With demand from women for the hormone surging, Midi Health introduces testosterone therapy

Men have long turned to testosterone therapy to address a variety of issues as they age. But in recent years, women are increasingly doing the same, seeing benefits from the hormone in addressing issues around libido, muscular health, energy and mood.

Midi Health, a virtual clinic focused on midlife health for women, is now expanding access to testosterone hormone therapy after what it says has been a surge in demand across its more than 200,000 patient network in the U.S.

While testosterone is traditionally associated with men, it’s present in women, albeit at lower levels. Still, much like in men, the hormone plays an important role and tends to decline with age.

Midi Health CEO Joanna Strober said while there is research that backs women receiving testosterone therapy, “there’s just been a lot of fear around it; unnecessary fear, as though you’re going to turn into a weightlifter, get huge muscles and your hair is going to fall out.”

Strober, a 2025 CNBC Changemaker, co-founded Midi Health in 2021 with a focus on helping women with midlife health issues like menopause and perimenopause, as well as with longevity and aging well. That can often come in the form of hormonal therapy, and Strober said she views this push into testosterone therapy as another extension of that, and another way to “give women options and see if it makes them feel good.”  

“Our job is to help women optimize their health and give them the tool chest to do that,” Strober said. “Hormones are a key component of that.”

To date, there are no FDA-approved testosterone therapies for women in the U.S., and Strober said that has led many women to try off-label or male-focused formulations. In other parts of the world, like the U.K., it has been prescribed to women for decades.

Midi Health is creating a formulation specifically for women, making it accessible through its clinicians and covered by major insurers. It will at first be available in 12 states, and the company plans a nationwide rollout as individual state regulations allow.

The company expects there to be demand. Roughly a year ago, Midi Health issued fewer than 100 testosterone prescriptions per week as part of a pilot program. Now, as discussions around the success of the treatment have grown on social media, there has been nearly a tenfold increase in prescriptions.

Strober said like other treatment options offered to women by Midi Health, “it really does need to be personalized; it’s not a one-shot fit all, so there’s a big opportunity to help build personalized health care solutions and give it to people the way they want to get health care.”

That approach has been key to Midi Health’s growth, and the company has reached a more than $150 million revenue run rate and doubled its patient base this year to more than 20,000 a week, Strober said.

Like many companies in the women’s health industry, Midi Health was founded to help women who were being underserved and overlooked, with a specific focus on menopause and perimenopause care, something that affects hundreds of millions of women a year but historically has not seen the focus that other female health conditions have.

Midi Health is not alone. Earlier this month, Hims & Hers Health launched a new specialty in women’s health that focuses on treatment plans for women experiencing perimenopause and menopause. Fellow CNBC Changemaker Naomi Watts founded Stripes Beauty to focus on women’s health issues. Halle Berry, who has been vocal about her own challenges with perimenopause, founded a menopause-focused online care clinic, Respin Health. On top of that, the FDA held an expert panel on “Menopause and Hormone Replacement Therapy for Women” in July.

Strober said that in her view, “there is room for a lot of people in this space, because we are talking about something that impacts every single woman in the world … this is not a small niche.” She also noted that Midi Health’s care is covered by insurance, unlike many other offerings.

As more women become aware that care is available, it provides Midi Health with a big opportunity, one that Strober said she believes puts the company on a path towards an eventual IPO. The company raised $50 million in a Series C round earlier this year, has more than $150 million in funding thus far and has investors like Emerson Collective, Google Ventures and a collection of female leaders that include comedian Amy Schumer, soccer star Brandi Chastain, and fashion designer Tory Burch.

“The thing we’re competing against is the lack of women-oriented care, and I think that is just getting worse, mostly not better,” Strober said. “We’re not a hormone company, we’re not a weight loss company, we’re a women’s health-care company, and I think women are increasingly looking for women-focused healthcare, and that’s the gap we’re filling.”