Pelvic Health & Menopause: What the Origin Report and UK Meeting Reveal

🌞 Good Morning!

First, in honor of the US July 4 holiday, I will skip next week’s newsletter. Enjoy beach time (and hopefully some sun)

From pelvic floors to menopause policies, this week is all about what’s connected—and what still slips through the cracks.

💥 Pelvic floor therapy’s bigger impact — the Origin report you need to see
🦴 Menopause, bones & hormones — highlights from the UK’s menopause meeting
⚖️ SCOTUS vs. Oregon — reproductive rights whiplash & new menopause coverage
📞 Landline parenting hack, kids’ artwork chaos, and a summer espresso martini pop you’ll want to try

Lots to explore. Let’s dive in.

💥 Pelvic Floor. Knee Pain. Menopause. What’s the connection?

Before we dive in — for your entertainment (and mine):
Finding good and representative photos for women’s health topics is its own special challenge. Searching “female anatomy” or “women’s musculoskeletal system” mostly gets you… not what you’re looking for. Instead, it’s a sea of gender stereotypes. 😂 Hope that gave you a laugh — it did for me.

OK, back to what matters.

This week, I’m sharing one of the best summaries I’ve seen — because it does what we desperately need more of in healthcare: connect the dots.

Here, pelvic health and the musculoskeletal system finally get treated as one connected story.

👉 Read Origin’s State of Pelvic Floor Therapy report →

🧠 Why you should read this:

For women:
✔ A clear view of how pelvic, core, joint, and hormonal health all connect
✔ Why low back pain or hip instability isn’t “just aging”
✔ How the fragmentation of care delays diagnosis and recovery

For clinicians & advocates:
✔ Data on what’s missing in pelvic care models
✔ Why menopause must be part of ortho and rehab conversations

For startups & health leaders:
✔ A systems failure meets a market opportunity
✔ Women’s musculoskeletal health is still a white space—especially post-repro years

📍 I’ll be sharing more soon on musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause—an emerging concept worth your attention.

🔗 Explore Fempower Health’s Pelvic Health Resource Hub →

📲 Follow me on Instagram for takeaways from this report.

🔥 What You Might’ve Missed at the British Menopause Society Meeting

From calcium calculators to GLP-1s and red light therapy for the vulva (yes, really).

Dr. Jen Gunter, via The Vajenda, is blogging her experience at this year’s British Menopause Society meeting, and her Day 1 recap is packed with gold—from hormone therapy nuance to under-the-radar bone health updates.

Highlights include:

• Depression in perimenopause is real—and well documented

• GLP-1s may reduce oral hormone therapy absorption (but we don’t have enough data)

• The real measure of osteoporosis isn’t your T-score—it’s fracture risk

• A theory linking lichen sclerosus to urine exposure

• …and red light therapy for the vulva? No strong evidence (yet)

👉 Read Dr. Jen Gunter’s full breakdown →

📣 I’ll be breaking this down further—what it means for care, product design, and the future of hormone therapy.
👉 Follow @FempowerHealth on Instagram or connect on LinkedIn

🩺 Quick Question — Who Was Your First Doctor After Your Pediatrician?

I asked this on TikTok and the stories have been eye-opening. Many women had no clear handoff — bouncing between OB-GYNs, urgent care, or no care at all.

👉 Poll: Who was yours?

Curious how others answered? Check out the TikTok thread here →

This is exactly why I’m working on the Doctor Visit Toolkit — to help close this gap. I’m excited to have many of you interested in reviewing. Can’t wait to share it.

🙌🏼 Announcements

🛠️ Fempower Tools & Insights

📊 Help Build the Endometriosis Ecosystem Map
If you're building, funding, researching, or advocating in endometriosis, we want you on the map. I am thrilled to see so many interested in this.
👉 Add your insights here

🗓️ Mark Your Calendars

🏛️ Women's Health Research: Why We Need It Now More Than Ever

Join Liz Powell and a powerful panel as they unpack why women’s health remains underfunded—across research, reimbursement, and innovation.

🗓️ Monday, July 7
🕐 12:00 PM ET
📍 Virtual briefing
🔗 Register here

Featuring voices from UPMC, Women Who Rock, WHA’s Pittsburgh chapter, and more.

📌Vaginal Microbiome: Implications for Women's Health

This is part of a series that elevates evidence-based research that explores how social, economic, racial, and geographic factors influence health outcomes.

🗓️ Thursday, July 17
🕐 3:00 PM ET
📍 Virtual women’s health research roundtable
🔗 Register here

🙌🏼 What Caught My Eye This Week

🧑‍⚧️ A transgender woman shares how life changed.
She talks about how differently the world treats her now — eye-opening for everyone, especially men. → Watch clip

📞 When all the kids want a phone… get them a landline.
One mom’s genius community idea transformed her kids’ childhood. → See how she did it

⚖️ Women’s health whiplash: SCOTUS vs. Oregon.
SCOTUS upholds SC’s Planned Parenthood Medicaid ban — meanwhile, Oregon passes a bill to expand menopause care coverage.

🎨 End-of-school art chaos? Do this.
What to do with 500 pieces of kid art — I’ve used this since my son was in kindergarten. → My go-to fix (If only I got a cut for how many of you I know will sign up!) 🤭

🍸 Espresso martini pops. Yes, it’s a thing.
Why didn’t I think of this for summer? → Recipe idea