Melinda French Gates Commits Additional $215 Million to Women's Health, Targeting Midlife and Menopause
Key Insights
Melinda French Gates (search) is donating an additional $215 million to women's health through her organization Pivotal (search), building on a prior $600 million commitment.
A $10 million grant to The Menopause Society (search) will fund expanded training for healthcare professionals, including ob-gyn residency and primary-care programs.
Only 5% of global medical research investment goes to women's health, and less than 1% of aging research focuses on menopause (search), highlighting decades of underfunding.
Melinda French Gates (search) has announced an additional $215 million commitment to women's health through her organization Pivotal (search), with a specific focus on midlife health, perimenopause (search), and menopause (search). The new funding builds on more than $600 million she has already directed toward women's health over the past two years, underscoring what she describes as decades of systemic neglect in medical research and clinical training.
The announcement comes amid growing recognition that women's health has been chronically underfunded. According to data cited in the announcement, for every dollar the world invests in medical research and innovation, just five cents goes to women's health, and less than 1% of aging research focuses on menopause (search).
"For too long, it was as if in society this was an invisible issue, and we didn't focus on it. When in fact, all women, 50% of our population, go through it," French Gates said, referring to the menopausal transition that typically begins in women's early forties.
A Training Gap in Clinical Practice
A centerpiece of the new funding is a $10 million grant to The Menopause Society (search), which will spearhead efforts to scale up training for healthcare professionals. The initiative aims to integrate menopause (search) education into ob-gyn residency programs, primary-care physician training, and nursing curricula.
"They are going to do the training to make sure we get this in far more ob-gyn residency programs, far more primary-care doctor programs, into nurses' hands," French Gates explained. "They will be the partner that gets the accurate information that we have out there to women so that everybody can access this kind of information, and not just a few women who can find the right doctor or have the right access to the health care system."
French Gates distinguished between the challenges in maternal health and those in midlife care. In maternal health, she noted, the problem is often one of implementation—"us not knowing what to do" and poor system design, particularly for women on Medicaid. In midlife health, however, the deficit is twofold: insufficient research and a profound lack of provider training.
"The research should have been started more than 50 years ago. We should have had many, many, many studies about this period of life, so that we have different tools, not just hormone replacement therapy (search)," she said.
Broader Context of Women's Health Funding
The new commitment is part of a larger philanthropic strategy. Last year, French Gates made a grant in women's health as part of an overall $600 million commitment, partnering with Wellcome Leap (search) to address heart disease (search) in women—a condition where women frequently face symptoms but are not diagnosed effectively.
Additional grants beyond the Menopause Society (search) allocation are expected to be announced later this year.
French Gates also addressed the broader structural challenges facing women's health, including the impact of the Dobbs decision on access to care. She recounted meeting a pregnant Black woman in Louisiana who, after being told twice to stay home when she reported being in trouble during her third trimester, lost her baby when she finally received care 48 hours later.
"Even the doctors who are there getting training are saying, 'I'm not sure which services I can give in this state vs. not,' or, 'What if I don't get trained in my residency on how to do certain things for women's health, but then I get a job in a hospital in a different state?'" French Gates said.
The Limits of Philanthropy
Despite the scale of her commitment, French Gates was clear about the boundaries of private funding. "Philanthropy can never, never fill the gaps that government leaves behind," she said, pointing to the National Institutes of Health as a vital institution whose funding should be protected. "To cut that back just doesn't make any sense."
The initiative reflects a conviction that women's health across the entire lifespan—not just reproductive years—demands sustained investment. "A woman can't step into her power if we neglect her health," French Gates said. "If the woman gets the right care at the right time, she can live a full healthy life and do what she wants to do."