Full Show Notes

Women navigating perimenopause and menopause know the feeling: you go from doctor to doctor, get treated for anxiety here, insomnia there, brain fog somewhere else — and nobody ever stops to ask whether hormones might be the thread connecting all of it. This episode is about two women who got tired of watching that happen and built something different.

Sarah Chavarria is the CEO of Delta Dental Insurance, one of the largest dental insurance organizations in the country, serving over 35 million members. Joanna Strober is the founder and CEO of MIDI Health, the integrated women’s health telehealth platform that combines the best practices of OB-GYN, internal medicine, endocrinology, and cardiology into expert-led, AI-supported care protocols for women in perimenopause and menopause. Both of them went through the transition themselves. Both of them were undertreated. And both of them decided to do something about it.

This conversation covers ground that most menopause discussions miss entirely. Sarah explains the biology behind why declining estrogen directly affects the mouth — reducing saliva, changing gum tissue, triggering burning tongue and dry mouth — and why the dentist, who sees you twice a year in a genuinely intimate clinical relationship, may be one of the best-positioned healthcare providers to catch hormonal changes early. Joanna walks through exactly what happens when Donna signs up for MIDI Health: the 30-minute intake, the iterative care model, the AI-supported protocols that give every clinician access to the best practices across four specialties, and the vision of being a 20-year care companion rather than a one-and-done visit.

They also both speak from personal experience — Sarah powering through monthly migraines while traveling, not realizing perimenopause was the cause. Joanna sitting in a primary care office, describing anxiety and insomnia, being handed an SSRI and a sleeping pill and sent home. That experience, she says, is what 25% of midlife women are living right now. And it is exactly what MIDI was built to fix.

The three takeaways Stephanie closes with say it best: your mouth is not separate from your hormones. At your next dental visit, say out loud that you are in perimenopause or menopause. And if you have Delta Dental coverage, find out if you have access to MIDI Health through your plan.

What You Will Learn

Why declining estrogen affects the mouth directly — reducing saliva, changing gum tissue, and triggering burning tongue and dry mouth — and why the dentist may catch these hormonal changes before any other provider does
How MIDI Health’s integrated, AI-supported care model works — combining OB-GYN, internal medicine, endocrinology, and cardiology expertise into one iterative 30-minute visit that treats you as a whole woman rather than a collection of symptoms
Why 25% of midlife women are currently on SSRIs for symptoms that may be hormonal, why perimenopause is still not part of the conversation in most primary care offices, and what the Delta Dental and MIDI partnership is doing to close that gap through insurance and employer benefits

About Our Guests

Sarah Chavarria is the CEO of Delta Dental Insurance, one of the nation’s largest dental insurance organizations serving more than 35 million members. A menopause navigator herself, she has channeled her personal experience into building awareness, innovative product design, and partnership strategies that connect oral health to whole-body women’s wellness. Learn more: ddins.co/menopause

Joanna Strober is the founder and CEO of MIDI Health, a women’s health telehealth platform that delivers integrated, evidence-based perimenopause and menopause care through expert clinicians and AI-supported protocols. Her mission: make great menopause care covered by insurance and accessible to every woman, not just those who can afford concierge care. Learn more: joinmidi.com

To listen to this episode, click here:

https://hellohotflash.com/episodes/delta-dental-midi-health-strober-chavarria

Additional Resources

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https://hellohotflash.com/reclaimed

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https://hellohotflash.com/quiz

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https://hellohotflash.com/christian-women-and-menopause

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