to
bring this to employers to helpthem understand it is a
workplace health, wellness,productivity, and it's a
business issue as well.
Um, and so um what we aretrying to do is to kind of make
(33:28):
us not be the exceptional umcompany, although I think we are
an exceptional company.
Uh, and I think you know,behind Hermela, I mean, we've
got comedic people, wonderfullytalented teams that are very
passionate about um personalizedhealth for all people.
In this case, it'snon-processing women's health.
So, um, what we are trying todo, what's next for us is to
(33:49):
bring this to employers, uh, torecognize that it is so
important in women's lives thatwe bring alternative, creative,
innovative ways to bring healthto women, recognizing that women
have less time, more demands ontheir time.
So, bringing digital healthsolutions, retail health
solutions, telephonic healthsolutions.
(34:10):
And if you you know listen tohow Carmel and I talked about
this, we really leaned into it.
How do we bring telephonic uhproviders of menopause trained
uh, you know, care um to folks?
How do we use uh data scienceuh techniques to bring people to
the services they need?
So um a key focus for us goingforward is like scaling this for
(34:32):
other customers, um, keepingour own colleagues engaged, um
learning, bringing them newthings.
And you know, as Cameron said,we're gonna have a screening
this afternoon of um, you know,of a film for our colleagues,
right?
To sort of bring the voice ofother experts in the space to
them.
So um that's what we have uhplanned for um coming up.
And I would say the other thingis recognizing, you know, for
(34:55):
us and programming around thefact that menopause has a lot of
disruptive symptoms.
That's kind of a little bit ofwhat shows up at work.
But the, you know, two kind ofclicks down are medical
conditions that don'tnecessarily show up at work, but
are really important to sort ofum to optimize.
So cardiovascular disease, um,bone health, mental health,
(35:18):
those sort of come along thejourney of aging and and midlife
care and what we're doing someprogramming in that space.
April Haberman (35:24):
That's fantastic.
Uh it's it's the postmenopausalstage that you're mentioning
now with the bone health, thecardiovascular health.
And of course, there are thingswe can do uh as preventative
measures to ensure that we don'tend up with things like
osteoporosis, right?
So I love that that focus is uhreally for lifespan, uh not
(35:45):
just this one moment in timethat we often think about when
we think of menopause.
And I'll come back to thatoriginal um comment that you
made at the beginning of thepodcast, Dr.
Armstrong, that menopause isn'tjust a moment in time.
It's important that we followthis through, if you will.
I'm wondering, um, Carmilla, ifan organization is listening to
(36:08):
this podcast, what's one pieceof advice that you would give
them if they want to follow yourlead?
Carmilla Tan (36:14):
I think it it would be, you know, start with
assessing whether you have awomen's health strategy.
And if so, what it means inyour um organization.
Right?
You know, I I think about, youknow, early on, I didn't even,
you know, think about, hey, youmust, you just assume everyone,
all the doctors are trained oneverything.
(36:35):
But the reality is you you needspecialized training if you
have a specialized issue.
And so, you know, after youassess, you know, your strategy,
you know, offering tailoredbenefits is a is a good way, um,
and making sure it's you knowcomprehensive and holistic and
supporting um the population,which in this case is women.
(36:55):
It's so it's so important tomake a business case for women's
health and making sure thatwherever you are, whatever
company or plan you represent,that there is you know some
vision to um make sure you cancarry out support um for your
colleagues, your employees,their families.
And once you have all thepieces, and I'll I'll tell you,
(37:18):
if if you are in a company that,you know, whether it's a small
company or large company, Isuspect you already have the
business blocks to get theaccreditation.
So I would say go and find thechecklist.
Um, and I'm sure, you know,April and Tim, you'll find you
hopefully you'll link out to thechecklist.
And because most companies andplan sponsors have the building
(37:38):
blocks, it's just a matter ofputting it all together.
Kim Hart (37:42):
Yeah, that's that's great.
You know, we um have wanted tohave this conversation with you
since we started partneringabout a year and a half ago.
So it's really amazing to uh beable to come together today to
talk about this because you'vedone so much work.
Um, Dr.
Armstrong, what kind of messagewould you want to leave our
listeners with during this WorldMetopause Month?
(38:03):
Why does this work matter?
Why, why are you what would yourecommend for people that are
trying to move forward with thisstrategy in their own
workplace?
Dr. Joanne Armstrong (38:13):
Yeah, so it matters because there are a
lot of people affected by this,and it is a natural part of um
aging and the journey that we'reall on if we're again we're
fortunate enough to live toabout 50 or so.
Symptoms can be uncomfortable,they can be hard to talk about,
but it is a natural part ofaging, right?
And that is why we need to talkabout it.
We need to be educated to takeproactive steps.
(38:35):
Um, I think also important forwomen is recognizing that while
we kind of all experience this,um, the journey is very unique.
The set of symptom complexesare very different, how we
approach it may be different.
So, what is really key is umhaving access to resources and
using them, um, resources thatare you know trained and
(38:56):
knowledgeable and can behelpful.
I'd recommend to listeners thatum they look at the menopause
society.
Um you can search the portal ontheir website and find
providers that are trained.
They'll say I'm part of a myown community chat, and this
question comes up all the time.
How do I find a providertrained in menopause?
So that's that's one of theanswers.
(39:17):
Um, if you feel, if you're apatient and you feel like what
you're reporting is not being uhto your clinician is not being
affirmed, get another opinion.
We do this in all areas oflife, but it's really important.
Again, it set the stage forwellness through the rest of our
life.
Um thinking about managingholistic health, it's not just
about sleep disturbances, likewhen that's gone, you're you're
(39:39):
good.
It's that's not the case.
Actually starts before 50, andyou know, staying on a wellness
journey is really important,right?
So managing your sleep,managing your weight, thinking
about your diet, thinking aboutsocially how do we build
communities, and then one of thecommunities that's really
important is for this stage oflife.
So find your group.
You know, we have a wonderfulone at uh here at CDF Health,
(40:02):
and the chat goes off like allday long, but it just means that
people want to talk about it,they need to talk about it.
So there are other groups umthat like Lex Talk Menopause has
some really terrific umcontent.
So create that.
Um be free to talk about it, bea champion for people around
you uh to talk about it, andthat really helps um um
(40:22):
everybody else.
That's fantastic.
Thank you.
April Haberman (40:26):
I love that you mentioned community too.
Um, I think we often forgetthat.
Um, we talk about building yourtribe, building your community,
and having that support.
It's really key to happiness.
It's key to being able to shareour journey and for individuals
to feel like they're not alone.
So thank you for mentioningcommunity.
(40:48):
Um, as we wrap up here, we endall of our podcasts by asking
the question (40:54):
what piece of advice, best piece of advice
rather, have you ever received?
And it doesn't have to bemenopause related, it certainly
can be, but really anything,just from a personal
perspective, so we can sharethose little gold nuggets with
our listeners.
Uh, either Dr.
Armstrong or Camilla, whoeverwants to go first, I'd love to
(41:15):
hear from both of you.
Carmilla Tan (41:19):
I'm happy to go uh first.
So uh I'm an actuary by way ofbackground, and you know, the
advice that most actuaries getis risk is opportunity.
Um, and so some you know,sometimes you take a calculated
risk, but you know, risk isopportunity.
So whether it's this or someother um initiative or
(41:40):
opportunity, you know, take aswing.
Love it.
That's a good one.
unknown (41:46):
Dr.
April Haberman (41:46):
Armstrong, do you have something you'd like to
share?
Dr. Joanne Armstrong (41:48):
Yeah, I mean, I'm an optimist by nature,
and I think what I try toinfuse in my kids and people
around me is, you know, leadwith positive intention, enter
new interactions with positiveintention, keep that curiosity
there to ask why.
Why does this person think thisway?
Why is this system set up thatway?
And I think if you lead um likethat, you enter new situations
(42:12):
like that, you will bothsurprise yourself and you'll
find out actually where yourinterest and other people's
intersect.
Kim Hart (42:18):
Guys, those are good.
Those are good ones.
Thank you for sharing them.
Where can people find you andinformation about CVS if they
want more information?
Carmilla Tan (42:31):
Well, uh, I think it's at CVS.com uh is one place
to start.
But you know, whether it's theinternet, we're both on
LinkedIn.
Um, and again, uh if if anyemployers are out there
thinking, how do I get started?
Feel free to find me onLinkedIn and ask me.
I'm happy to share.
April Haberman (42:51):
Yeah, I think that's um, you know, that spirit
of um community, we hear, we'rehearing that thread throughout
this podcast.
And, you know, we need toapplaud you.
Let's take a moment um to, youknow, kind of give the little
hand shout out here and applaudyou because the listeners can't
necessarily see us, but we'recelebrating right now because
(43:13):
truly it has been a wonderfuljourney working with everyone at
CVS Health to bring you to thataccreditation.
But I applaud your efforts evenbefore you started working with
Modovia.
As listeners, you've heard uhwith the discussion today.
You really laid the groundworkbefore we even came into the
(43:34):
picture.
And so thank you for yourefforts in really um championing
women's health and supportingwomen's health.
We can't wait to see what youdo next.
Um, but mostly I want to thankyou for being a leader in this
space.
You did receive the firstaccreditation here in the US, so
bravo.
(43:54):
But what I love is your heartand your passion and your
willingness to share with otheremployers.
So thank you so much for yourpassion, your hard work, um, and
for being willing to pioneer.
You know, pioneering can behard, but it can also be
exhilarating.
And I feel the celebration hereas we sit on this call
(44:17):
together.
So thank you so much for allthat you do.
We appreciate the partnership.
Dr. Joanne Armstrong (44:22):
Great.
Thank you for that recognitionand thank you right back at you
for Adobe, who sort of kept uson a straight and arrow, being
very strategic focused on Visagaps.
Here's how we can help.
Um, so it's been a reallywonderful collaboration, both in
our company with Carmilla andteam and many, many others, and
with you as well.
So thank you.
April Haberman (44:42):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Let's go help more people.
Right.
We can advance women's health.
Pardon me?
Carmilla Tan (44:50):
Should we do our breathing exercise?
April Haberman (44:51):
Yeah, I was just gonna say we can't end without
doing our breathing exercise.
Carmilla, do you want to leadus with that?
And listeners do with us.
Okay, okay.
Carmilla Tan (44:59):
Everyone inhale, exhale, say the word menopause.
Menopause.
Menopause.
April Haberman (45:05):
I love that.
Okay, everybody's gonna starttheir day with menopause.
Let's break the stigma,everyone.
And for listeners, if you'reinterested in membership or
accreditation, we'd love for youto join other employers like
CVS Health.
You can reach us at medovia.comor menopausefriendlyus.com.
(45:26):
Either one of those websites,you can download the checklist
for free.
We'd love to come alongsideyou.
Kim, any words of wisdom beforewe end?
Kim Hart (45:36):
No, but I'll maybe I'll get to use your ending.
Hey everyone, find joy in thejourney.
And until next time, have agreat day.
Thank you, Dr.
Armstrong and Camilla.
April Haberman (45:48):
Thank you.
Thank you for listening to theMedovia Menopause podcast.
If you enjoyed today's show,please give it a thumbs up,
subscribe for future episodes,leave a review, and share this
episode with a friend.
Medovia is out to change thenarrative.
Learn more at Medovia.com.
That's M I D O V I A.com.
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