🎧 FemTech Focus Podcast | Episode Title:
From Cancer Diagnosis to Advocacy: Sahar Paz Builds House of Paz

👤 Guest: Sahar Paz, Founder of House of Paz & Own Your Voice Strategy Firm
🔗 Website: houseofpaz.org
📱 Instagram: @saharpaz

📌 Episode Summary:In this deeply personal and empowering episode, Dr. Brittany Barreto sits down with Sahar Paz—a communications strategist, cancer survivor, and fierce patient advocate—to explore how voice, story, and emotional intelligence are essential tools in modern healthcare. Sahar shares her powerful journey from a stage 4 breast cancer diagnosis to launching House of Paz, a wellness and advocacy platform for women navigating treatment, healing, and prevention.

You’ll hear how Sahar used her intuition and persistence to challenge dismissive doctors, how she now teaches life science companies to humanize their data through storytelling, and why inclusive, patient-centered care is the future of medicine.

💡 Key Takeaways:

• Your voice is data—why patient intuition and self-advocacy are essential in diagnosis and treatment.

• Sahar’s cancer journey: from misdiagnosis and miscommunication to finding a treatment team that listened.

• House of Paz: a holistic platform blending emotional healing, physical wellness, and spiritual growth.

• Emotional intelligence as a leadership strategy—especially in startup and innovation teams.

• Why storytelling is a critical skill for founders, clinicians, and researchers alike.

• Building trust with diverse patient communities in clinical trials and health innovation.

  
  

🛠 Tools + Resources Mentioned:

• Sahar’s memoir + cognitive behavior workbook: Find Your Voice

• Complex Creatures – breast health rituals

• Brilliantly Warm – warming pads for breast comfort post-surgery

📣 Connect with Us:

• Host: Dr. Brittany Barreto – @drbrittanybarreto

• Podcast: FemTech Focus

  
  

🎙 About Our Sponsor:This episode is brought to you by Withum, a forward-thinking advisory and accounting firm that specializes in helping healthtech and life science innovators scale. Whether you’re raising your seed round or preparing for IPO, Withum’s team understands the complexities of building at the intersection of healthcare and innovation.

🔗 Learn more: ⁠withum.com⁠

📋 Episode Summary:In this powerful episode of FemTech Focus, Dr. Brittany Barreto is joined by Kamila Staryga, CEO and Co-founder of Rita Health. Kamila is a seasoned entrepreneur and product leader with a background at Flo Health, Google X, and ATAP—and she’s now on a mission to change the fertility care paradigm.

Together, they explore why traditional fertility metrics like age and AMH aren't enough, how Rita Health is pioneering a proactive approach to fertility, and why fertility should be part of routine healthcare long before someone tries to conceive. Kamila explains how her team built a proprietary dataset, developed personalized care plans using AI, and is challenging the outdated notion that fertility care starts only after a problem arises.

The episode dives deep into the behavioral, biological, and systemic factors impacting fertility today—and how Rita is helping users make informed decisions about their reproductive future.

Whether you’re actively trying to conceive, considering your options, or just curious about how data and AI are reshaping women’s health, this episode is a must-listen.

🧠 What You’ll Learn:

• Why fertility care should start before you're trying to conceive

• The dangers of relying on age and AMH alone

• How Rita Health uses AI to build personalized fertility profiles

• What your family history, lifestyle, and even dental hygiene may reveal about fertility

• How behavioral science and inclusive design shaped Rita’s user experience

• • Why it’s time to stop treating fertility as an urgent switch—and start treating it as a continuum

  
  

  🔗 Explore More: Check out Rita Health at wearerita.com and sign up for early access to their new care plan. This episode is the first place it’s being announced publicly!

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  🎁 Listener Perk:You’re the first to know—Rita’s new proactive fertility care plan is now available for pre-order. Head to wearerita.com to reserve your spot and join the movement redefining fertility care.

  
  

  🎤 This episode is sponsored by:
  Clue, the leading cycle tracking app. Use promocode FEMHEALTH at helloclue.com for 1 year free Clue Plus Membership, and Nest Collaborative, the trusted name in virtual lactation support available 365 days a year.