When a health scare affected her mother, Dr. Somi Javaid knew that she would dedicate her career to improving women’s health.
While her mom’s health condition improved, she could have died because of undiagnosed cardiovascular disease. At the time, Javaid made a promise to herself that she would not let what happened to her mom happen to others.
“I was pre-med at Northwestern at the time, 21 years old, and made a promise to her and to myself that this was never going to happen again and that I was going to change the world,” she said.
Speaking at the Fortune Most Powerful Women conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Javaid told attendees that more information about women’s health is needed in the medical field, especially when it comes to menopause and postmenopause.
“Menopause affects us from head to toe, undiagnosed, untreated menopause led to, just in the United States, $1.8 billion losses in work,” she said.
While menopause affects a billion people, most doctors are not trained appropriately to address health issues for people in this stage of life. Javaid highlighted that with the proper care, women need not make drastic changes to their lives because of menopause.
When it comes to other medical conditions, such as the cardiovascular disease that affected her mother, more resources and education are still needed, Javaid added.
“We were treating women in the United States like little men,” she said. “So that’s why my mother almost died. Cardiovascular disease remains the number one killer of women in the United States.”
Companies such as HerMD are filling this gap in care, Javaid said. The company will soon train medical providers across the country especially on postmenopause and has expanded its virtual care to reach women across the country.
“Women live longer than men, but we live those years in much poorer health. And so if we can integrate hormonal health and understand our ovaries much better, it’s a key to longevity, and not just living longer, but living those years healthier,” Javaid said.
