Millie, a women’s health clinic, launched new offerings on Tuesday to support women experiencing perimenopause and menopause.
This represents Millie’s expansion beyond maternal healthcare. The San Francisco-based company offers miscarriage management, lactation support, mental health counseling, prenatal education, postpartum support groups and gynecological care. It has a collaborative care model that includes OBGYNS, midwives, nurse practitioners and doulas, and care is provided virtually via its app and in physical clinics. The company also partners with health systems and accepts both commercial health plans and Medicaid.
With the new perimenopause (the period leading up to menopause, which can begin in your mid-thirties) and menopause offerings, patients receive treatments like hormone therapy, non-hormonal medications, vaginal treatments and lifestyle strategies for symptom relief. The care is provided by the same team of OBGYNS, midwives, nurse practitioners and doulas.
Millie launched these offerings due to CEO and Founder Anu Sharma’s own experience. After several rounds of fertility treatments, Sharma gave birth to her daughter at 39. She battled numerous challenges during her pregnancy, including gestational hypertension, an unplanned C-section and a near hemorrhage. About 36 hours after being discharged, she was readmitted with postpartum preeclampsia.
“When my postpartum recovery began to overlap with other hormonal changes, I was left to wonder alone whether I was in postpartum or entering menopause,” she told MedCity News. “After connecting the dots myself, I knew other women were being left to do the same.
“Millie was born to change that,” she continued. “We started with maternity care, building a model that closes long-standing gaps in maternal health, achieving outcomes that exceed national benchmarks. Having served patients for nearly three years, we now see many returning for their second or third pregnancies and seeking care for the health transitions that follow. Expanding into perimenopause and menopause care was the natural next step in holistically supporting our patients.”
In the perimenopause phase, women can still get pregnant even though their menstrual cycles are less predictable and their hormone levels are declining. Births among women over the age of 35 are becoming more and more common, meaning that there is a larger population of women at the “intersection” of perimenopause and postpartum.
“Many women find themselves at this intersection of postpartum and perimenopause, struggling with the unique challenges often not fully addressed in traditional healthcare settings. Our new services are designed to bridge this gap, validating women’s experiences and offering solutions backed by expertise,” Sharma said.
To measure the success of its new perimenopause and menopause offerings, Millie will track clinical outcomes, patient net promoter scores and actuarial ROI to payers, Sharma added.
Numerous other companies also provide perimenopause and menopause support, including Evernow, Midi Health and Maven Clinic.
Photo: Toa55, Getty Images
