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Melinda French Gates, 61, Saw 3 Doctors Before Getting the Right Perimenopause Care
Her experience exposes how training, insurance and racial disparities shape menopause treatment
Melinda French Gates, shown here in London on Oct. 3, 2025, says it took three doctors to identify and treat her perimenopause symptoms.
Jose Sarmento Matos/Bloomberg/ Getty Images
Key takeaways
- Melinda French Gates says it took three doctors to identify what she was experiencing and find the right perimenopause treatment.
- An AARP analysis found that only 20 to 25 percent of women experiencing menopause symptoms received treatment in 2021.
- Treatment rates were lower among Black, Hispanic, lower-income and uninsured women.
Melinda French Gates had money, access and the ability to seek some of the best medical care available. She still needed to see three doctors to understand what was happening to her body.
French Gates, 61, said she began experiencing perimenopause symptoms in her early 40s after having her third child, daughter Phoebe, at age 38.
“I kind of couldn’t believe it, because I had just finished having my last child in my late 30s,” she told host Norah O’Donnell during a conversation for Healthful, a new CBS News podcast that launched July 22. “And I thought, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ”
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French Gates, a philanthropist and author, said she knew enough about perimenopause to recognize possible signs. According to the Mayo Clinic, possible signs include irregular periods, hot flashes, sleep problems and mood changes. Finding a doctor who could identify what she was experiencing and treat it was another matter.
“It was unbelievable to me that, even in this, you know, unbelievably privileged situation I’m in, where I feel like I can get some of the best health care, it took me three doctors to really diagnose what I was going through and to get the right treatments for where I was,” she said.
Her experience places a personal story behind a widespread treatment gap.
An April 2025 analysis from the AARP Public Policy Institute found that an estimated 2.1 million U.S. women ages 45 to 64 received treatment for menopause in 2021. That amounts to 5 percent of women in that age group and an estimated 20 to 25 percent of women experiencing menopause symptoms.
The study examined treatment for menopause broadly, not perimenopause alone. Its findings suggest that millions of women who could benefit from medical care are either going untreated or seeking care outside the traditional health system. And access differs sharply by race, income, education and insurance status.
AARP found that 6.3 percent of non-Hispanic white women ages 45 to 64 received menopause treatment, compared with 2.7 percent of Hispanic women and 2.5 percent of non-Hispanic Black women. Women with employer-sponsored insurance had a treatment rate of 5.8 percent, more than twice the 2.6 percent rate among uninsured women. Treatment became more common as income and education rose.
French Gates had the resources to continue looking for answers. AARP’s findings show that access to menopause treatment falls sharply among uninsured and lower-income women.
The AARP analysis notes that women in the United States are more likely than women in other high-income countries to skip needed health care because of cost. It also found that women treated for menopause had higher rates of sleep disorders, depression, anxiety, thyroid disorders and several other conditions than women who were not treated. The study did not establish that menopause caused those conditions.
The gaps can be wider for women of color. AARP has reported that Black and Hispanic women often reach menopause earlier, while Black women tend to spend longer in perimenopause, experience more severe symptoms and receive hormone therapy or related care less often.
French Gates said the difficulty she encountered was not necessarily the result of an individual doctor’s mistake.
“It wasn’t because anybody was doing the wrong thing,” she said.
She attributed the delay to a lack of medical training, saying that one-third of OB-GYNs in this country are trained to treat menopause.
French Gates also discussed how severe symptoms can affect women’s careers.
“It could be one of the things holding women back,” she said. “We know that 1 in 10 women step back from the workforce during their years of perimenopause or menopause because of severe symptoms that they’re experiencing.”
French Gates said menopause should not be dismissed as a temporary stretch of uncomfortable symptoms. Sleep disruption, changes in blood sugar and other health effects can carry consequences beyond the transition itself.
Get the right care
Struggling to find a clinician who understands perimenopause? AARP’s guide explains how to identify a qualified menopause provider, what to expect at an appointment and where to look when your concerns are dismissed.
“Menopause can have lifelong consequences,” she said, pointing to chronic insomnia and its effects on the brain and cognitive function. “These aren’t annoying symptoms.”
She urged women whose concerns aren’t being addressed by their doctor or health care provider to keep seeking care.
“I would say, when you go to your doctor, don’t give up. If he or she can’t answer it, go to somebody else. And if they can’t answer it, go to somebody else. Keep going. You own your own health,” she said.
French Gates has tied her personal experience to her advocacy funding. In June, she announced a commitment to donate $215 million to women’s health initiatives, including efforts focused on menopause and perimenopause.
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