The MiDOViA Menopause Podcast

Episode 025: Pioneering Femtech and Bridging Gaps in Women's Healthcare with Dr. Brittany Barreto

• April Haberman and Kim Hart • Season 1 • Episode 25

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What if the future of women's health lay in the hands of innovative technology? Join us for a groundbreaking discussion with Dr. Brittany Barreto, a visionary in the Femtech industry, who transitioned from a geneticist to a pioneering entrepreneur. Discover her compelling journey and how glaring gaps in women's healthcare inspired her to advocate for Femtech, addressing everything from reproductive health to chronic conditions like migraines and heart issues.

Throughout the episode, we delve into the historical gender biases in scientific research and the critical shifts needed to prioritize women's health. With over 100 innovators pushing the boundaries, we explore various health verticals, including the crucial areas of mental health and chronic diseases. Dr. Barreto brings to light the disparities in maternal mortality rates, instances of medical gaslighting, and the ongoing battle for adequate funding, especially within institutions like the NIH. Her insights reveal the pressing need for more investment to bridge these gaps and foster groundbreaking discoveries in women's health.

In our final segment, we tackle the exciting advancements in menopause treatment and education, from adaptive bed sheets and innovative bracelets to new medications addressing symptoms like brain fog. Dr. Barreto emphasizes the importance of normalizing conversations around women's health, offering practical advice and advocating for open dialogue. Don't miss her invaluable insights and a sneak peek into her upcoming book "Unlocking Women's Health." Stay connected with us for more resources via our social media platforms and newsletters.

Every day Dr. Barreto dedicates her work to advancing women’s health by equipping founders, investing in innovative ideas, and engaging key stakeholders to create better healthcare for women, females, and girls, an industry known as FemTech. She is the Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of FemHealth Insights, Host of the FemTech Focus Podcast, Co-Founder of Coyote Ventures, Advisory Board Member for Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Indiana University, and an unconventional scientist, entrepreneur, and consultant that proves that anything is possible with hard work and heart.

She hosts the #1 femtech podcast, FemTech Focus, co-founded an early-stage femtech investment firm, Coyote Ventures, and founded FemHealth Insights, a boutique consulting firm with a market research software tool specializing in women's health innovation. She is considered the voice of femtech and is a 3x recipient of Top Leaders in FemTech. Dr. Barreto has served on women’s health committees with Gates Foundation, NIH, and HLTH. She is a FemTech Forbes contributor and hosts a tech column in HealthyWomen magazine. She is invited internationally to speak on the past, present, and future of women’s health innovation. She is revered by pharma, retail, and private equity as the go-to expert on all things femhealth and femtech.

Website:
 https://www.drbrittanybarreto.com

Buy her book, "Unlocking Women’s Health: FemTech and the Quest for Gender Equity” here.

LINKS:

Website: https://www.midovia.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mymidovia
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/midovia
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. 

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Medovia Menopause Podcast, your trusted source for evidence-based, science-backed information related to menopause. Medovia is dedicated to changing the narrative about menopause by educating, raising awareness and supporting women in this stage of life, both at home and in the workplace. Visit medoviacom to learn more home and in the workplace. Visit Medoviacom to learn more. I'm one of your hosts, april Haberman, and I'm joined by Kim Hart. We're co-founders of Medovia, certified health coaches, registered yoga teachers and midlife mamas specializing in menopause. You're listening to another episode of our podcast, where we offer expert guidance for the most transformative stage of life, bringing you real conversations, education and resources to help you overcome challenges and reach your full potential through midlife. Join us and our special guests each episode as we bring vibrant, fun and truthful conversation and let us help you have a deeper understanding of menopause. Hi everyone. Today we have Brittany Barreto on the show.

Speaker 1:

Dr Barreto dedicates her work to advancing women's health by equipping founders, investing in innovative ideas and engaging key stakeholders to create better healthcare for women, females and girls an industry known as Femtech. She's the founder and chief innovation officer of Fem Health Insights. Host of the Femtech Focus podcast. Co-founder of Coyote Ventures advisory board. Member for Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Indiana University and an unconventional scientist, entrepreneur and consultant that proves that anything is possible with hard work and heart. She is considered the voice of Femtech and is a three-time recipient of top leaders in Femtech. Dr Barreto has served on women's health committees with Gates Foundation, nih and HLTH. She is a femtech Forbes contributor and hosts a tech column in Healthy Woman Magazine. She's invited internationally to speak on the past, present and future of women's health innovation. Dr Barreto is revered by pharma, retail and private equity as the go-to expert on all things fem health and fem tech. We know you are absolutely going to love this episode, hello everybody.

Speaker 2:

Today we have our friend, dr Brittany Barreto. Welcome to the podcast, brittany. Thanks for having me. We're thrilled to have you. And you know what? You had us on your first LinkedIn Live eight or nine months ago and I rewatched it in preparation for this conversation and I had the worst technical problems. I don't know if you guys remember, but I was like, guys, I can't hear, I can't talk, um, and after that I got like a new microphone and a different setup and all those things.

Speaker 2:

So, uh, thanks for your patience. You and um April recovered so well from that and when I was watching it, I'm like you guys, you guys like I stood in awe as I was rewatching it again.

Speaker 3:

We were master performers right when somebody kept rolling and yeah, that's what they say, right?

Speaker 1:

Just keep going, just keep going.

Speaker 2:

And you kept going like hey, kim, are you here? Anyway, we love the work that you're doing, advancing female women, girls, health and wellness through innovation, and we've learned so much by following your work, and so thank you for leading that. You're kind of known as the voice of Femtech, and there's so many great things that you're doing. I'd love to hear how you got into this. What is Femtech, what your background is? Just kind of, how did you get to here?

Speaker 3:

Wow, I could talk the rest of our time just with those three questions, but let me first define what femtech is for the listeners who haven't heard the term. Femtech. Essentially it's like clean tech for climate change technology, or it's like ag tech for agricultural, but this time it's female tech, so it's solutions to conditions that solely, disproportionately or differently affecting females, and so what I mean by that is that it's not just boobs and tubes, as I like to say, it's not just breastfeeding and fertility and menstruation, it's also migraines that disproportionately affect women, or autoimmune diseases or heart disease. So heart disease actually disproportionately affects men, but the way that heart disease so heart disease actually disproportionately affects men. But the way that heart disease manifests in a female heart is very different than a man's heart, and so that's the differently part. And if we don't consider sex and gender from our basic scientific understanding of disease all the way through, how does a woman metabolize this drug versus a man? Women may not be getting the right dosage of medication based on their hormones or their life stage, et cetera. And so Femtech is this idea.

Speaker 3:

Again, you could think about it like it's gynecology in the tech world, and I started in this industry over five years ago so about 2018, when I was working at an investment firm and I started to meet women's health companies. And you know, I was meeting with startups every single day and they were doing incredible work, like really futuristic, awesome life-saving technologies. But whenever I met a women's health company, the thing that they were telling me was so shocking, you know. They were saying things like women are waiting seven years for endometriosis diagnosis and I was like wait, why? And they're like, well, because a diagnostic test doesn't exist yet. And I'd be like, well, why?

Speaker 3:

Right, like I just kept feeling like well know their vaginas melting shut after radiation treatment of cervical cancer. I was like wait, what Right? So I just kept being shocked. As a female scientist, feminist. So I have a PhD in genetics. I'm a serial entrepreneur. My first startup was a DNA based dating app.

Speaker 3:

That's a whole nother episode, you know. So I was working in tech, working in venture, investing in startups, and yet I had no idea how bad women's health was, and I think that's actually part of the issue is that we don't even realize how. You know, not studied, we are from the basic benchtop science all the way through FDA approvals and so, long story short, I got really inspired. I said I want to work in this industry, and I started to Google femtech and I couldn't find anything. This is in 2018. There wasn't a podcast, there wasn't a book, there wasn't a course, there wasn't accelerators there. You know, I couldn't find a list of femtech companies. People were speculating how many there might be, and I realized at that point that our industry had a name femtech which, by the way, I did not know had only been coined two years earlier, 2016.

Speaker 3:

The founder of clue, the period tracking app, ida Tin she's the one who first said it in 2016, and at that point I realized oh wow, this name's only two years old, there's no infrastructure here, there's no community, and that's what I've dedicated my life to the last five years is building that, and so I started it with a podcast in the pandemic, because what's a girl to do in lockdown but start a podcast? And that podcast is still going on today. You can listen to it on any streaming service. It's called Femtech Focus and we have over 250 episodes on there. I've actually used that to write a book that's coming out this fall called Unlocking Women's Health.

Speaker 3:

We'll be available on Amazon by the end of September of 2024. We have the largest virtual community group of women's health founders so they can find each other, find community, find co-founders, find employees, get inspired, get funding. I've co-founded an investment firm to invest in Femtech. So I have done a bunch of stuff the last five years, but at the end of the day, it's all so that we can raise awareness for the need for sex and gender to be considered in healthcare, but also to foster a safe environment with a lot of resources for these incredible founders that are solving issues that women need solved. So that's my answer to your questions there.

Speaker 2:

You don't sound very excited about it, so I'm sort so disappointed at that.

Speaker 1:

No, I love that there's a space.

Speaker 2:

There's a gap and it needs to be filled and we we've, like I said, we've learned a ton from you as we've been trying to grow Medovia and all of the resources that you have. Talk a little bit more about your book what what's what is unlocking health, femtech and the quest for gender equality. What, what is in the book and kind of what's what is Unlocking Health, femtech and the Quest for Gender Equality. What, what is in the book and kind of what's the premise behind it?

Speaker 1:

Why did you write it? Yeah, why a book?

Speaker 3:

right. Well, unlocking Women's Health, femtech and the Quest for Gender Equity essentially is filling in the gap of a book. So, you know, some people go to TikTok to learn, some people go to a podcast to learn, but you know, even myself, I love to read a good book and read and learn about something, and so this is a book for people not just in femtech. I did write it in a way that everyday women who are interested in this industry can read it.

Speaker 3:

What the book does is it kicks off with an introduction to what is femtech, and I discuss the history of, you know, scientists assuming that if they included female animal models or females in clinical trials, then it would mess up their data. And there was some good intention there, right, there was some scientific reasoning behind it. It wasn't just that they didn't like women, you know. But what we have seen is that that led to a male-based healthcare system with male-based medicines, and so I kind of talk about the history and the turning point where we now realize, oopsies, we need to include females. They are not small men.

Speaker 3:

We need to actually research them, and so I talk about this history, this transition, and then where we're at today. There's this industry called femtech. Here's how many companies are in the space, here's what they're working on. And the rest of the book highlights over 100 innovators in women's health, and they are categorized, each chapter, by a women's health vertical. So you have a chapter on mental health, chronic conditions and it's about, you know, hematology, the study of blood.

Speaker 3:

It's about brains and hearts and gut health history book sooner rather than later, and that the things in the book that I talk about in terms of you know maternal mortality and black women dying more often than white women, or you know women having to wait, on average, five years longer for the same diagnosis than men because of medical gaslighting, women not being believed Right. I hope that in a very short timeline, my book becomes shocking to people about how bad things were. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

To inspire them to do better, right? Yes, that's the whole goal. That's the whole goal, yeah, yeah, let's do better going forward, and your book will be available in September. So we'll link all of that in the show notes as well. And that's exciting. I'm wondering. I have two questions for you. Exciting, I'm wondering. I have two questions for you. I'm wondering because of where you sit. You see, you have this vantage point that most of us don't have. You can see what's on the horizon. You can see the gaps in femtech. I'm curious to know what you're most excited about as you look at the developments in this field. And then the second part of that is where do we still need work? So what are we excited about that is really on the forefront, and then, where do we need work?

Speaker 3:

Well, as a scientist, I am going to say that one of the things I'm most excited about is that we're really just starting to study women and starting to learn things. Right. We just discovered last year 2023, what was the actual hormone that's causing nausea during pregnancy, right? And it's like it was just that no one had studied it right and we just were like well, women are nauseous when they're pregnant, that's morning sickness, that's just how it happens. And now somebody, finally, was like we should like what causes that and why they researched it. They found, oh, it's this one elevated hormone. And then, when it's elevated past this threshold, that's when women get it.

Speaker 3:

And it's like, okay, well, now we could potentially make a drug or a supplement or a diet or something you know, or at least let women know you have very elevated. Wouldn't be surprised if you have a lot of nausea. And so I'm just really excited about the basic science. I mean even menopause, right, like what is causing hot flashes? And oh, look at that, black women have more hot flashes than white women. Why is that, biologically? So I'm just really excited for us to have some basic scientific knowledge, because that's where innovation starts. It starts in the basic scientific research that then we can say, huh, now that we understand how this actually works, what if we intervened with this right and it doesn't always have to be a drug, right, but it could be a vitamin, it could be oh, this, you know whatever or even just a marker that we can inform women ahead of time. So much of women's health is women trying to convince doctors that something is wrong, right?

Speaker 1:

Why don't?

Speaker 3:

we have doctors actually giving a heads up hey, based on your hormone profile, it looks like you're going to be entering menopause earlier than most women. So when you start to experience these symptoms at 36, that's actually what. That is right, or whatever. So that's what I'm really excited about. I think where we need to do better I mean this is kind of a broader than just verticals of women's health but it's funding. You know we have a, we have a huge issue in funding this.

Speaker 3:

So at the NIH so I'll speak, you know, from the American funding system, the NIH National Institutes of Health there are 27 institutes, and so the institute we're most familiar with is infectious disease, with Dr Anthony Fauci. Right, he became now I can kind of refer to that and people know what I'm referring to in terms of these institutes right, these institutes are allocated a budget of funding that they can then give out to grants as grants to researchers. Of the 27 institutes, there is no institute for women's health. There's an institute for eye health, there's an institute for addiction, and those are all great there is still no institute for women's health. In fact, there's an Institute for child's health, children's health, and there is an office of women's health underneath that, and so we, our health is directly linked to children's health.

Speaker 3:

All right, now don't get me started on all the what I believe in, sexism and you know what I society is thinking of, women's purpose, et cetera. We'll put a pin in that, but what I'm going to get at here is that an office of women's health under the Institute of Children's Health. They are not allocated any money to give out grants, and so the amount of funding that's actually been dedicated to women's health is abysmal. In fact, in 2020, the NIH only dedicated 0.0001%, so that's three zeros after that decimal 1% to menopause research, and menopause is not something that is you know, oh, only you know. 10% of women get it. It's like that's going to be half of our lives. You know if we can reach that age and so and not even just age, I mean if you have breast cancer in your thirties, you're going to be menopause, right. There's so many other ways that you're induced into it as well. So when that like it, that's. That's worse than a rounding error.

Speaker 3:

Right, like that's not even that's a smudge on someone's sheet that was dedicated to menopause research. So until we get that funding, then we can fund the research and the science, and once we have the science, then we can create solutions around them. And then the second you know they call it the valley of death. It's terrible. I'd rather it be the valley of birth, which is investors. So you know your venture capitalists, your angels, people who are predominantly white males, convincing them to invest in women's health solutions, and we do see an improvement over the last five years.

Speaker 3:

One of the things that our company does is we do a lot of market research. Because I'm a big data science nerd junkie, I'm always like, ok, well, we can't just like be angry, we need to report this, right, we need to quantify. Well, we can't just like be angry, we need to report this, right, we need to quantify it so we can measure it and improve it. One of the things we found is that funding improves if you have media around the problem, and so what we have found is that if there is over 250 media mentions of a condition like menopause, the following year we will see significantly higher investments in startups addressing that. And so I'm really yeah, we actually just that is not even published yet. That's coming out later this year in a report we're doing. But to me it's like okay, convincing me that I still need to be on my TikTok, I still need to do a podcast interview because this is literally moving the needle in investment.

Speaker 3:

Because these male investors had never heard about heavy menstrual bleeding due to fibroids, they had never heard of Hashimoto's disproportionately affecting females, right. So they figured that probably wasn't a big deal, probably wasn't a big market, probably not a problem for many people. But when they see Oprah saying my menopause is out of control, they're like, oh, this must be a real issue of Oprah suffering from it. And so, anyways, I'm really passionate, excited about that as well.

Speaker 1:

I think it's. It's fascinating everything that you just said, and I know that the majority of our listeners may not understand the lack of, or that percentage of, vc funding. Can you just share some statistics with us just to put it in perspective here?

Speaker 3:

Sure. So the statistic currently lies that female founders if you're a woman who started a startup, you only receive 2% of all investment money that is allocated out. So if an investor is allocating out, you know, $100 million, only 2 million of that 100 million is going to female started companies and there's a lot of reasons and speculations and research around that in terms of why I also, you know it's it's this whole beast. It's this whole beast. But something interesting and this is actually part of the research that we're going to be publishing later this year is there's this concept around what female founders do do better if they are in predominantly female industries. So, for example, if you have a female founder in, you know she's doing cardiology, a heart, you know device, she's creating an artificial heart. She compared to a white man who's also creating artificial heart, he's going to win out in the funding.

Speaker 3:

But if it's a nail polish company, something that society assumes as a female consumer, purchase, wow, if there's a white male versus a female and I do, and I am saying white because we're not, let's not even get into race Black founders it's abysmal, right. Like let's just just gender, okay, versus not even putting race on the table or disability or accent or you know, sexuality, like whatever Right right yeah they. If it's a nail polish company, the female is more likely to fundraise because the investors assume, oh, she knows that industry. But something interesting we see in women's health is that with that not with that paradigm existing, we should see women's health companies started by women fundraising a hell of a lot more than men do.

Speaker 3:

Right, you would assume our research does not show that our research shows and it's been a feeling that we all have known, but no one's been able to quantify it. We're in again. We're coming out. I wasn't going to promote this report, but you know that's coming out.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, I love it. Is that Is?

Speaker 3:

that the male founders are fundraising about three times more than the female founders in women's health and it is there's a lot of theories I have around it Really interesting. We're still digging into it, but essentially one of the I'll bring up one of the things that we found is that if a female founder is very advocacy focused, so she's like this is unacceptable. Women deserve equity in healthcare. Black women's lives matter. The more loud she is we did some natural language processing using their LinkedIn posts the more she uses words around advocacy, the less chance she has of fundraising. Wow.

Speaker 2:

The less chance. Wow, oh my gosh, I'm like I need to rewrite it. There's so much you can unpack with that.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3:

And we found out it's because investors perceive her ambition as focusing more on the purpose over the profits. The investor assumes this person's so passionate about this topic. If it came down to it, they'd give the test away for free If it was up to them. I rather invest in the male who I know is in it for the money which, by the way, we have amazing male founders in femtech. So it's actually a bias also against them that that you're a male founder in women's health, surely you're only in it for the money, versus you're a male founder in women's health, surely you're only in it for the money.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, versus, you're a male founder in women's health, because you appreciate women and have a wife and a daughter and like, think women matter. Right, they're assuming, no, you must be in this for the money, because that's what men would be after. So I'm going to invest in you. It's really quite mind boggling and you know, and it's all like under, it's all subconscious, right, like investors are generally great people who you know are trying to do right.

Speaker 3:

But there's these unconscious societal things. But once we shine light on it, we don't want to advocate in the manner that you just mentioned.

Speaker 1:

How can we do that? What is the Well?

Speaker 3:

so, in general, actually full circle here. What we found is that those 250 media articles like mentions, like in Forbes or Times or CNN know, cnn, the? Once you pass 250 headline stories about a condition, the gender disparity actually disappears, yep, and so that is actually the like, uh, the the solution. The solution is making women's health mainstream.

Speaker 3:

We need to have you know billboards has actual red liquid on a pad. You know we need to have subway ads that are saying you know, vaginal dryness. You know we need to have Facebook allow advertisements for at home breast exams. You know self exams like? Because currently those are censored, those are considered because we've sexualized the female body so much that even when it comes to the health of the female body it's considered sexual and so it's banned.

Speaker 3:

But you can see erectile dysfunction everywhere, right, that's not an issue, not an issue at all. And so, yeah, there's layer on layer. I think that's one of the reasons I love femtech so much, because it tickles my science. You know medical business so much, because it tickles my science, you know medical business. But it also tickles my like, activist sociology, psychology, like it's. It's a, it's a vertical of women, it's a vertical of healthcare that depends so much on the government, on religion, on culture, right Like. If you have, if you have a tumor, it doesn't matter what religion you are per mostly right, tumor, it doesn't matter what religion you are, mostly right. Or it doesn't matter Like, there's not a law in Alabama that, oh, you have a tumor, sorry, you can't be treated here, right Like but, women's health.

Speaker 3:

It's like based on your geolocation, your heritage or ethnicity, like there's all these other forces influencing your what treatment you can get.

Speaker 2:

I think that's one of the reasons we love being in the menopause space, so much because the people that are in it are in it because they want to advocate for women, because they want to support women, and everyone's bringing up everyone's boat in this space. And so Oprah has done us, as you said, a huge favor. But let's, let's shift for a minute and talk about menopause and the innovation and menopause. What do you see coming down, coming down in terms of research there and products there? What are companies doing to support menopause? I know you have a whole chapter, so let's talk about, let's talk about that a little bit, as we're trying to educate women on how they need to advocate for themselves in the menopause space.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so I the biggest push I see in the menopause space is telehealth services for hormone monitoring, hormone replacement treatment, et cetera. And so it's essentially medical zoom right and not to put them down, but it's it's specifically medical zoom with menopause experts and so that women can usually a lot of times they are getting it through their employer right, where the employer is paying a fee for this site that the woman can then, you know, participate in get treatment through. So that's actually the biggest vertical I see. And you know it's um, it's nothing, it's not that I don't want to call it not novel, like it's not, not innovative. It is innovative but it is essentially disrupting the access that women didn't have previously to menopause treatment and education. So we're we're innovating on that access, so we're bringing it forefront. We're saying here's something available to you conveniently to get you know education and treatment for your menopause symptoms. That's the biggest push I see.

Speaker 3:

The things that I'm really excited about is the other solutions that are kind of like whoa, that could really be game changer. You know, we've seen companies that are creating bed sheets that can sense when you're having a hot flash and change the temperature of the sheets and have airflow under them. We see bracelets like Ember Labs is. It uses certain like wavelengths that interfere with your parasympathetic nervous system, which is what is causing your hot flashes, so it's like a bracelet that blocks hot flashes. You know, we're seeing just new drugs come to market, whether that be through Estella's. They have a new hot flash drug and you know what I keep saying. Hot flash and that is something I think we need improving on is there are 34 symptoms of menopause and right now we're really focused on the hot flash one. But there's another company it's still in clinical trial, still early development estrogenics, and it's supposed to be a therapeutic to help with brain fog, specifically brain fog caused by the drop in estrogen.

Speaker 3:

So, you know I'm really excited about things like that.

Speaker 3:

I actually heard a woman talk at a conference the other week and she, you know, shared that she's, you know, experiencing menopause symptoms and she calls it mental pause because her biggest symptom is like and she's this powerful speaker so I could really see how it really was affecting her life and why she wanted to even bring it up was because she was this powerhouse keynote like inspire us all, and she'd be in the middle of a sentence and be like I don't know what I was about to say. Actually, you know, and I'm like God, help that woman.

Speaker 3:

It has to be our power, you know, like taking a track athlete and being like oh, by the way, now you have flat feet you know, it's like help them.

Speaker 2:

This is their superpower. It's so funny that you say that because it's one of it was my. It's is my major symptom that I'm dealing with and whenever I have podcasts I have to plan to make sure that my hormone replacement therapy is ready to go and full bore and new and fresh, because I know that if I get to a point in the life cycle of the hormone therapy that I'm using that there will be times where I cannot think of a word. I couldn't think of hammock yesterday. I'm like yeah, that word yeah.

Speaker 2:

Oh it's so frustrating.

Speaker 3:

Well, you know, I had a COVID a few months ago and I got the brain fog symptom and I the whole time I was like is this menopause? Not like that? Not that I'm going, but like is this what it's like? Is this what it's like? Because I'm a communicator too, you know, like all day long I'm giving interviews and talking. So I'm like, oh my gosh. So yeah, hopefully they figure that out in the next, you know.

Speaker 1:

Believe me, and we're all using our voices for that change. That's another reason why we love being in this space, because we know that maybe we won't see the results of what we do in our lifetime, but we know that then we're making change for the better. I mean the women who Behind us, right? Yeah?

Speaker 3:

the women who fought for women to have bank accounts right Like, may not have seen women's wealth when they did that, but now women have bank accounts that are, you know, credit cards, are able to sign a mortgage. You know, like the financial freedom of women has. You know, I'm I'm a millennial, 33 year old woman and there's so much talk. I'm also childless and you know, and I don't know if I'll have children or not, but the fact that I have an option that I'm even sitting back being like I'm not sure who knows what will happen, it's like never in history have women been given the space to even consider it. You know it's either you're having children and you want to have children, and even if you don't think you will, once you're pregnant you'll want it or, oh, you're infertile, so like the only option to be childless as a woman was to be a broken woman, right, that couldn't do it, versus one that had a choice over it.

Speaker 3:

So, anyways, there's a lot of, and I think and why am I bringing that up? I attribute it back to the financial freedom of women is that we have that, these choices now that say, hey, I have my own house, or I have this, or I have that and I have this job, and that's not really fitting in my story.

Speaker 1:

It's empowering it's usually empowering and it'll be really interesting to see the next 10, 20 years what happens there are. There's so much that we could talk to you about this morning You're like um, how long is this podcast? Because we have so much that we could talk about. Truly, I've got this list over here and I'm like I know, know, or you want to share, just an encouragement to talk about women's health in your everyday life.

Speaker 3:

You know, if you are walking with the tampon to the bathroom, don't put it in your sleeve. You know, and that not everybody is courageous enough to do that. But if you are somebody who has a little bit of umph in you, you know who's willing to have a bumper sticker that says reproductive rights matter. You know like, and you don't need to say I love abortion, right, but you know, if you could just, you know, call it a vulva versus a coochie you know, using the right words for things you know, or you know for kids.

Speaker 3:

You know telling them if this is your arm, that's your penis right and like people aren't supposed to touch your penis or you know, like, and then you move on right, but making these names or making this mystery around it, causing shame and discomfort, but also like as an adult. If there are men listening to this, you are the person I'm really, really speaking to, because I need you to be bringing up in your male friend groups about your wife's, you know, menopause symptoms and how that's affecting you, and providing safe space for other men to open up about that experience for them too, or be able to ask questions. You would not believe, based on who I am and what I do, how many men approach me and they have really basic questions and they're like I don't know who, to ask.

Speaker 3:

I really don't know who to ask, Like how many tampons do you use a day? Like I really don't know Right, Like and, and they are really looking for a safe person to ask too. That won't be ashamed. And you know, obviously I'm an angry feminist, but, like in these moments, I'm, I'm no, I'm not an angry feminist, I'm just a teacher who's able to say you know four to five you know versus one, or you know, or.

Speaker 3:

And right now, with all this talk about abortion, I have men genuinely asking, or you know, saying well, do women use abortion as contraception? And I was like absolutely not. There are not women who are at the abortion clinic once a month to just get their womb emptied, like it's not. And then you know what? I share my experience with abortion. I tell them what it was like and they're like Whoa, really, I didn't you know. And then, when they have a firsthand account, they're like, damn, yeah.

Speaker 1:

I can't see a woman choosing to go through that every month you know and it's like, yeah, but they just need that information.

Speaker 3:

So, yeah, that's my last big call to action is the more mainstream we can make this. Hopefully we can have, like I said, you know, a subway advertisement that actually says the word vulva, without you know people being like offended and emails that come right. Yes, yeah so.

Speaker 2:

Brittany, where can people find you?

Speaker 3:

So you can find me on social media. I'm Dr Brittany Barreto, dr Brittany Barreto. I'm on TikTok, I'm on Instagram, facebook, linkedin, so whichever vertical you're into, I'm on there, and then listen to the podcast Femtech Focus, spotify, apple, wherever you stream, also on YouTube, and then the book will be on Amazon at the end of September. Unlocking Women's Health. That's fantastic, can we?

Speaker 1:

pre-order that book right now, or do we need to wait until September? The pre-order that book right now, or do we need to wait until September?

Speaker 3:

The pre-order link is coming soon. I don't have an exact date. I know for sure though it'll be available at the end of September. But if you follow me on social media, obviously I'll be promoting the heck out of it. If you're interested in more in like the business of Femtech what I was talking about in the beginning with investing and startups you can also subscribe to our newsletter that's Fem Health Insights. That's my consulting firm, so I consult pharma and governments and large companies on their women's health strategy. So we have a really cool newsletter we put out every week with, like, the main news you need to know. But that's really for if you're interested in kind of the business side of it, it's FemHealth Insights.

Speaker 1:

It's all fascinating it really is. And, listeners, we'll put those links in our show notes, but we'll also highlight your book in September in our newsletter. So you can subscribe at Medoviacom and we'll provide that link for you. Make it nice and easy Before we leave. We always do rapid fire, so we're excited to get to know you a little bit better. So let's just dive into some fun stuff. Do you prefer and I think I know the answer to this because of the industry you're in- Do you prefer texting or calling Texting.

Speaker 2:

Is that the answer?

Speaker 3:

you thought I would say I'm actually a really big fan of voice memos as well. I do a lot of I'm on my computer all day and so, like when I'm walking my dogs, I'd rather send you a voice memo. Oh my gosh, you are.

Speaker 2:

We do that back and forth April walks in the morning and I walk at night and we voice text each other the whole time, cause do our best thinking then I can't see anything anymore without my glasses and I wear those on my walk, so so do you prefer a restaurant or preparing your own meal?

Speaker 3:

oh, I do love cooking, but um, I'll say restaurant like somebody's, I really because I love like cultural, like Indian food and sushi and stuff that I may not be as nearly as good as those restaurant owners are yeah, I love that too.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so how about reading a good book or binging your favorite show?

Speaker 2:

I'd say a book, book, yeah yeah, and would the book be an actual book or a Kindle book?

Speaker 3:

Actual book. I'm a this is still, you know, I'm um, I don't know if on the spectrum of millennial, if I'm a late or early, but I still love a good highlighter, cause you know what I really love self-help books. I like to learn, and so I'm always writing notes and I'm highlighting and stuff. But I did just read a fiction book which I was like good for you, brit, and it was like you know, listen to this. The book was called Lessons in Chemistry and it's about a book.

Speaker 3:

It's about this female scientist in like the 1960s so it's totally up my alley. But that was my good last fiction book and I binged that. Good for you.

Speaker 2:

Well, okay. Our last question is what's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Speaker 3:

So I always used to say I had an academic advisor who said share the glory, the glory grows, and I absolutely believe in that. You know, when something good happens, give credit to everyone, even the smallest ounce of effort they put into it. And then also, though, as I've aged and matured, I also realized, as a female leader, I need to own my space, like if I freaking did it, I freaking did it, you know and to like own my space, right, and there's almost this like um melting of scientific paradigms that I've had to get rid of.

Speaker 3:

So like I have a PhD in genetics. A PhD essentially means that they are just going to humble the heck out of you to the point that you're going to question everything. And as a scientist, you should. You shouldn't be so egotistical that you're like I know that this is the answer, right, you should always be questioning it, but it almost goes too far. I meet other PhDs that are like this too, where they're like so smart and yet the whole time they're like I'm just not sure if I'm qualified. I'm like so overqualified so I almost want to make like an asterisk on. My like biggest life lesson was share the glory, the glory grows. Asterisk, if you did it own your space you're awesome.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I like both of those. You're right, let's lift other people up, let's give credit where credits do. But you're right, own it, own it.

Speaker 2:

And pat yourself on the back right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's great advice. Well, we loved having you on the show. We cannot wait for your book. I know our listeners are going to find you all over the place, but let's have you back on. Let's talk about some of the other topics that we didn't have time to discuss, but until then, everyone go out and find joy in the journey. It's been a treat. Thanks, brittany. Bye everyone in the journey. It's been a treat. Thanks, brittany. Bye everyone. Thank you for listening to the Medovia 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. There are more than 50 million women in the USS who are navigating the menopause transition. The situation is compounded by the presence of stigma, shame and secrecy surrounding menopause, posing significant challenges and disruptions in women's personal and professional spheres. Medovia is out to change the narrative. Learn more at medoviacom. That's M-I-D-O-V-I-A dot com.

People on this episode

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April Haberman

Co-host
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Kim Hart

Co-host