In Conversation With Ann Marie McQueen, Founder Of Hotflash Inc., An Empowering Platform For Women's Health

As of 2024, 49.6% of the world's population is women. Menstruation and all that comes after is a huge health issue that affects all biological women. Yet, conversations surrounding menopause and perimenopause are woefully scarce, even today. So many still don't know about the huge impacts these biological processes have on women. It is in this gap that journalist Ann Marie McQueen stepped in. She founded Hotflash inc. a global platform empowering women through perimenopause and menopause that is now a raging success.

Here's her story.

There are not very many ventures like Hotflash Inc. in the market today. What was that initial spark of inspiration that led to the creation of Hotflash Inc.?

Basically around 47, I realized I was in perimenopause, and had been for years, having a terribly hard time. Immediately I started looking for content to learn whatever I could about it, just as I had at every other stage in my life. And the information that came back to me was really substandard. It was either sort of SEO-driven, vacant, bland, generic, or it was being used to sell a product, or it was just fear-mongering. And I just felt that I could take the skills that I had amassed in my career and apply it to this, to provide context and depth, and help other women, too. The possibilities seemed endless.

For many worldwide, topics such as 'menstruation' and 'menopause' are still taboo. According to you, why is it important to normalise discussions surrounding women's health aspects such as these?

Look, when I started this, I thought this would be the end of my dating life, that it would embarrass my friends and family. I've talked about menopause every day for almost four and a half years, and now my family's talking about it, and my girlfriends who didn't want to talk about it when I launched this, they're going through it and they're talking about it, and my younger friends are talking about it too. I'm talking about it with my male friends and male relatives and my friends' husbands. I've dated and talked about it, and it's no big deal.

And now I'm getting interviewed by women who are in their early 30s here in the United Arab Emirates, and their openness and curiosity fill my heart with joy. It's important to normalize the discussion so that everyone can feel like we're part of a collective and what we're going through isn't unique or shameful in any single way.

So I'm happy to say the word 'menopause' as many times as it needs so that people can feel comfortable with it.

How much of an impact does menopause and perimenopause make on the general health and well-being of a woman?

This is the thing about perimenopause and menopause. Some women have such a hard time, others experience nothing at all – and everything in between.

I just heard from someone the other day on TikTok who said she wasn't experiencing anything and her mom hadn't either. There's a large silent majority of women who aren't having a problem. Then there are the Hazda women in Tanzania who didn't even have a word for menopause when they were studied.

But there are women who are having a very hard time. And while we know there are hard things in life that contribute to a worsened perimenopause experience – racial weathering, socioeconomics, pollution, childhood trauma and education level all play a role – in many ways we are still figuring it out. There are less than 100,000 studies on menopause, which is something all women go through, compared to more than a 1 million on pregnancy.

And perimenopause, which is all the years before the end of your period, is even less studied: less than 10,000 studies. We know nothing, really. The bottom line? When your hormones recede and ebb and flow toward the end of your last period, it can be really really hard. People don't sleep, they can have hot flashes and night sweats, fatigue, anxiety and depression and a host of other weird symptoms, like phantom smells and itchy ears. It can be absolutely life-altering. It's different for every single woman, so it's tricky.

How much of your career and history as a journalist has featured into this entrepreneurial venture? In what way?

I love this question, thank you for asking. I really feel every single thing I've done since I went to journalism school is has prepared me for this. One of my top skills as a journalist has been being ahead of the curve in looking for patterns. That enabled me to spot that menopause was going to blow wide open back in 2016, 2017 and put myself in the right place when it was happening.

I've spent a lot of time covering health, health and wellness and science; I spent a long time as an arts and life editor, and I've always had a personal interest in being well, probably because I lost my mom so early – She was 53 and I was 27. I have always aimed to be versatile in my career, which is why I trained in broadcast journalism. I was first with new tech on the job: embracing the web, having a blog, using social media, producing video.

It's been the same with AI, which is embedded in all the tools I use to produce a one-woman platform. Now I am a content producer, podcaster, speaker, publisher, influencer and community organizer. The number one thing I've done right is embrace change at every step of the way. The best advice I could give anyone in their career is keep up and learn everything you can as you go so you can be anti-fragile. It's amazing how many people don't do this.

Despite making huge advancements in healthcare and technology, why do you think women's healthcare is still often sidelined by mainstream technology and media?

Sometimes I think it's sidelined because we're a bit more complicated. People don't like complicated things. Even scientists don't like complicated things! Women only started being included in medical studies in the 1990s, if you can believe it. Half the population was excluded from medical studies because our menstrual cycles complicated matters. And now we have all this medical data basically based on men.

I honestly think we are the more nuanced gender in a lot of ways. And men have been the baseline in so many ways in society – from the size and weight of the doors that you open to the drugs that you take that are dosed often for men – it's just going to take a long time to get it right.

It's a lot more work to factor us in and figure us out and the medical community is notoriously slow to embrace change. There have been studies estimating it takes up to 17 years for a medical advancement to make its way to the doctor's office, so I think all those factors align.

Your podcast has passed 100 episodes. Who have been some recent guests?

I've interviewed Lara Briden, a woman's health expert who came out with her third book, Metabolism Repair. I think every woman should read this book or listen to that episode either to prepare themselves for perimenopause in midlife and to understand the way their body works. I also interviewed Susan Davis an Australian endocrinologist, professor and head of Monash University's Women's Health Research Program, and she gave me a master class in the evidence surrounding hormone therapy, in particular testosterone therapy, which is very trendy but could use some more discernment. Another episode which just filled my heart with joy was Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer authors of the book Wild Power, from the menstruality community Red School. We talked all about the difficult parts of the menopause transition, but also the magical, spiritual parts that often get overlooked. It was an hour that filled my heart with joy.

Ann Marie McQueen is founder of the global digital media platform, Hotflash inc. She provides evidence, expert and experienced-based information, context and strategy for more than 50,000 people going through perimenopause, menopause and midlife through a newsletter, podcast and social media.