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dragons' den star michele romanow takes on motherhood and hormonal health in latest venture
5 minute read
fintech leader michele romanow has learned a lot going through pregnancy and having her daughter sasha. now she's advocating for access to hormonal health care.
janick laurent
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michele romanow, dragons’ den star and fintech leader, is a powerful force in the business world. besides her celebrity and accolades, she’s also a mom. her daughter sasha, just over a year old, has given her a new perspective on the joys and trials of motherhood and women’s health—and inspired new investments.
“i love being a mom,” says michele, who lives in toronto, a buzzy hub a long way from where she grew up in saskatchewan. she went to queen’s university for engineering (the only choice, according to her parents) and business, where she launched her first enterprise, a coffee shop with an environmental focus well ahead of the sustainability curve.
“i wasn’t one of those people who was like, i need to be a mom. there’s a lot of people that feel a lot of certainty around wanting to be a mother. and i’m having an amazing career. i’ve gotten to do incredible things.”
she says she would have been happy without children, but when she had her daughter at age 40, she was thrilled (and tired), she laughs. “it activates a whole level of your heart that you didn’t know existed. the time goes so slow and so fast all at the same time. when a baby won’t fall asleep, you’re like, ‘please go to sleep,’ and then you look around and in business terms, it’s literally one-quarter later, and this baby is double in size and you’re like, ‘oh my goodness.’”
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common thread of motherhood
while she readily admits that there’s no right way to do motherhood, she fully appreciates the common thread of the experience.
biologically, it’s a “one-sided process” of carrying a developing baby in pregnancy, giving birth and going through postpartum. “i get how hard it is,” she says, acknowledging the good fortune of having her life partner know her so well. he’s also her business partner, and the couple has shared the struggles and stress of business over the years.
but having a baby is more of a solo venture.
“you’re doing it on your own. and i think that’s just the biology of it. like as much as we’ve tried to hack breastfeeding, there’s no question that a pump is not the same as a baby and it’s not telling your body the exact same signals. it’s like a biological system, and it’s a magical one,” she says, then adds, “breastfeeding was way harder than i thought. how could something this natural be this painful and this difficult?”
having a baby at age 40
for michele, getting pregnant at age 40 happened naturally and sasha is a “complete joy to be around.” she also recognizes the advantage of having a child at a point when your career is established. but pregnancy through to postpartum exhaustion and loneliness was a challenging time for her and for most women, she says.
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“i was really able to identify that there’s some hormonal rides, and i literally called them a ride of pregnancy that you feel like you’re on, where you’ve gone on the rollercoaster and then for 48 hours you’ve lost control a bit of your body,” michele recalls.
“i remember there were days when i was either so angry or so sad, such a heightened emotion. just saying to my partner, ‘i’m on a different ride right now.’ and i think when you have these hormonal swings, you can appreciate how hormones are underlying everything that we do.”
through motherhood, she’s perhaps become more intuitive about her own body and health. as someone who’s always prided herself on being a very measured, rational person—renowned for strategic investments that deliver big returns—she’s candid about the turmoil of pregnancy. “there were moments where it was the first time i felt like i had almost no control of my emotions.”
new digital platform for hormonal health
the personal experience compelled her to invest in science & humans, a canadian digital health platform dedicated to hormonal health across the lifespan. women and men can access experts for individualized treatment for reproductive and sexual health, weight issues, skin and hair health, perimenopause and menopause.
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michele has also taken on the role of brand ambassador, speaking out about the need for care in a space that has been largely overlooked for women.
she raises the point that women weren’t even mandated to be included in medical research until 1993, meaning that much of our current medicine isn’t designed for women. as science is revealing gender differences in body structure, processes and response to treatments, there is a growing recognition that women may need different approaches and standards of care, which certainly holds true for hormone health.
“i think for years women were going to the doctors in their early 40s and early 50s, being told that they were just going crazy. i think that people didn’t know what to do. and now we have better solutions on what to do,” she explains, advocating for access to treatments, especially at these critical life junctures for women over 40.
“oftentimes, this is the peak of people’s careers. they’ve figured out all the hard stuff. they’re going to make their like incredible contribution at this phase. but for women who have taken time off for pregnancies and now have kids that are 10 years old, and they’re thinking, ‘oh my gosh, my body and my brain feel totally out of whack. what do i do?’”
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menopause symptoms affect work performance
one-third of working women say their menopause symptoms negatively impacted their performance at work, according to a national survey by the menopause foundation of canada. think about the impact: five million (one-quarter) of canada’s workers are women aged 40-plus, two million are between 45 and 55, the age range when most women reach menopause. as well, that cohort is the fastest-growing segment of working women in the country.
michele is clearly happy to be talking about solutions and customizable dosages for hormone health, including navigating polycystic ovary syndrome (pcos) and endometriosis, along with early and late stages of menopause.
“you can imagine how important this is now and we’re in a world where we can, number one, test for these things and number two, do custom dosages.”
the millennial generation, for example, has been able to try different birth control pills to figure out which one suits their body and take the lowest safest dose possible. as hormone therapy advances, women should have choices on hormone treatments throughout their lives, michele says of evolving therapies.
the market demand will drive innovation and build access for women. canada’s hormone therapy market could be as big as $36 billion by 2031.
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“this is a space where there just isn’t enough awareness. i think women are just coming into play.”
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