Ep 460: Breaking the Silence Around Women’s Sexual Health, Pain, and Pleasure with Michelle Gelband

In this episode, we’re joined by Michelle Gelband, a sex therapist in New York City and the founder of Openly Health, a platform designed to help women navigate sexual health care across every stage of life. Michelle shares how her years working in OB-GYN settings revealed a major gap in conversations around sexual health, pain, pleasure, and intimacy, and how her own experience with endometriosis and a fragmented healthcare system deepened her passion for creating change. She opens up about her personal journey with painful periods, painful sex, advocating for herself as a patient, and the challenges of finding providers who looked beyond the surface to understand what was really happening.

Michelle also shares her vision for Openly Health, which brings providers, resources, education, products, and an anonymous community together in one place so women don’t have to search across countless websites to find trustworthy support. She discusses building the platform in beta, gathering feedback from women and providers, navigating the stigma and shame surrounding sexual health, and the realities of being an entrepreneur building something deeply personal and meaningful. Michelle explains how Openly Health aims to make care more accessible, normalize conversations around sex, and help women understand that pain is not something they simply have to accept. She also answers the million-dollar question: What is an empowered woman? Her answer is a powerful reminder that empowerment can mean continuing forward even when doubt, fear, or difficult emotions are present.

Connect with Michelle:
Website: www.openlyhealth.io
Instagram: @openlyhealth | @michellegelband
TikTok: Michelle Gelband

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