Mailbag: Talking about menopause at work, plus how to cover the cost of HRT treatments, and more.
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Hi everybody, welcome to Her Money. I'm Jean Chatzky and today we are bringing you an extra special mailbag with Jill Herzig. She is the Chief Brand Officer and Co-Founder of Midi Health. If you listened

to our most recent Wednesday episode, then you know a lot about Jill, which is great. You also know how we can get ahead of the financial burden of menopause. Check it out if you haven't had a chance to yet. We had an opportunity to ask our community what questions they had about menopause. We got some amazing responses. Before we get into that, we're going to take a very quick break.

Have you checked out Investing Fix yet? Investing Fix is our investing club for women. And if you haven't given us a look-see, consider this your official nudge. We are in the thick of earnings season. And last session, my co-host Karen Feinerman from CNBC, she broke down exactly why listening to the earnings calls

calls that companies make public is just another tool in your arsenal. She shared a list of the key things that she pays attention to when she's listening in to these earnings calls. Plus, when it's okay to wait till the call is over and then listen to it at one and a half speed, you get all the information absolutely

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And if you want in, join us at investingfix.com. We spell fix with two X's. We'll send you all the information that you need so that you can start making informed investing moves right away. Can't wait to see you there.

Adlassian.

And we're back with Jill Herzig, co-founder and chief brand officer at Midi Health. Okay, Jill, you ready for our first question? Yeah, right on. All right. This comes from Trudy. She says, Hi, Jean and Jill. I have job and age-related questions I hope you can help with. So I'm a single mom, perimenopausal,

stuck with no advancement options, isolated at work, and I am afraid to apply and interview for something new. I worry with menopause brain, Gen X, seen and not heard habits, and not knowing how to value myself in the current job market. I don't know how to get away from the executive administrative job title I've lived with my whole career.

How do people pivot to the next career level at this point in their lives? Should I leverage my soft skills or get a project management certificate from Google? I have two jobs and two teens. Now what? Oh, my goodness.

You've got a lot going on, Trudy. Yeah, that's a lot on your plate. And I sense in her, during the interview that we did for Wednesday's show, we talked about how menopause can really be a confidence zone.

Zapper. I sense that is a large part of what Trudy is going through. I don't want to discount the perimenopausal symptoms at all, but I think they go hand in hand. Yeah, that's what I'm hearing in this question is a lot of fear and a lot of shame, maybe, around her mention of menopause brain.

Brain fog is a particularly scary and can be very embarrassing symptom. And yet it's incredibly common. I mean, I like to say to people, this is not a you thing. It is an every woman alive thing. Every one of us will go through this. So

Just dropping the burden of shame and embracing this life stage with everything that comes with it in that foggy brain is also so much knowledge and experience and wisdom. You've got to give yourself some grace and some credit. The other like substantive things I would say is sleep and sleep deprivation is a huge part of brain fog and menopause brain.

Really optimizing your sleep and HRT helps tremendously with that for many women. But there are other things you can do either alongside or instead of HRT if you can't or don't want to take it.

And so I would really recommend focusing on this bedrock piece of your wellness, which is your sleep. Make sure that's okay. I would also recommend a book called The Menopause Brain by Lisa Moscone, who I think has been on your show. She was on our show. Yeah. In 2024. I loved her book and I felt like it really reframed brain fog for me and made me understand that what was happening during that time. And it is temporary, but it can go on for a while. Yeah.

is my brain was remodeling without that estrogen, which drains away during perimenopause and menopause. Your brain is dealing with a totally different situation, and it remodels just like it did when you were going through hormonal stuff during your whole adolescent period, if you remember the craziness of that. After having a baby, that same thing, they talk about pregnancy brain and baby brain,

Your brain's remodeling. Like, give it some respect. Yeah, absolutely. And from a career perspective, Trudy, I would, first of all, I do a little bit of research on the marketplace. I mean, look at yourself as not the titles that you've held, but the skills that you have. A lot of these skills are transitory. You can use them in a variety of ways.

of jobs and opportunities. So spend some time on the job boards and see where you think that you might fit. And the idea of a certificate, I know you've already got a couple of associate's degrees, but the idea of a certificate, especially if you think it's going to give you a boost of confidence that will enable you to walk in and really kick ass in an interview, I think that's great. You may not need it.

But sometimes I think we need to feel like we have something new to offer in order to step up and offer something new. It's not always true. We can take what we have and we can repackage it, just like Jill did when she went from working as a magazine editor to co-founding a health company, right? She covered health.

But she's now doing a completely different job. And I've done largely the same thing, right? I covered personal finance and now I'm working in the financial industry in different pockets. It's taking these skills that we have and trying to apply them in other places and definitely get a little bit of medical help.

I mean, as somebody who is on HRT and has been on it for many, many years, it's made a huge difference in my life. I don't know that that's the answer for you, but I know that it's been the answer for a lot of people.

All right, Jill, you ready for another one? I am. This one comes from Jen and it is right on target with what I was just saying. She says, Hi, Jill and Jean. I'm considering hormone replacement therapy, but I'd love to know the positive and negatives first. Namely, how much does it cost out of pocket and what type of health plan should I have to cover the bulk of treatments?

Yeah, so HRT is if you have, I would say, decent health coverage. You do not have to have platinum health coverage to have your HRT covered. It, in general, costs people around $40 a month.

So it's not nothing when it's covered, but it is an incredible investment in your health, just as we've discussed. I will tell you that mine is considerably less than $40 a month. I think I clock in at $32 a month. But my midi clinician has definitely worked with me to find the best coverage for the HRT that I need.

When you need non-hormonal alternatives, and we prescribe many of them, there are newer ones, and your insurance may or may not cover them. They're very exciting. They are great options for people who are cancer survivors, but you may have a harder time getting those covered. It doesn't mean they aren't worth exploring. I actually wanted to ask you about one of those. We know there's a treatment that's coming to the market that

may be able to help a lot of women. It's called Vioza. I can't even pronounce. Pheasant and intent. Yeah. That. It's non-hormonal and it was recently approved to treat moderate to severe hot flashes. Is this cutting edge? Is it more expensive? Yeah.

It depends on what's on your formulary. So your insurance may cover it and it may be very cheap or sad to say they may not. But it is really exciting that there are more of these non-hormonal prescription solutions coming to market. Vioza, you do need a knowledgeable clinician. They recently had a warning added to it because people were seeing some problems with liposuction.

liver levels and you essentially just need a knowledgeable person to order the right tests, get your baseline, and then track you down the line. But Vioza is very effective, very, very effective drug and getting those

hot flashes under control as you and I have discussed can really be life-changing and career-changing So it can be very worthwhile It's worth mentioning that HRT is something that people tolerate differently and your clinician may need to dial it a little bit for you and that can be about dosage but also the form that you take it in and so it can be more expensive if for example you find that you best tolerate a gel

There's one called Estrogel, for example, that we prescribe a lot of at MITI. Again, having a clinician who will work with you to find the solution that's effective and affordable is important. Yeah. And Jen, I just want to say, like any prescription, you should really shop around. So I think I've been on...

every generic version of the estrogen patch and have found when I order from the online pharmacy and get three months in one shot, it's significantly cheaper than if I just go around the corner to my local drugstore and pick up one month at a time. So I try to remember to do that and to not run out and to put it

on autopilot. And there have been some of the generics that did not work for me that made me feel a little queasy. And I had to call my practitioner and say, this one's not a good one. We need to switch. And there are different costs. So you may have to do a little bit of shopping around. We've got two more questions. But before we take them, Jill, we're going to take a very quick break for a word from our sponsors.

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And we are back. Jill Herzig from Midi Health is with me. I've got a question, Jill, from Sheila. She writes, Hey, ladies, I have a very demanding senior level job and recently with menopause symptoms, hot flashes, fatigue and brain fog, I feel like I need to take a step back.

I love my job and the work that I do, but I'd love advice on how to ask for one or two days of remote work. What's a good script to bring to your employer? I don't want ageism to hold me back.

Jill, let me let you start because I know you've talked about this as well and I'll weigh in too. Yeah. There is a piece of research that I think applies here. I believe it was out of Harvard Business School and they found that women who directly address their menopause symptoms, when they had a hot flash, they said, that's midlife for you having a hot flash instead of, it's a little hot in here.

Those women were perceived as more confident, more stable, and as stronger leaders. I found that such a revelatory study. It's like any kind of vulnerability, right? You show some vulnerability, but what it projects is confidence. I'm confident enough to show up as my whole self at work. So I think...

What I would advise, and obviously depends on your workplace, if there is strong evidence of ageism, if you work in an exceptionally sexist workplace,

I can't speak about every workplace. But that research would embolden me to just be honest and say, look, I'm going through this thing. We all go through it. And it would really help me to be able to have some flexibility, work from home a couple days a week. But instead of beating around the bush or trying to paper it over, I would go at it directly and in a kind of forthright way and definitely leave the shame behind.

Yeah, I totally agree. And the only thing that I would add is that I'd come to this conversation

armed as I would if I were asking for a raise, meaning know exactly what you're contributing to this company, make a list of your wins over the last year. You need to be able to pull out the information about how valuable you are should that become necessary, as well as the fact that, in fact,

Not having to commute might allow you to sign on a little earlier and stay on a little later if that is something that is called for. I think just make sure that you've got your facts straight about what you contribute to this company. Right now, people do not want to be out in the marketplace looking to hire. It's always cheaper and better to retain the good employees that you have. So you should know that.

as well. And good luck. Let us know what happens. Finally, we've got one more, Jill. This one comes from Heather. I have a medical question, she writes, rather than a financial or work question. If you're on the pill, what should you look for as indicators of perimenopause or ask your doctor about? My gynecologist was a bit vague when I asked what

to consider now that I'm 44. She said, we'll start tapering you off the birth control pills as you get older because you won't experience typical symptoms. Is that correct? Again, not financial, but such a good question. Yeah. Perimenopause is a really confusing time, I've got to say, and there's some misinformation out there, but her doctor gave her the right information.

The pill is essentially a form of hormone therapy. It's just a much higher level of hormones because it has to suppress ovulation entirely to protect you against unwanted pregnancy. It's just a much higher level of hormones than you get in standard HRT. So...

In order to know where you're at in your sort of menopause journey, she will have to taper off and see how she feels, particularly if she gets no periods at all, because many women don't on the pill. It suppresses ovulation and they've done away with their periods.

You find out whether you're still cycling, you find out if you have symptoms, and those things can be concurrent. You can absolutely be having periods and regular periods and be getting symptoms at the same time, which a lot of women don't understand. And they're in their early 40s or even their late 30s and they don't.

They don't get it. They think like, how can I be having my period and also have these things that seem like menopause symptoms? But that's totally normal. So yeah, her doctor gave her the right information. She will have to taper off to get a read on where she's at and then kind of go from there.

Okay. Well, thank you for all of this, Jill. What should we be looking for from you, from Middy Health in the coming months and years? You know, Middy has spread to all 50 states. So we're providing care to women everywhere. We are growing really rapidly to meet the demand. I think what you'll see from us is just offering more and more services. So our patients have, over the past few years, grown

grown to depend on us for pretty much every kind of care that you can receive virtually. So you'll see us starting to care for a much wider variety of the needs that women have in midlife. We are currently doing that, but we don't really market it. And that's something I think that we're going to wrap our arms around and own much more fully. We expanded our services to include weight care because so many women at midlife are

encountering unexplained and super stubborn weight gain. It's really upsetting to people. It's not good for their health. So we offer a whole bunch of solutions for that, including the new weight loss medications. So that was kind of a first step in that direction. But we're really becoming a holistic healthcare company that

cares for everything you need in midlife in a virtual way. Amazing. Congratulations. And let me just say, you know, I know that a lot of our listeners have accessed your services in the past, and I'm sure a lot will in the future. So thank you for what you're doing for us. Yeah, I appreciate every one of our patients. And I want to hear from you. You can find me pretty easily. And we really appreciate any feedback.

Amazing. Thank you so much. Thanks for answering the questions. Of course. I love them. And thanks, everybody, for listening. We'll see you next time. If you loved this episode, please give us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. We always value your feedback. And if you want to keep the financial conversations going, join me for a deeper dive.

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