Until 1993, including women in federally funded medical research wasn't required by U.S. law. For most of the century before that, the body being studied was a man's, and women's physiology got treated as a variable to work around instead of science worth understanding.
So why did so many women end up guessing about their own health? Because the research was never built around them, and the gap left behind got filled by whatever moved fastest. Sometimes that was real education. More often it was fear, or a product borrowing the language of women's health without doing the harder work of explaining what's actually happening in the body.
The cost of that gap is measurable. A study across 112 diseases found women wait longer than men for a diagnosis after symptoms begin, for most conditions studied. The UK's Women's Health Strategy survey found many women were told nothing was wrong the first time they asked for help. That's the distance a lot of women are still closing on their own: between what they feel, what they're told, and what they can actually do about it.
We brought in someone to help close it.
Meet Dr. Jessica Shepherd
Dr. Jessica Shepherd, MD, MBA, FACOG, is a board-certified OB/GYN and author of Generation M. She's a familiar voice on Good Morning America and has appeared across The Today Show, CNN, Vogue, and Forbes, known for cutting through outdated advice and helping women make clearer decisions about their health.
As Ora's Women's Health Expert, she brings a clinical lens to the questions our customers are already asking: what's happening in my body, what actually matters, and where supplements fit responsibly.
Here's why she said yes:
"As a physician, trust matters. I don't recommend supplements simply because they're popular. I recommend products that meet the standards I expect for my own patients. Ora does exactly that: quality protein, thoughtful digestive support, and formulas designed with gut health in mind. It's nutrition that works with your body, not against it, and a brand I'm proud to stand behind."
This part is personal
I'm Erica, one of Ora's co-founders, and hearing a physician say she'd give our products to her own patients means a lot, because a few of them started as products I needed before they existed.
Hormonious came out of years of dealing with hormonal shifts, debilitating period pain, and never getting a straight answer. I didn't want a band-aid, and I was sick of hearing it was normal and to 'wait it out'. I wanted something built to actually support what my body was going through, made to a standard I'd trust. So we did our research, and we made it.
Lady Bugs - a probiotic for women, came from the same place. Vaginal and urinary health still get treated as awkward or reactive, when for a lot of us they're a recurring, draining part of life that deserves real support instead of a whisper.
We build both the way we build everything at Ora: Performance Enhancing Plants™, dosed to actually work, made clean, tested to a five-nation standard. I've never believed that clean and effective are a trade-off. They should (and can) be the same thing.
- Erica Bryers, Co-founder of Ora
Why this matters for supplements
The supplement aisle is hard to read, even for people who care. A product can look beautiful, sound scientific, and still be underdosed or built around a claim that outruns the formula behind it. That's especially true in women's health, where the decisions are personal and the noise is loudest.
Our answer is the less glamorous one: potent doses, real purity, third-party testing, and education that doesn't talk down to you. Dr. Shepherd's role is to keep that work honest and tied to what women actually need.
It also points to a question worth answering now. What does longevity built for women actually look like? A big part of it is protein, which women get told to think about far too late.
"Protein is so important for women, but it can be hard to know what to choose or how to hit your daily goals. What I appreciate about Ora is that they focus on the full picture: quality protein, digestive support, and gut-friendly formulas."
- Dr. Shepherd
That full picture is the point. Protein like So Lean & So Clean and Longevity League for strength you keep over time, gut support from our Trust Your Gut line, and formulas made to work with your body. Strength, digestion, and steady energy work together, and the whole picture is what we build for.
Introducing "Ask Dr. Shepherd"
We're launching an ongoing series where you send the questions and Dr. Shepherd answers them. What's worth paying attention to, what's overhyped, and what's missing from the conversation entirely.
What comes next
Over the coming months you'll see Dr. Shepherd's perspective across our site, emails, social, and product education, helping us build resources that leave women more informed, not more overwhelmed.
Welcome to Ora, Dr. Shepherd. We're glad you're here.
Have a question for Dr. Shepherd?
Follow us on Instagram for the Ask Dr. Shepherd series.
Sources: NIH Office of Research on Women's Health, history of women's participation in clinical research; large-scale diagnosis-delay study across 112 diseases; UK Women's Health Strategy survey.