Why women aren't getting menopause help they need
Menopause is something every woman goes through, but doctors — even OB-GYNs — aren't required to learn much about it.
Why it matters: Millions of women don't get the care they need — and some are getting misinformation at the doctor's office.
Catch up quick: In 2002, research from the Women's Health Initiative found hormone therapy increased a woman's risk of heart disease and breast cancer, upending conventional medical recommendations about the treatment.
But in recent years, the research was put into context: the risks weren't as great as originally thought and the data was weighted toward women 60 and older. The average age of a menopausal woman is 51.
Since then, researchers and health professionals have tried to correct the messaging, noting the benefits of hormone therapy for women younger than the age of 60, including treating hot flashes and preventing bone loss.
Even some women over 65 can benefit from hormone therapy, new research suggests.
"It's such an uphill battle to not just teach people about it, but to undo all the damage of the last 20+ years," Deborah Gomez Kwolek of Mass General Women's Health and Sex and Gender Medicine Program tells Axios.
Stunning stat: Only about 7% of OB-GYN residents reported feeling adequately prepared to manage menopause, according to a 2019 survey published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
More than one in five OB-GYN residents (about 20%) reported receiving no menopause lectures during residency.
About a third said they wouldn't offer hormone therapy to a symptomatic, newly menopausal woman without contraindications (or warnings).
Symptoms vary widely. Perimenopause, the phase leading up to menopause, can begin 6-10 years earlier and trigger all sorts of hormonal chaos. Menopause is officially marked after a woman has gone one year without a period.
Primary care physician and Elektra's chief medical officer, Nora Lansen, has a message for perimenopausal patients: "You're not crazy."
"There are so many different symptoms and they manifest in different ways and at different times of life. So it could be: 'I can't remember my kid's teacher's name' this year but then, two years from now, it's, 'My libido's tanking.'"
Recent research from UVA Health and the women's health app Flo suggests these symptoms could show up as early as age 30.
Between the lines: Required medical school curriculum dedicated to menopause and hormone therapy is limited and, when it is offered, it is often folded into broader courses.
"Most continuing education courses have an hour on menopause, like in a weeklong course, or even some of the OB-GYN and the women's health courses have one hour on menopause hormone therapy," Kwolek said. "That's really not enough."
What they're saying: "There is no room in the medical school curriculum for menopause," says Stephanie Faubion, medical director for The Menopause Society and a longtime advocate for better education on the topic. Her daughter, a fourth-year medical student at Mayo, is seeing this gap firsthand.
The Menopause Society has worked to fill this void, offering educational resources and establishing a competency exam in 2002 for health care professionals to earn a Menopause Society Certified Practitioner credential.
What's next: Businesses are stepping in where doctors aren't. Millennials, the generation that currently includes the most women in America, are heading into the menopause years. Celebrities are launching telehealth companies and saying " women deserve better." Influencers are pushing products, which may or may not have scientific backing.
And even that's not meeting demand.
Case in point: Kwolek's menopause clinic has a yearlong waiting list.
To meet demand, she's working to equip more physicians with necessary training.
This month, Kwolek is directing a five-day menopausal treatment course organized by Mass General Brigham and designed by national and Harvard Medical School experts.
The bottom line: "Women don't have to suffer," Faubion said, but they have to find a physician who knows enough to help.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Tom's Guide
6 days ago
- Tom's Guide
Japanese walking vs running — which is best for you?
So you're looking to increase your cardiovascular endurance, and you don't know whether to prioritize running or the Japanese Interval Walking Training (IWT) method that's growing in popularity right now. Below, we put the two head-to-head to help you decide which is best for your routine. In case you hadn't heard of it, the Japanese IWT method involves alternating your pace as you walk. You'll walk for three minutes at a low intensity, followed by three minutes at a higher intensity, repeated five times. It was developed in Japan by researchers, and is supported by the research of Dr Hiroshi Nose published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. You can read what happened when our fitness editor tried Japanese walking for a week. Both interval walking and running are great forms of cardio. They'll both raise your heart rate and metabolism, and strengthen your muscles and joints over time. You can also expect both walking and running to help boost your mood and reduce your stress levels. They can also be used to lose weight, if paired with a good diet. If weight loss is your goal, you'll want to focus on being in a calorie deficit, which means burning more calories than you consume. If weight loss is your goal, you might be keen to know which form of cardio is likely to burn more calories. While the exact number of calories you burn depends on a number of factors, including intensity, workout length and biological factors like age, weight, sex, hormones and more. The best way to keep track of how many calories you're burning is to wear one of the best fitness trackers, which will do this for you. We have our concerns about Google's long-term plans for the brand, but right now, the Fitbit Charge 6 is the best fitness tracker on the market today thanks to its lightweight and diminutive size, support for an enormous range of workout types, and a smattering of useful smart features like Google Wallet and Google Maps. That said, as a rough guide, according to the Omni calculator, a 155-pound adult will burn around 375 calories running a 5K at a gradient of 1%. On the other hand, a 155-pound adult doing a 30-minute interval workout is more likely to burn between 100-200 calories, although this number will vary based on how hard you push yourself and any incline you cover. If you're looking to burn calories, you'll get there faster with running. Of course, burning calories isn't the only reason to work out. If you're a complete beginner or you're recovering from an injury, walking is much lower impact, so it might be a better place to start. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. What's more, if you're heading out for a run, you'll need a pair of supportive sneakers (check out the best running shoes to buy right now here), and probably a sports bra. As walking is lower impact, you won't need fancy equipment, although we'd recommend comfy shoes here too. The Saucony Ride 18 is our favorite running shoe for beginners. It's a no-fuss shoe that's comfortable, reliable, and responsive. And, you can get it for less than $100. The real answer to this question is which form of cardio to you enjoy the most. If you hate running, or running for 30 minutes is unachievable right now, it might be that interval walking is great way to burn more calories than you would if you walked at a steady pace. If you're a marathon runner, you might find walking intervals leave you wanting to move faster. There's no right or wrong, and both are fantastic ways to add more movement to your day and look after your physical and mental health.
Axios
27-05-2025
- Axios
Midi launches insurance-backed longevity program for women
The women's telehealth company Midi said Tuesday it's launching a longevity care program that will be covered by private insurers nationwide. Why it matters: Longevity care is booming, but it mostly serves the wealthy. As preventive health messaging and midlife care becomes more common, telehealth businesses are pushing to broaden access. Midi is advertising the program, called AgeWell, as the first longevity offering designed specifically for women — and covered by payers in every state. The company contracts with some major health insurers including Aetna, BlueCross BlueShield and UnitedHealthcare. How it works: Accepted insurance will cover an annual diagnostic visit as well as hormone therapy, bloodwork and screenings. There isn't a membership fee, but copays could still apply. Patients who join will be asked to complete a panel of blood tests, come back for a virtual visit to discuss the results and receive a tailored care plan. What they're saying: This isn't "fancy longevity doctors and cash blood tests" or "biohacking," said Joanna Strober, CEO and founder of Midi Health. Women need "really good care that's grounded in biology, backed by science" that isn't just "reserved for rich people." Yes, but: Some genetic tests are not yet covered. Also, Midi is not in-network with managed care plans and doesn't participate in Medicaid or Medicare. Between the lines: As longevity becomes a health buzzword, more companies are thinking of ways to expand familiar services with preventive care in mind. Women, specifically, who are becoming more educated about menopause myths and outdated advice, are increasingly seeking personalized, expert care. Hormone therapy has also shown promise for longevity, not just treating perimenopause symptoms. What we're hearing: Telehealth companies including Elektra, which accepts insurance and government plans, are working to further expand plan offerings, Elektra's chief medical officer, Nora Lansen, told Axios earlier this year. "It's great that you're hearing about [menopause care] from celebrities and online, on social media and — you know — from your neighbor and your sister, but if you can't use your health insurance to pay for it. … That just feels not fair." On the policy front, there's been an uptick of menopause-related legislation in at least dozen states — some of which could expand insurance coverage, too.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Yahoo
A New Memoir Explores the Complexities of Pregnancy and Parenthood in the Digital Age
Fact checked by Sarah Scott New York Times critic and journalist Amanda Hess' new book Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age is a portrait of a very online pregnancy. People who have become parents in the past decade or so can relate. Like Hess, many of us use apps to track our periods, calculate our expected day of ovulation, or update us on the size of the growing fetus. Before the release of Second Life—which hit shelves on May 6—there were two widely accepted ways of understanding these digital platforms: they were either harmless ways to pass the time, or nefarious collectors of our private data. But Hess takes a different approach: She recognizes that filtering pregnancy and parenthood through the internet helps us process the immense changes that our bodies, personalities, emotions, families—everything—are about to undergo. These digital spaces, which include not just apps but community boards where pregnant people and parents can interact, connect parents to each other, easing the loneliness that often accompanies pregnancy and parenthood. They also help us find likeminded people outside of the medical establishment with whom we can swap stories and experiences. But they have the potential to overwhelm us with information—and misinformation—sometimes heightening the natural anxiety that comes with this new phase of life. Hess doesn't answer whether or not the internet is good or bad for new parents. But she does avoid disparaging the online spaces where (mostly) women spend their days seeking advice, comfort, and camaraderie. Hess is open-minded about the ways these spaces benefit parents, and honest about where parents' reliance on technology seems to fall apart. Ultimately, her acknowledgment that the internet has granted pregnant people more power and autonomy over their care than they ever had before, and that spending time online as a parent is often an attempt to build community and become more informed is refreshing, and validating. Here, Parents speaks to the author and journalist about her experiences navigating a medically complex pregnancy online, the pitfalls of parents turning to digital platforms while desperately seeking answers to complicated questions, and how parental anxiety is manipulated into an opportunity to sell parents gadgets that might not even be keeping their kids safe. Some answers have been shortened for clarity In the book, you point out that some digital apps (Flo in particular) have this facade of cheerfulness and positivity, and meanwhile there is little to no information on medically complex pregnancies, or any type of pregnancy that might be outside of the norm. How did it make you feel to see that your experience had been erased from this digital space? When I paged through 'What to Expect When You're Expecting' and didn't see a situation that remotely resembled mine, well—I expected that. But when I searched Flo's pregnancy forums for 'fetal anomaly' and 'birth defect' and got an error message back—'please try searching for something else'—that surprised me. Here was this seemingly vast resource, and there was no acknowledgement of a pregnancy outcome that affects many millions of women. It made me feel very alone, and that my pregnancy, and ultimately my son's life, was not just being overlooked but actively stigmatized. It would certainly be easier for femtech apps if all pregnancies were predictable and politically neutral, even miraculous, but anyone who's actually been pregnant quickly discovers that is not the case. On these digital platforms there is a tension between having unlimited access to information about our bodies/fertility/pregnancy and being flooded and overwhelmed by misinformation. During your pregnancy how did you make sense of unlimited access to not just information but to other peoples' personal experiences with pregnancy that are posted online? During my pregnancy, I found myself searching for things that I did not want to talk to other people about—or felt that I could not talk with them about. It started early on, when I got a positive pregnancy test and had a lot of questions and an OB [obstetrician-gynecologist] who didn't want me to come in for several more weeks. Later, when my pregnancy got more complex, I searched for things that ashamed me—like the question of whether something I did during my pregnancy had caused a fetal anomaly. I searched for things that scared me—like all the potential outcomes of certain genetic results. If I had to do it over again, I would try to remind myself that the internet wasn't going to solve those problems for me, but that I could use it to find some offline resources—books relevant to my situation, support groups. I'm interested in the point you make about parental anxiety being translated into an opportunity for consumerism. Are products like the Owlet, Nanit, and others preying on parents very reasonable fears or genuinely offering a service. Maybe it's both! I think the baby gadget industry functions a lot like the cosmetics industry or the diet industry. It makes us feel insufficient and then sells us the product that makes us whole again. A lot of nursery gadgets capitalize on the parental anxiety that babies are vulnerable and we can't literally watch them 24 hours a day. Instead we can wire up all these gizmos to record their every movement and alert us to perceived problems. The vulnerability of babies is not made-up, but these products are not proven to detect or prevent any medical condition or emergency in infants; what they promise instead is vague parental assurance like 'peace of mind.' Meanwhile, they convert the baby's image and data into a form of entertainment. The baby-data-sleep-console might legitimately distract the parent from their anxiety, or at least make them feel less bored while they're awake at night, but I see them more as parental entertainment consoles than anything else. I felt the point you make about the Snoo [bassinet] offering insights in your child's sleep habits while it simultaneously "blocked me from understanding the real baby," was especially insightful. These products promise to unlock the secret to making parenting easier, but could they be increasingly alienating us from our kids in some way, too? Yeah, I think that distraction and entertainment comes with real costs. These products habituate parents and babies to see surveillance as equivalent to care. They can insert themselves in the relationship and make it harder to understand each other. I didn't really see that side of it until I installed a baby monitor camera over my child's bed to test it out for this book. It was only when I laid on the bed, viewing the room from my kid's perspective, that I noticed these four red eyes glowing in the dark of the bedroom. From my perspective, the camera beamed a beautiful image of my child to my phone no matter where I was in the world. But from his perspective, 'I' was just this cold and sinister digital presence. One thing that still haunts me from my experiences with pregnancy loss is that I could not get away from Instagram posts and ads about pregnancy after miscarrying. As you dealt with uncertainty in your own pregnancy, did you encounter a similar situation? I really felt during my pregnancy that the internet recognized me and my situation in a way that the real world did not. It 'knew' I was pregnant before my friends and my employer did, and that felt intrusive and intimate at once. But when my pregnancy turned complex and uncertain, all the Google ads for strollers and Instagram images of smiling, carefree pregnant women seemed to taunt me from my phone. I came to see this as a much more insidious problem than just the issue of companies trying to sell products to pregnant people. They also sell ideas—about what a normal pregnancy is, what a good mother is, what an adequate female body looks like. I had to really unwind the ideologies and histories behind those ideas to break the spell that some of this pregnancy content had over me. Read the original article on Parents
