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Top Comics Michelle Buteau, Jessica Kirson and More Roast Menopause for Midi Health
Humor is the ultimate icebreaker
Comedians Michelle Buteau, Alyce Chan, Jessica Kirson and Jen Kober roast—not a celebrity as you might expect—but menopause in a campaign for Midi Health. The women’s telehealth company’s “Hysterical Women: A Menopause Roast” was filmed at The Get Down in Portland, Ore., in front of a live audience.
“For centuries, women who spoke up about their physical and mental health were dismissed as ‘hysterical’—a word that literally derives from the Greek ‘hystera,’ meaning uterus. That dismissal has conditioned generations of women to suffer in silence, assuming debilitating symptoms like brain fog, rage and insomnia are just things they have to endure,” says Melissa Waters, chief marketing officer of Midi Health. “A comedy roast allowed us to flip that history on its head. Humor is the ultimate icebreaker. By roasting the symptoms out loud, we disarm the shame, reclaim the word ‘hysterical’ and create a doorway to real clinical care for all women.”
Here, Waters talks about pushing menopause into the cultural conversation by getting real and making people laugh:
This isn’t the first time Midi Health has used humor to spark discussion. Earlier this year, the brand launched its first national TV ad campaign, “Midlife: Back in Session,” featuring Amy Schumer, to bring awareness to perimenopause. How did that work inform your latest campaign?
“Midlife: Back in Session” performed exceptionally well. We saw significant increases in unaided brand awareness, a major spike in appointment bookings across the country and tremendous engagement from employer partners and health plans. What we learned is that authenticity and bold creativity will always outperform safe, corporate messaging. Healthcare brands often default to muted colors and solemn promises. When we showed up with Amy Schumer, leaned into ’90s nostalgia and gave women an industrial-sized fan for their hot flashes, people took notice because it felt like real life. That campaign proved that if you respect your audience’s intelligence, mirror their reality and make them laugh, they will trust you with their health. This roast was the natural next step in that playbook.
Why were Michelle, Alyce, Jessica and Jen the right comics to headline the roast?
These women are fearless and hilarious truth-tellers who reflect the lived reality of our community. Michelle Buteau brings an undeniable, magnetic joy to talking about the messiness of life. She doesn’t hold back and her cultural voice is massive. Jessica Kirson was a fit because she executive produced the FX documentary Hysterical about women in stand-up. She understands the nuances of reclaiming that label better than anyone, and her physical comedy captures midlife anxiety so brilliantly. Jen Kober has such a sharp, down-home storytelling ability that cuts straight to the bone and makes you feel like you’re laughing with her over a coffee. Alyce Chan has spent years building a devoted following with @momcomnyc, capturing the chaotic intersection of parenting, career and aging, when women are being pulled a hundred different directions.
Above all, none of these ladies treat menopause like a polite footnote. They talk about it like women actually talk about it at girls’ night with their closest friends.
What was the taping of the roast like? How were the jokes received?
The energy in that room was electric. Portland is such a great comedy city. It felt less like a production shoot and more like a long-overdue, fun night out with your funniest girlfriends where nobody had to filter themselves or pretend they weren’t sweating through their clothes.
The audience was filled with women in their 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond, along with quite a few partners who hopefully learned some things. When the comics went in on midnight thermal meltdowns, random bursts of rage, thinning hair and plucking the same stubborn chin hair four times in one day, the response wasn’t just laughter—it was recognition, with heads nodding and friends whispering to each other. You could see women looking at each other with pure relief, realizing “It’s not just me. I’m not losing my mind.”
Putting a spotlight on these topics also made it easier to discuss openly. After the show there were lots of lively conversations between friends about which of the comedians’ symptoms and experiences resonated with them most.
How are you sharing the content from the roast with a wider audience?
We know women aren’t sitting around waiting to read clinical white papers. They are often busy taking care of everyone else. We need to show up for them on their phones and in group chats. We are cutting the roast into bite-sized, high-impact digital clips distributed across Midi Health’s Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook as well as the comedians’ own social channels.
The strategy is built around native shareability. When a woman watches a 45-second clip of Michelle or Jessica nailing an exact symptom she is dealing with, she sends it directly to her friends with the caption “This is me.” That social handoff turns organic entertainment into an entry point for healthcare discovery, showing that Midi Health truly understands what women are going through and wants to help them.
There was a time when celebrities would have not wanted to acknowledge being in perimenopause or menopause. Why are performers open to discussing it now? And how does that impact the wider world?
It used to be that the midlife period for women was treated as an expiration date in Hollywood and corporate America. To acknowledge aging was to risk becoming culturally invisible or commercially unviable. What has changed is that women in their 40s, 50s and beyond are being bolder and more confident, not caring what other people think. Our brand exists to back them up as they step boldly into their power. These women are running studios, building companies and they don’t have time to hide themselves for others.
When cultural leaders, whether it’s Amy Schumer or Michelle Buteau, speak openly about hormone health, it normalizes the transition for everyone else. Cultural representation drives systemic change. It signals to employers, researchers, medical schools and insurers that women’s health is not a niche sideline but a core health priority.
Have you heard directly from consumers about how your work impacts them?
Our DMs and inboxes are filled with messages that range from deeply moving to downright furious that they had to wait so long for answers. Women tell us they spent years visiting cardiology, neurology or gastroenterology for palpitations, joint pain or brain fog, only to be told their labs were “normal” or that they needed an antidepressant. Seeing our content gave them the vocabulary to connect those disparate symptoms to hormonal shifts and advocate for themselves. It gave them the validation they needed to stop gaslighting themselves, make an appointment with a Midi clinician and get evidence-based care covered by their insurance. Hearing someone say, “You gave me my brain and my life back,” proves this work is about far more than marketing.
Have you heard from men who have been enlightened when it comes to perimenopause and menopause thanks to your efforts?
It’s been one of the most encouraging side effects of bringing humor into the equation. There were actually a couple men in the front row of the show. Men often want to be supportive partners, but they are overwhelmed and intimidated by traditional women’s healthcare messaging. Humor gives everyone a palatable doorway into the conversation. We’ve had men tell us that seeing our ads or these roast clips helped them understand why their partner was suddenly waking up soaked in sweat at 3 AM or experiencing rapid mood fluctuations. It moves the dynamic from confusion and marital strain to empathy and teamwork. When a partner understands the biology behind what’s happening, they become an active advocate in helping their loved one get care.
What is the ultimate goal?
We look at humor as our front door—expert, insurance-covered medical care is the house. The goal is to bridge the massive gap between feeling isolated by absurd symptoms and receiving clinical treatment that works. We use comedy to break through the shame, bust open the cultural conversation and validate women’s experiences. But we never leave it at just a laugh. The payoff is always the connection to care. Hot flashes, sleep deprivation and brain fog aren’t life sentences—they are treatable hormonal conditions, and Midi Health is here to treat them in all 50 states.
Related: Brooke Brazer of ‘Roomies’ Balances a Creative Career With Endometriosis Advocacy
