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B C B U S I N E S S . C A
J U N E 2 0 2 5
W
WHEN LORI BROTTO TOOK
a career test in grade nine, it
told her that her personality
type was suited to be a psychol-
ogist. "Fourteen-year-old me
said, 'Great, I have a career path
now,'" she laughs. "But it was a
series of twists and turns that
led me to where I am today."
One of those twists was how
she became a sex researcher.
When she was approaching
professors for her first volun-
teer research job, the only per-
son who didn't turn her away
was someone studying sexual
dysfunction in rats. But a piv-
otal moment for Brotto was
when Viagra hit the market and
became a topic no one could
stop talking about. "I asked the
next logical question, which
was, 'Is there a female Viagra?'"
The answer was no, and
in fact there weren't any evi-
dence-based treatments for
female sexual dysfunction,
even though Brotto says that
it's twice as common in women
than in men. "To me, it's not
just a science problem, it's a
communication problem," she
explains. Which is how she
ended up on what she calls a
"parallel track" in knowledge
translation and the science of
how we share science.
Brotto's focus on commu-
nication also led her to clin-
ical training around sexual
LORI
BROTTO
E X E C U T I V E D I R E C T O R ,
W O M E N ' S H E A LT H
R E S E A R C H I N S T I T U T E
health and mindfulness. As a
mindfulness practitioner ded-
icated to sharing science with
the public, she wrote Better
Sex Through Mindfulness: How
Women Can Cultivate Desire and
its accompanying workbook,
through which she helps put
into action the practices for sex-
ual health that she and her team
spent years researching.
Currently, Brotto is shining
a light on menopause, a topic
that affects almost all women
at midlife but has traditionally
been hidden in the shadows of
the health-care system. Though
menopause has had what she
refers to as "a moment" in our
collective consciousness, she
explains that between unin-
formed, overly simplified and
flat-out incorrect messaging on
social media, the correct and
impactful information doesn't
always reach women where it
needs to, leading women to dis-
miss their symptoms.
To combat this, she and her
team at the Vancouver-based
Women's Health Research Insti-
tute have been disseminating
menopause-related informa-
tion to the public. According
to Brotto, this has made some
pretty big waves. "It's changed
how UBC teaches their medical
students," she says. "Because of
the work that we've done... for
the first time ever, they are now
teaching menopause education
to young doctors. It's all worth
it because someone is going to
walk into that future doctor's
office and have a symptom
and they're not going to be dis-
missed." Instead, they'll be pro-
vided with the evidence-based
information that Brotto has so
passionately championed.–D.W.
"Because of the
work that we've
done... for the first
time ever, they
are now teaching
menopause
education to
young doctors."
CHANGE M AKER
