Women In Wellness: Tracy MacNeal of Materna Medical On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Never burn bridges — always leave places and jobs better than you found them, and when you leave, be gracious. That means thanking people for their contributions to you and for the opportunities that you had, letting the hard times go on your way out.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tracy MacNeal.

Tracy MacNeal is a healthcare pioneer with an engineering background and strong business acumen, with leadership expertise at successful start-ups, mid-size companies and Fortune 100 corporations. 20+ years in pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, digital health and medical devices combined with her expertise in FemTech has led Tracy to lead Materna Medical as President and CEO.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

My background is in Engineering, having graduated with a BE in Chemical Engineering from The Cooper Union and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. After 20-plus years in the healthcare industry, I’ve witnessed the failure to focus on women’s health firsthand. I’m a deep believer in the importance of contribution and collaboration within our shared healthcare ecosystem. We’re seeking to transform the standard of care for women in our product categories, potentially improving millions of lives.

As National Chair for the Advamed’s Women’s Executive Network, I work to amplify the voices of women leaders who are shaping the future of healthcare. While we work on making lasting, impactful change in the healthcare industry at large, I am also committed to helping women take charge of their own health.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

The most exciting moments of my career involve negotiating deals with big companies. The details of those are confidential, but they all center on principle-based negotiation. My deals have included acquisitions, divestitures, licensing arrangements, angel investments, venture financing, and complex supply agreements. In every situation, my approach has been to make sure that the healthcare patient is at the center of our plan — if we’re not focused on the patient’s best interest, the deal is no good. Once we’ve set our intentions, we seek to understand what’s truly important to both parties. If those principles are not aligned, no amount of negotiation can get the deal done, and that’s why so many deals fall apart, seemingly last minute. Being candid, deals that fall apart often didn’t have enough common ground to begin with. If there is common ground, then there is usually a way to “get to yes” that appeases everyone and allows us to make progress in healthcare innovation.

Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

In my early years as a business professional, I let one of my customers know that they had really irritated me. You know the old saying, “the customer is always, right?” That customer never forgave me, and it created a tension that never healed. I think about that a lot, wondering how I could have handled it differently. Maybe he was more deeply offended because I was a young woman and he was an older man. It wasn’t a career-altering error, but I learned to really consider my words before I speak. I now devote significant time and energy to building understanding in all my relationships, personal and professional. There are some situations that are unavoidably challenging, but I always seek to honor everyone’s humanity, first and foremost.

Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

Our primary goal is to bring pelvic health solutions to every woman and healthcare specialist in the US. Our focus is on women’s pelvic health, a part of healthcare that is extremely understudied. Too often women’s painful symptoms are dismissed, and they are told that their issues are considered a ‘standard’ part of life that must be tolerated. We understand that not everyone wants to speak about their vaginal and pelvic health, but women shouldn’t live in unnecessary or avoidable pain, nor be made to feel like the problem is in their head.

At Materna Medical, we combine medical rigor with emotional intelligence to create products that empower women to take control of their pelvic floor health. Our pioneering devices include Milli, a vaginal dilator indicated to help relieve the symptoms of vaginismus and related dyspareunia. Vaginismus is a type of high-tone pelvic floor disorder with symptoms that include pain and anxiety with wanted penetration, including tampons, pelvic exams, or sexual intercourse. Milli is a single, FDA-cleared dilator that expands inside the vagina, at her pace, at her control, millimeter by millimeter. Materna Prep is an investigational device which is currently the subject of a clinical study to determine its ability to reduce pelvic floor injuries during childbirth. Materna Prep is placed in the vagina during the first stage of labor, and gradually expands to pre-stretch the vagina and surrounding pelvic floor muscles over a longer period than would occur when the baby comes through the vagina. The device is currently investigational and is the subject of an ongoing clinical study to evaluate if this pre-stretching reduces pelvic floor injuries associated with vaginal delivery. Both Milli and Prep seek to improve women’s pelvic health by combining innovation and empathy to transform the standard of care in women’s pelvic health.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

1. Meditation — I take 30 minutes nearly every morning to meditate. There are so many ways to meditate, and so many resources online to get started. I recommend that everyone takes the time to explore their inner lives more fully. At an inner level, what we often want is just a quiet moment to remember who we really are and connect with a sustainable source of energy.
2. Exercise — We all know this. It doesn’t have to be a fancy gym membership or a hot yoga class. For me, it’s often just taking a business call on the phone; instead of using Zoom at my desk, I’ll ask my meeting partner, “I’ve been sitting at my desk for three hours straight. Can I take you for a walk while we talk?” They inevitably laugh and say, “Absolutely! I wish I could do the same!” These walking meetings are often better conversations because they started with humanity first.
3. Hydration — Drinking water makes a huge difference for me. I love my morning coffee, but I switch to water by 10 am and stay with it all day.
4. Grounding and relaxing — I recommend finding mentors who can help manage energy. Grounding your energy, relaxing, and staying calm and open-minded — from simple physical therapy or massage to other forms of energy work like Tai Chi or Reiki. There are many types of research that show better creativity, more happiness, better productivity, better outcomes when we’re not in “fight or flight” mode. It’s a mindful discipline to notice when your shoulders are tense, when your jaw is tight, when you have tension in your stomach, or whatever your body’s signals are when you need to just center, ground, and relax.
5. Vegetables — I love fried food, chocolate and bagels with cream cheese, but too much of those are counterproductive for my health. Rather than eliminate them, I crowd them out with very veg-focused foods. After a big bowl of yummy butternut squash soup with a coconut drizzle and toasted pepitas, I’m happy with just a bite or two of a treat.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

I believe that when we invest in women, we all win. Investing in women’s healthcare transcends more than just solving physical health problems. By working in this mindset, we can inspire future generations of women to create and preserve the future of female health care. Designing healthcare that truly supports women will be the legacy of FemTech leaders in this country.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

1. It’s a small world — you’ll meet many people, and you’ll see them again. Your credibility and honor are everything, so treat all people well.
2. Never burn bridges — always leave places and jobs better than you found them, and when you leave, be gracious. That means thanking people for their contributions to you and for the opportunities that you had, letting the hard times go on your way out.
3. Just say yes — life brings tremendous opportunities to try things that you have no idea how to do and which you’ve never done before. Just say yes. Don’t be afraid to fail — everyone fails, and everyone succeeds. If you’re not sure, ask for help, ask for training, buy a book, get a mentor, but go for it!
4. It’s a marathon — there are times when you need to burn the candle at both ends and really push through tough deadlines and overcome challenges, but there are times when you should take a break and recover. Burnout is real. Learning how to manage your energy and self-care is key to enjoying the whole race.
5. Every journey is non-linear — society emphasizes “Hero’s journey” stories that have a classical storyline of beginning, middle, and end. In retrospect, we can usually fit our life experiences into those molds, and that’s why they’re timeless. In the middle of the story, however, it can seem confusing and linking it all together feels like a challenge. In my experience, trying to tell my life story in a linear way is a distraction. Life is an adventure, and I’m enjoying it just the way it is.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

Sustainability is a topic I think a lot about. Our family has chosen a few ways to try to be sustainable in this crazy, unsustainable chapter of Earth’s existence: gardening, composting, fuel-efficient cars, and eating at home in a plant-forward way. Professionally, devoting myself to women’s health is connected to sustainability; we know that when women are happier and healthier, the world is happier and healthier.

What is the best way our readers can follow you online?

LinkedIn is my most active social channel (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracymacneal/), and you can see my amateur photos and silly sense of humor on my Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/tracymacneal/)

Thank you so much for these insights! This was so inspiring!