Medical expenditures for heart disease, breast cancer, hip fracture, and stroke dramatically … [+]
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Midi Health, a virtual care clinic making expert care accessible and affordable for women experiencing the hormonal changes of midlife, today announced a $14 million seed investment funding round co-led by Felicis and SemperVirens. Additional investment comes from leading women’s health investors including Emerson Collective, Icon Ventures, Operator Collective, Muse Capital, SteelSky Ventures, and Anne and Susan Wojcicki.
All of Midi’s services are covered by insurance (at the moment available in California only, with plans to expand nationwide in early 2023), and offer convenient access to clinical care through telehealth visits, 24/7 messaging, simplified testing, and home delivery of prescriptions and supplements.
“Our goal is to provide high-quality care that is accessible to all women. Therefore, we have insurance contracts with all of the major carriers in California, including Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Cigna, Health Net, and UnitedHealthcare,” shares Joanna Strober, cofounder and CEO of Midi Health, with me.
Mayo Clinic estimates that approximately 6,000 U.S. women reach menopause every day (over 2 million per year), and although this statistic wouldn’t be alarming if proper health care would be in place for these women, the real problem lies in the fact that a shocking 73% of women aged 40-65 years are not currently treating their menopause symptoms (commonly including hot flashes, vaginal dryness and painful sex, mental health/mood disorders, brain fog, abnormal uterine bleeding, bone loss and more), with further 65% confirming they would not consider HRT (hormone replacement therapy) as a treatment.
To show the size of this alarming state of our healthcare for women in midlife, a Yale University review of insurance claims from more than 500,000 women in various stages of menopause stated that while 60% of women with significant menopausal symptoms seek medical attention, nearly 3/4 of them are left untreated. The downstream effects of untreated symptoms include a higher risk for osteoporosis, heart disease, and cognitive decline. Employees with significant menopause symptoms have 45% higher medical costs and 50% higher pharmacy costs.
Now THAT is a problem.
From Patients To Founders
Like many of the startup founders in the women’s health space who have experienced problems first-hand before embarking on a journey of trying to solve them themselves, Midi Health’…….