Pinterest and Maven Reimagine Employer Support of Women's and Family Health

People come to Pinterest to imagine what is next. They build boards for the home they hope to have, the recipes they want to try, the trips they want to take. They gather small pieces of a future that feels far away and move toward it one step at a time.

Health has a similar rhythm, especially for women and families. Across different life stages, people find themselves looking ahead and trying to picture what comes next. “Will I want children?” “How will I balance work and caregiving?” “What will it feel like to age in my own body?” These questions sit quietly in many people’s lives, yet most navigate them on their own.

It is against this backdrop that Pinterest has partnered with Maven Clinic to offer stronger support across the most joyful and most challenging stages of life. This includes fertility and family building, and menopause support.

To explore why this matters and what it looks like in practice, Maven Clinic founder and CEO Kate Ryder sat down with Doniel Sutton, Chief People Officer at Pinterest, for an open conversation about women’s and family health across the lifecycle and what it means for a company to stand beside its people through each chapter.

How Pinterest Is Showing Up for Its People

Pinterest has always been a place where people plan for what comes next. Through its partnership with Maven, Pinterest is continuing to invest in benefits that support employees’ health and family futures, offering on-demand access to reproductive and family health specialists, mental health support, and guidance across fertility, pregnancy, parenting, and menopause. The Maven offering builds on Pinterest’s existing suite of inclusive benefits, including generous parental leave and flexible work options, to support employees and their families through every stage of life.

As Doniel shared during the conversation, this commitment is deeply rooted in who Pinterest is as a company: “At Pinterest, women are strongly represented across our teams and leadership. When you consider what that means for the health of our people, their families, and ultimately the company itself, supporting women’s and family health really matters.”

For Kate Ryder, the partnership reflects something even broader: a growing recognition among employers that work and life are deeply intertwined: “When companies like Pinterest step up and recognize the full reality of people’s lives, it’s worth celebrating. It shows a genuine understanding that employees are juggling a lot, and that there are seasons when showing up at work looks different—and that’s okay.”

What We Wish We Had Known Sooner

During the panel, Kate and Doniel talked about how much the early years shape everything that follows and how little many people understand about their bodies when they first enter adulthood. Most arrive knowing only fragments. They can name the parts but not the patterns, and they often begin their careers with quiet questions about cycles, pain, contraception, or fertility without a clear place to turn.

These stages may look separate on the surface, but they are part of the same story. When people understand their bodies early on, it becomes easier to move through the next chapters with confidence, whether they are trying to conceive, navigating parenthood, or beginning to understand what it feels like to age.

A New Reality for Families

From there, the conversation turned to what it means to build a family today. Parenthood looks different than it once did. Many people are starting families later while managing demanding roles, and there are now many paths to becoming a parent, including IVF, egg freezing, donor conception, surrogacy, adoption, solo parenting, and LGBTQIA+ family building. Each path brings its own mix of hope and uncertainty.

Fertility treatments can cost more than twenty thousand dollars per IVF cycle and often exceed that. More than a third of people who pursue treatment take on debt to cover their care. Others carry the emotional strain instead. 

Kate and Doniel spoke about what people need most during this stage: support that is easy to reach, benefits that reflect every path to parenthood, and transparency around both outcomes and costs. They also emphasized the importance of time and flexibility when plans change, and a workplace culture where people do not feel pressure to hide what they are going through. As Kate noted during the discussion, fertility journeys can be all-consuming, and having trusted guidance — from clinical expertise to second opinions and community — can make an enormous difference. When workplaces offer this kind of steadiness, family building becomes a little less overwhelming and a little more possible.

Giving Words to a Quiet Transition

If early adulthood is a time of firsts, menopause is a time of changes that can be hard to recognize. Symptoms often begin years before people know what they are experiencing. Sleep shifts, hot flashes, brain fog, and anxiety can stretch on for a decade and often overlap with the busiest years of a person’s career.

Many women and caregivers say they do not see the pattern until they feel depleted. Some stay quiet at work because they worry it will change how they are viewed, which leaves many navigating this stage alone while carrying significant responsibilities.

Doniel shared how disorienting this transition was for her — especially because it defied her expectations. “I had always thought of myself as very healthy, so when perimenopausal symptoms started showing up, it caught me off guard. I wasn’t sleeping, I was experiencing brain fog and night sweats, and at first I couldn’t make sense of what was happening.” As she reflected further, Doniel pointed to how little preparation many women have for this phase of life. “There was no conversation about this with my mom or within my community of women. I remember thinking, ‘What is going on?’ because I had never been prepared for this stage—it just wasn’t talked about.”

At the same time, Doniel named a tension many women feel but rarely articulate. “The challenge faced by many women is the timing of the issues associated with aging and menopause. It often occurs at the peak of their careers, during a period where they have the greatest demands and are expected to operate at their best.” 

Kate and Doniel reflected on what meaningful support truly looks like during this stage of life. At its core, it starts with accurate information and access to clinicians who are trained in menopause care — providers who recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all approach, and that care often requires thoughtful adjustment based on each person’s symptoms, goals, and lived experience. Equally important is guidance that helps individuals manage those symptoms while remaining engaged in their work and daily lives, along with reassurance that what they are experiencing is real and valid. When people are given space to talk openly about this transition without fear of judgment, menopause becomes easier to navigate, and far less isolating.

Supporting the Journey Ahead

As the discussion came to a close, Kate and Doniel stepped back to look at the full arc of women’s and family health. These stages are not separate. They build on one another, from the early years when people are still learning their bodies to the midlife transitions that many still carry quietly. At the heart of supporting that full journey, Kate emphasized, is something deceptively simple: “Sometimes what people need most is validation—to be told that what they’re experiencing is real, that it has a name, and that they’re not imagining it.”

Looking ahead, Doniel emphasized the importance of openness and shared understanding: “I want to create an environment where people feel comfortable being honest about what they’re experiencing, where these conversations are normalized and supported, and where no one feels they have to go through it alone.”

Maven is proud to support Pinterest as it deepens this commitment. Maven provides clinical, emotional, and financial support around the clock, all in one place. To learn how your organization can join leading companies like Pinterest in partnering with Maven, reach out to our team.

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