Sadly, in many medical systems around the world, you need to advocate for yourself and not give up if you want your problem solved. But that implies that you have knowledge about your condition, your options, the outcomes. What happens if you don’t?

It should not come as a surprise that women are not informed/educated about menopause, given healthcare professionals aren’t. Once a woman has stopped having periods for 12 months she is officially in menopause, and her condition is not a mystery anymore. I think perimenopause is the most difficult period, and overlooked as it is then when symptoms start yet lab tests results are within normal limits. Perimenopause is a confusing time for both patients and doctors, and unfortunately many women’s symptoms are neglected or ignored. Menopause, just like menstrual cycles is a normal phase of a woman’s life, yet both, although debilitating for many, are dismissed. This is not right!

“Women’s knowledge and attitudes to the menopause: a comparison of women over 40 who were in the perimenopause, post menopause and those not in the peri or post menopause” concludes that “most women had limited knowledge and negative attitudes towards the menopause, leaving them unprepared to cope with the physical and psychological changes associated with this stage of life.” (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10469514 / ) The results of an online survey testing the level of knowledge on menopause in women under 40 year old appeared in Sage Journals and the conclusion, as expected, was that women had “limited knowledge” (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17455057221139660 ). A report by Menopause Foundation of Canada published in October 2022 comes up with numbers that are worrying yet sadly accurate: “A shocking one in two (46%) feel unprepared for this stage of life and, in a world where no topic is off limits, more than half (54%) believe menopause is still a taboo subject. Despite menopause affecting 50% of the population, a remarkable four in 10 women in the national survey by the Menopause Foundation of Canada (MFC) reported feeling alone through their menopause experience” (https://menopausefoundationcanada.ca/menopause-in-canada-report/ ). I found a very interesting study about doctors as patients and menopause (both women and men) who are themselves having troubles discussing such issues with their managers – “Factors underpinning an improved menopausal experience in the workplace for doctors: a UK-based qualitative study” (https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/3/e060265 )

Dear medical world, non-profit organizations and societies, politicians and governments, it is time to organize yourselves a little and make sure that healthcare professionals are properly trained and knowledgeable, that patients are informed, listened to, and taken care of, and that more than 1.1 billion women out there will have an improved quality of life.