Fixing the Female Healthcare and Menopause Gap with Monica Molenaar, co-Founder of Alloy Health

24:12Monica Molenaar:And then beyond that, you know, there's, there's your weight, there's your skin, which we have really pioneered the use of topical estrogen for skin health, which has been really, really exciting and gratifying. um but you know skin weight sexual health hair all the things that women are struggling with and sort of there there are many many solutions that are just sort of out of reach for the average

24:34Natasha Jakubowski:women for some reason it says it's stopped recording oh not for me oh no for randy sorry okay no ignore me ignore me i think she's blocked off but yeah okay sorry okay just check we can

24:50Monica Molenaar:edit right yeah yeah um yeah i forgot what i was saying all the benefits of estrogen etc i think

25:00Natasha Jakubowski:uh was where you're going and i i love i mean i think one of the things that you've i would you know i've done a lot of work in skincare as well but the whole using the topical estrogen at a lower level for skin health anti-aging etc um were you one of the first people doing that i think we were

25:24Monica Molenaar:the first to really popular popularize it yeah i mean there might be using could i be using the the estrogen cream on my feet a hundred percent yeah okay yes yes yeah and in fact like really the time to start is in perimenopause or sort of mid thirties, like as you start to notice your skin changing a little bit or even post pregnancy, you know, that's a very low estrogen state as well. And your skin can dry out and get thinner. And what we've seen both in the five clinical studies that we've done through alloy through with independent labs, as well as just, you know, research on topical estrogen out there is that estrogen, it's so smart.

26:07Monica Molenaar:So it's actually really preventative in, it's prophylactic in perimenopause. So it will prevent your skin from starting to age. And really what's happening with aging and thinning and drying and sort of that loss of elasticity is that estrogen is what is responsible for hydrating cells, for inducing your body to create collagen and elasticity in the skin. It's thickness, it thickens the skin. And so as you lose estrogen, your skin just naturally gets drier and sort of more fragile. But if you think about the fact that your skin is actually your largest organ and what is here to protect us from all the outside elements and sort of keep everything else safe, you want your skin to be as healthy as possible.

26:53Monica Molenaar:Yeah, exactly. And so estrogen is really like a game changer in terms of your skin's overall health. The side benefit is that it also makes your skin look much younger and more just healthy and kind of radiant because it's hydrated, because it has collagen and it's thicker. And so the really nice side effect is that I get compliments all the time now on my skin, which I never got before. And so, you know, as a 51 year old woman, it's pretty nice. Yeah, yeah. All night.

27:27Natasha Jakubowski:People will be like, you look amazing. I know. I'm like, you should have started earlier, but we'll see.

27:33Monica Molenaar:It's okay. It's never too late. So it's prophylactic in perimenopause and it's therapeutic in menopause, which means it will prevent your skin from sort of aging if you get it at the right time, but it will work at any time, which is also the same for vaginal estrogen as well. And it works on the same principle. It's skin. And so that's something that women should know is like essential skincare and something that you can and should use forever and can start whenever. And no matter what cancers you have or whatever, like it is pretty much safe for everybody.

28:04Natasha Jakubowski:Yeah. And that goes for the same with the estrogen, progesterone. and you know if if you're just coming to alloy what are the the kind of main things that uh a woman in men reports will be kind of yeah well one thing i i want to say is

28:29Monica Molenaar:that one of our kind of principal tenets at alloy is that women are very smart and can make decisions or at least for themselves or at least should be a part of the decision-making process. And so we like to make, I think one of the things about Alloy is we're very transparent and open about what we have available, how much it costs. We don't force you to go through insurance. You don't need to go into a doctor's office. You don't need to be in front of a video screen and have a seven minute conversation or 15 minutes or whatever it is. When you come to Alloy, you get connected with a menopause specialist who is sort of like a specialist in your pocket and you have unlimited access to this same doctor for as long as you are a customer of getting something from Alloy.

29:17Monica Molenaar:So you can ask your questions whenever you have them. She will, the doctor, 99 % of them are women. So most likely she will get back to you within 12 hours and answer your question. And this is something that really does not exist in the in-person world. Um, even in the telehealth world where you have to, you know, generally kind of keep making appointments or, you know, get a copay. So, um, we really wanted to make it easy for women to get access to, um, the care that they're looking for. I think I was so long in that conversation.

29:51Natasha Jakubowski:Yeah, no, I'm interested in this business wise, you kind of obviously the focus on women, the focus on menopause is, is, is great. And, and, you know, you have your, your addressable market. And do you fit in between things like a parsley, like, or do you replace like a concierge kind of more space or an OBGYN? And like, how do you or you complement those?

30:21Monica Molenaar:I think what we we complement an OBGYN, an in-person OBGYN where you would be getting a pap smear, you know. But what we do so what we do offer is really expert doctors who understand midlife women or, you know, perimenopausal women in this transition. Most of them are OBGYNs. We have a few urogynecologists, maybe one urologist. but women doctors who really have seen women for decades yeah through this life stage and really understand what they're going through and i think you know menopausal hormone treatment is just one of many and an alloy the definition of alloy the reason why we chose our name is that an alloy is a combination of elements for strength and protection against corrosion which is really kind of a metaphor for everything that we do so everything we have female body exactly exactly And so it's not just about estrogen.

31:18Monica Molenaar:It's, as I said, it's weight care, it's skin care, it's, you know, it's sexual health, it's gut health, it's there are lots of things. And so when a woman comes to Alois, she can, she can sort of ask for a more doctor led experience where she says, here are all the problems that I'm having. Can you please give me a treatment plan that's personalized to what I am experiencing and what I would like to solve? And then she can work with the doctor to and go back and forth as many times as she needs to ask her questions without paying additional fees to get as many of the things that I just mentioned as she wants.

31:59Monica Molenaar:Yeah. You know, she can start with menopausal hormone treatment. She can start with skin care. She can start with GLP-1. She can start with, you know, and then she can add on or she can sort of move around as in consultation with the doctor as she moves forward in her own path. Yeah. You know, so we don't really we like to give women the opportunity just to be led by the doctor or to say this is what I'm looking for. Yeah. Yeah. And here are the symptoms that I'm having or here's my my medical history. And then the doctor can write the prescription or say, you know, and this happens also like I don't think that this is the right thing for you.

32:33Monica Molenaar:Maybe, you know, maybe something else. But for the most part, like with with the topical estrogen skin care, pretty much anybody can use it if they want to. So, you know, if you want to make that choice, you can. And we are here to give women that agency.

32:48Natasha Jakubowski:What do you make of, I mean, like, it's interesting. And, you know, I think it's fueled by the GLP-1 gold rush. But like, you know, my med spa now offers GLP-1's HRT. like it's pretty we've gone from you know nothing to suddenly all of these things being available everywhere yeah what do you make of the this i mean i think that that's

33:19Monica Molenaar:why we have really been very deliberate about wanting doctor care and really only having a very experienced, really mission-driven and aligned doctors who have been caring for women for decades and who want to, you know, most of our doctors are really at a point in their careers where they have aged up with their patients and are going through this themselves and don't want to be on call delivering babies overnight. And, you know, and so this provides them with a really fantastic way to kind of amplify their expertise across a much broader group of women. And, and really provide the access that they have seen is, is broken and missing because, you know, they, all of them have been in in-person care and have kind of seen the transition also to health systems and, you know, sort of away from like actually really serving women and their needs.

34:17Monica Molenaar:And so this is really a way to connect women directly to the doctor, which almost never happens in real life anymore. You know, you see some deputy of the doctor and maybe you get a few minutes with the doctor. But like, if you have another question, you're never getting back to that same doctor again. And, you know, and I think that's a real problem. And this is, you know, sort of a really innovative way to provide that kind of personal connection and care that's ongoing and can be ongoing for years. The beauty of this actually is that the doctors that work for us are so happy working at Alloy and have had such a great experience that we have zero doctor attrition.

35:03Monica Molenaar:So we keep adding doctors as our volume grows and none of them leave. So we've had, it's been years already that, you know, these doctors are on the Alloy platform. They have, you know, so many thousands of patients also that they've seen over time or communicated with that they also like their expertise has only really broadened and developed as they've kind of seen more and more women. But I think that, you know, everybody is different. I'm glad that there's access to all of these solutions. And I'm certainly glad that there's that that we've been successful in getting the story out that or the facts out that estrogen is something that women deserve access to and should have the right to choose.

35:52Monica Molenaar:I don't know that I would just take it from anywhere. Like I have tried every single type of estrogen, every form factor. I've had pellets. I've had compounded systemic hormones. I've had, you know, just FDA approved regular generic, the pill, the patch, the gels, the sprays. I've tried literally everything. At the end of the day, my choice is an oral estradiol and a micronized progesterone. Um, but you know, it, it all works. It's all the same. I just think that, you know, there's, there's a lot of misinformation. There are a lot of people who really don't understand also women's the, the health journey that they've had up until this point.

36:35Monica Molenaar:And so to have a doctor who has experience in, you know, talking to you about like, whether it's your uncontrolled diabetes or other things that you might not need to have help with and really sort of expert answers

36:49Natasha Jakubowski:about that's where we step in yeah yeah no I mean yeah every time I see the single injection that you can get it like some phone like this is crazy you know just yeah yeah I'm one-off thing

37:04Monica Molenaar:um yeah everybody's everybody has their own sort of personal risk profile and and I'm I'm willing to to push boundaries but i think you know for the most part it's important to really um or i'm willing to push boundaries for myself as i said everybody's different but but i think you know giving access to real expertise and and solutions that work and that you can stand behind that are evidence-based and grounded in science and and good studies and you know that's what's really

37:34Natasha Jakubowski:important yeah looking back is there anything that you would do differently if you were starting alloy today that I know the market is so different consumers are and I think they're a lot more uh educated or aware you know the black box is being removed from HRT and yeah looking back what would you what would you do differently or what do you wish you had known then well it's a that's

38:07Monica Molenaar:It's always an interesting question when people ask me that because I'm very, very pleased with where we are. And so I don't think that I could have done anything differently to reach the same outcome. You know, if you do something differently, then you get to a different outcome. And I don't know what that would be. And so while, as I said, there have been many things along the last seven years that, you know, went awry or launches, you know, technology that we thought was was just technology like launches that that didn't go as planned or that needed, you know, that had all kinds of bugs or whatever.

38:44Monica Molenaar:Like you just the only way sort of forward is through it. And I think we've you know, I'm really pleased with with where we've gotten. And a lot of that has been, you know, just thanks to really my relationship with with Anne and how we work together to solve problems and not not wrap our egos in it, but to, you know, really sort of put the business first and think very clearly and definitively about sort of what is what is the right thing to do here. and usually we're very much on the same page, which has been a fantastic experience. That's a gift, definitely.

39:29Natasha Jakubowski:I've spoken to quite a few people that haven't had quite the same. But you seem very kind of, you know, that answer mirrored something earlier where, you know, it's not necessarily a mistake. It's just, you know, it's something that happened and you're, you know, happy with it. I feel like that's whether it's a personality type way of thinking about life business that is definitely coming through. Where is Alloy going? Is it would you ever think about women's health generally and go younger or, you know, move into I guess you're already easily moving into longevity as you take women from menopause onwards.

40:14Natasha Jakubowski:But what's the what's your what are you hoping for in the future for Alloy? Are you hoping to sell to a big health system or what are your ambitions?

40:25Monica Molenaar:My ambition is for Alloy to be a sustainable business that that lasts and, you know, serves women for the long term, whether I'm at the helm or not. I think that it's something that is really important. I think that consumer driven health care is is the future, actually, where consumers do have more of a say and a choice in what they're getting. And I think that, you know, what we found with with insurance and health systems is that it's actually so expensive to just fit into that system that it's like it's a broken it's broken. So we wanted to create something. We had the opportunity to just create something that that's new and not broken.

41:12Monica Molenaar:And, you know, what the only thing that we're asking is that women have a little bit of sort of flexibility in how they're receiving the care, how they're communicating with a doctor. it's through messaging, which is how, you know, I speak to my children and my husband generally. So it sort of meets women where they are. And that experience will continue to evolve and improve and get even sort of more personal and easier to navigate. But I think, you know, we've tried to create something that serves us as women in this life stage. Like, what are we really looking for? Nobody has ever actually asked that question.

41:56Monica Molenaar:What do women in midlife need? It's usually, you know, what's best for women in fertility or younger women? Or, you know, like we've always been sort of pushed, like, should we go to younger women? And the fact is that there are 85 million women in the United States alone who are in some stage of perimenopause or menopause right now. And that is a huge unserved market of people who have been dismissed summarily, ignored, told like you don't matter. And so we're really focused on that woman and there are enough of them. And, you know, that like even if there are more companies or more, you know, more people trying to serve this customer or this person, like it's there still will never be enough companies to actually meet the gigantic need because there are fewer and fewer fewer OBGYNs, there are fewer who choose to deliver babies, you know, forget about menopause or women, you know, in perimenopause who don't know what's going on and are, you know, like, trying to find answers.

43:00But that is a time consuming process, in a sense, you have to,

43:05Monica Molenaar:you know, you have to go to a provider who's like, oh, you're 48, and you're having problems sleeping, and you're having heart palpitations, and you're, you have this new onset of anxiety that, you know, is making it hard for you to drive over bridges and through tunnels. These are real stories that I've heard. You know, maybe we should try you on HRT first and see if that solves the problem. And if it doesn't, then we can start doing a cardiac workup, or we can put you on an SSRI or whatever. But like, you have to actually think about look at a woman as a whole person and think about, you know, how old she is and her life stage and sort of, you know, put two and two together and that has not happened up until now um or at least for the last 25 years and i think that there's a lot more opportunity just to serve her and all of her needs and help her thrive and then you know obviously i will never say never they're all kind of you know the op they're the options are pretty much endless at this point because because it's it's not being done yet

44:03Natasha Jakubowski:yeah and i feel like for anybody that relationship over time there's so many more products and health needs yeah i i see that i can't believe we've got to almost the end so move on to there's a lot to talk about i can come back i i would love that uh some quick more quick fire um questions um what uh more frivolous questions what is your what would be your desert island health and wellness product i can kind of guess but what would it be

44:41Monica Molenaar:m4 tabula topical estrogen that's all of them yeah the skin skin health yes all right i feel

44:47Natasha Jakubowski:like i need to try that okay um i mean that's assuming that i already have systemic estrogen

44:53Monica Molenaar:you know that i have that's what i was about to say i was like hang on the topical versus the

44:59Natasha Jakubowski:no yeah i just assume i assume that the hrt is like a given like i'm never giving up the oral never giving that up okay uh what best career advice worst career advice you've ever had

45:13Monica Molenaar:i've been listening a lot to scott galloway um professor galloway and i he's said a bunch of times which i think is really good advice and actually this is not advice that i was given but i think it's great advice which is lean into what you're good at and i definitely have seen that with myself as an entrepreneur that, you know, I'm really good at having a big idea and I have, you know, a huge network of people. I love people. I'm very curious. I'm very chatty. I make and develop and maintain relationships. So I have relationships with people that I've had, you know, for like Gingy 30 years or more, you know, and lots of people.

45:57Monica Molenaar:And so what my strength is, or one of my strengths is, you know, thinking about something and then finding people who are better than me at X, Y, or Z to, you know, to sort of get engaged and do stuff because I obviously can't do everything and I'm not good at a lot of things. So I think leaning into what you're good at and sort of really finding your strength, that doesn't mean pick something that's easy, that doesn't have challenge. Anything will have challenge, but it just means, you know, think about where you can really add the most value and go for that and if there's something that is more challenging or that you're interested in but that you're not that good at make it a

46:34Natasha Jakubowski:hobby that's funny um any and that's similar i guess that's that is this i was going to ask about your superpowers that have helped you succeed but i feel like that's kind of it i um And being able and open to connect with people, being good at that, I think is a superpower as an entrepreneur.

46:56Monica Molenaar:Yeah, I think so. My son actually at my 50th birthday party, one of my sons made a toast and said that one of the things that he thinks, and this always stuck with me, is that I've taught my kids to be friendly and open. And that sometimes a step back or to the side is the right way forward, actually. And that, you know, being open about sort of how you're how you move through life is something that I I find interesting and I think a lot about and I don't always follow. I actually usually don't follow the path most traveled. OK. But I think about what's the right way to what's right for me. Where do I think, you know, the best path forward is and take that.

47:40Monica Molenaar:Anything you're trying to get better at. Sleep. Sleep. yeah not a very good sleeper I live in the Netherlands which I I think you I don't know if you know or yeah but I'm sort of I'm a New Yorker who's who who lives in Holland now I'm married to a Dutch guy and we lived in New York together for 22 years and then finally moved here five years ago to be closer to his family and and the serendipity of that was that I was able to continue to build alloy remotely you know it was during COVID and um and then beyond so we built the entire company remote. But what it means is that my working hours, which I love, start, I just sort of, I work Eastern hours.

48:24Monica Molenaar:So I start at kind of 3 p.m. local time. I work till 10 or 11. But it means that by the time I'm ready, you know, it's bedtime, I'm still kind of wired. But it gives me a lot of flexibility during the day to do the life things that I need to do, like exercise and lifting weights. And that has been a huge shift in my whole mindset of like exercise is something to that is, you know, the number one start now. Yeah, start now and never stop. You know, to think about like getting in shape when you're 70 is not really the time to start. But now is really the time to start. And it's not about getting skinny or being as little as possible or, you know, taking up as little space as possible.

49:05Monica Molenaar:It's actually getting as strong as you possibly can to protect yourself for the next 50 years yeah amazing um what vitamins or supplements do you take if any um i take the alloy symbiotic which is every night um which is i also eat a lot of fermented foods but i'm really into the microbiome and gut health um i'm taking creatine lately i'm it makes me a little bit nauseous sometimes so i'm not that good at being consistent but i read a lot about it and think that that's a really good one and i'm trying to get as much protein in as possible as we all are um but i i don't take that many supplements

49:45Natasha Jakubowski:to be honest i take magnesium at night actually that's been helping me help see my sleep yeah what's the scammiest uh health trend you've seen recently scammiest yeah um you're like that's ridiculous on tiktok or you know influences trying to sell uh i'm not on tiktok very much i'm on instagram yeah what i'm interested in is the is peptides

50:14Monica Molenaar:but they're not studied they're not and glp ones obviously but sort of all these other peptides Yeah, the new crazy ones. Yeah. Yeah. That apparently seems to be coming like directly from Chinese labs. And so I think that there's I'm sad about it, actually, because I have a feeling that there's a lot of benefit, actually, that could become from that. But because of the misinformation and sort of lack of there won't be an FDA study mostly or, you know, sort of an FDA approved version of these things because they're cheap to make. And so not that profitable for pharmaceutical companies and, you know, to do the research and get patents and stuff like that.

50:57Monica Molenaar:And so I think there will be a lot of like gray area stuff coming up that feels and sounds exciting. but you know we won't really have enough evidence to make a clearer determination on you know safety

51:14Natasha Jakubowski:and stuff so yeah that's a bummer last question who are you uh could be or what are you professionally

51:24Monica Molenaar:jealous of um it's a great question i think i don't love the i try to not be jealous as a person So I like to find inspiration and ideas, admiration in other people. I've been thinking a lot about recently Estee Lauder, actually, who really started mixing face creams at her kitchen table with her uncle, who is a chemist, and learning the science by herself. And I think it's really admirable that, especially at the time that she was doing that, I know how hard it is to be a female entrepreneur now in 2026. um 20 you know or the 2020s um so when when she was doing that to sort of get the um to build something so extraordinary through the curiosity and care and really wanting to to kind of create something for herself and other women in the same way that we are doing um is I think really sort of very inspirational um and the way that the company then went on to you know through leaders like like Evelyn Latter support causes like breast cancer and ovarian cancer and other things, like is definitely admirable.

52:41Monica Molenaar:But there are a lot of people that I, what I like to do is sort of pick and choose from, you know, things that I see and then chart my own path. Amazing. I'm not that much of a rule follower all the time.

52:58Natasha Jakubowski:Thank you so much. It was so interesting. I really feel like I could have asked so many more questions. But thank you. I would love to connect another time. I have a female founder I would love to pick your brain about. And it's actually an amazing female incontinence, very disruptive. But anyway, firstly. Female incontinence. I know all about it. Way too much. I'm going to email you about that.

53:30Monica Molenaar:but I have to thank people for listening.

53:33Natasha Jakubowski:Please take a look at other episodes we've done. You can find them on Spotify, Apple, YouTube. Get in touch if you have any questions, feedback, or people that you'd like featured. Thank you to everyone helping and hopefully I'll see you again soon.

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