Meg Rivera Says a Label Change Isn’t a Revolution, But It Could Be the Beginning of One
The FDA’s recent decision to remove black box warnings from hormone-replacement therapies (HRT) has been welcomed as a long-awaited win for women’s health. After more than two decades of confusion, fear and inconsistent messaging, many clinicians and advocates are calling the update a major milestone. But Meg Rivera, former U.S. Market President at Organon, one of the world’s leading women’s health companies, sees the moment through a more measured and more urgent lens.
“It’s less a revolution and more a recalibration,” Rivera explains. “HRT has long been treated as a ‘lifestyle’ therapy instead of essential healthcare. And that mindset reflects something bigger: The persistent undervaluing of women’s health in our medical system,” she says.
She notes that while the label change finally acknowledges what science has shown for years, that when prescribed appropriately, HRT can be both safe and beneficial, it took two decades and countless women delaying care for the system to catch up. “Access to HRT was never the primary problem,” Rivera adds. “Equitable access to informed, evidence-based care was, and still, is.”
The question now isn’t whether HRT is safe. It’s whether anything has been learned from how long it took to admit it.
The real work starts now
Rivera believes the FDA’s decision should be a catalyst for deeper, systemic change, not a cue for complacency. To make this moment meaningful, she says, the structural gaps that have long undermined women’s health must be confronted:
- Educate clinicians early and often. Expand medical and continuing-education curricula so menopause, hormonal health and sex-specific science are treated as core medicine, not electives.
- Fund what matters. Close the research gap by prioritizing funding for women’s health trials and not just in reproductive areas, but across cardiovascular, metabolic, autoimmune and brain health, where hormonal influence is often ignored.
- Fix coverage and coding. Ensure menopause care, HRT and related therapies are covered consistently across private insurance, Medicaid and Medicare and not labeled as elective or “wellness” care.
- Incentivize innovation. Support development of new delivery methods, symptom management tools and precision approaches that make hormonal care safer and more personalized.
- Normalize the conversation. Create public health campaigns that destigmatize menopause, empower women to seek care earlier and make hormonal literacy as mainstream as heart health or nutrition.
“This is what real progress looks like,” Rivera says. “A system that sees women’s health not as niche or optional; but, as foundational to public health, productivity and equality.”
Why this matters now
Rivera insists the FDA’s revision should be understood as a beginning. “It’s a chance to build momentum toward a more equitable, scientifically grounded and compassionate system of care,” she says.
“Removing a warning label won’t rebuild a healthcare system that has underinvested in women’s health for decades. The real progress will come when menopause care is integrated into mainstream medicine, funded like a public-health priority and supported by the same rigor we apply everywhere else.”
Women will continue to make up a significant share of the workforce in the coming decade. “When women lack the knowledge or support to manage health symptoms, productivity and well-being suffer. When they receive evidence-based care, the ripple effects are profound…for families, businesses and economies.”
The FDA’s update is a sign of progress. But Rivera wants to be clear: Progress isn’t the finish line. “We’ve changed the label,” she says. “Now we need to change the system.”
