Meet Joanna Strober, founder of Midi Health
I’m the founder of Midi Health, the fastest growing virtual clinic solely focused on providing care for women navigating midlife hormonal change. Unlike others in the menopause telehealth space where the focus is more on products and prescriptions, Midi was built around the concept of providing expert, holistic and personalized treatment for women experiencing perimenopause and menopause symptoms — covered by insurance — and delivered via specially training clinicians.
The idea for Midi Health was inspired by my own midlife health journey. I found myself in the midst of perimenopause without knowing it because I still had my period, but started noticing other symptoms that my body was really “off.” It started with hot flashes in my mid forties, and by 47, I stopped sleeping. Insomnia had never been a problem for me, but suddenly, I was having terrible night sweats that would wake me up at 3 a.m., and I couldn’t fall back asleep for an hour or more. The next day I would be exhausted and crabby. I gained weight because I was eating in an effort to energize myself, literally snacking to stay awake!
I’m a big researcher, so as with most problems I’ve faced in life, I got to googling for solutions and talking to friends and my primary care doctor, who prescribed sleeping pills, which I rarely used because of concerns they would be addictive. I tried CBD, melatonin and nothing worked. It wasn’t until I finally found a menopause care specialist who prescribed the right combination of hormone replacement therapy that has literally changed my life.
Looking back, I now see how hormone transition affected not just my sleep, but also my energy, weight, mood, sex life… and how all of it improved with treatment. That experience made me ask questions: Why wasn’t expert care for women at midlife easily accessible and covered by insurance? Why didn’t more women know about hormone transition, and all the potential ways to manage it—whether with hormones, or non-hormonal prescriptions, or supplements? My whole career I have focused on equity for women and for parents. I saw that women could not reach their potential without access to great healthcare at midlife.Pretty quickly it occurred to me: Someone needs to start a company to fix this.
I’m in the midst of
- Envisioning how Midi can continue to change women’s health care and enhance life for women well beyond menopause. That might mean creating other products and services on our platform or expanding access to our services in various ways.
- Figuring out the puzzle of how to effectively scale a national, virtual (all remote) company and yet still nurture relationships with company team members such that they stay tightly connected to the company, our community and our mission.
- Enjoying my last child’s last six months at home before he goes off to college and I’m an empty-nester!
The best thing about my current age
I think I’m much braver now. By that I mean that I take more risks, I’m more honest and candid in conversations, and I’m also not so much worried about the little things, especially other people’s perceptions of me. I know longer really care about how people feel about what I wear and or even what I say anymore.
My Grown-Ass Lady heroes
I really admire people who persist in business and don’t give up. In our sector – women’s health – it is especially hard to build and fund a company. The ability to hear so many “nos” and not give-up is a superpower. Some of the women I look up to who have done just this include:
- Carine Carmy, co-founder and CEO of Origin (physical therapy for pelvic floor)
- Naomi Allen, co-founder and CEO of Brightline Health (behavioral health coaching for families)
- Elli Kaplan, co-founder & CEO of Neurotrack (digital health company transforming the measurement and management of cognitive health and related diseases like Alzheimer’s)
The best thing I’ve done for myself in midlife so far
The best thing I’ve done for myself in midlife has been to embrace estrogen in all different forms to improve my life – from protecting my brain, my bones, my cardio health, my libido … even my face via new estrogen face cream.
— Joanna Strober, founder of Midi Health
What’s next for me
There’s no slowing down for Midi Health at this point. Our goal is to simply keep growing to ensure as many women as need it have access to the care Midi provides. That means working to ensure women have access to insurance-covered care in all 50 states across the U.S.
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