In the past five years, menopause research, advocacy, care, and treatment have all made incredible strides. But how can women’s health advocates build on this success?
That was the question Flow Space editor-in-chief Galina Espinoza posed last month at the SHE Media Co-Lab at SXSW in a discussion titled, “The Next Frontier of the Menopause Movement.” Speaking with Dr. Jennifer Ashton, MD, a double board-certified OB/GYN and obesity medicine specialist, Dr. Sharon Malone, MD, a certified menopause practitioner and Chief Medical Office for Alloy Health, Andrea Palmer, CEO of Publicis Health Media, Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, and Hanneke Willenborg, CEO of wellness company OLLY, Espinoza asked the group to identify the most pressing gaps that still exist in menopause awareness and treatment.
The panelists described how, even today, entering menopause can feel like a “surprise,” one that the medical system all too often treats like a “disease”—if it’s acknowledged at all. Dr. Malone said that, despite having grown up with four older sisters, “they said nothing about,” while Watts, who experienced early menopause, was particularly caught off-guard. “The first time I went to the doctor after I missed my period for about a year, she looked at me and said, ‘I believe you are in menopause. Are you okay with that?,’ which I guess was rhetorical,” says Watts. “I think what I wish I would have known, and what I feel like it’s important for us all to talk about, is menopause is the very beginning of the second half of your life, and it can be the best part of your life.”
Tha panelists also expressed frustration that while there are few if any barriers to discussing men’s health conditions, no matter how sensitive, menopause remains taboo in public conversations. Palmer explained that was part of the thinking that went into her company’s decision to launch a menopause TV spot during the Super Bowl last year. “You don’t think of the Super Bowl as kind of a place to make announcements about women’s health, but just as many women watch the Super Bowl as men, so why not?”
Dr. Ashton expressed her desire for more men to get involved in menopause advocacy. “[Next year] I would hope that there’s a man sitting on this panel, and I am volunteering right now to give up my seat for a man to sit here and be part of the conversation,” she says. “And by the way, it can’t be a male OB/GYN, because that’s too easy.”
She proposed that a non-medical professional step up to the plate: “I think we need to hear from a man whose partner is going through menopause, or whose sister or friend of what it’s like for them. That is an important part of this issue that no one has really cracked the surface of yet.” The menopause movement requires more than the women who are affected by it to speak up, “just like we would support any male cause,” Dr. Ashton says. “When you stop making this just a ‘woman issue,’ unfortunately or fortunately, I think that’s when the change is going to happen,” she adds.
Another area that could use more of a shift in focus toward holistic menopause care is medicine. Most medical schools lack dedicated menopause training, and only 31% of doctors-in-training to become OB/GYNs report that they had access to a menopause curriculum in their residency programs, according to a 2024 Menopause editorial. Dr. Malone attributes part of the lack of proper training to a lack of research, data, and funding due to unwarranted amounts of fear and stigma around hormone therapy’s side effects.
That survey just focused on doctors who were in training for obstetrics in gynecology and intended to focus their entire careers on reproductive health. Menopause-inclusive curriculums should also encompass all types of medical providers. “When you talk about medical training, we have to remember that OB/GYNs are not the only medical professionals who take care of a menopausal woman,” Dr. Ashton says. “So cardiologists need to know about this…Psychiatrists need to know about this. Literally any doctor who has a patient that is in the menopausal age range needs to be educated about menopause,” she adds.
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There are challenges for doctors who are out of medical school, Dr. Ashton acknowledges. “You really have to kind of go out of your way,” to stay current on the medical literature around menopause. But it’s possible, according to Dr. Ashton, and can make a marked difference in menopause care. “There’s a big opportunity there in the private sector and in the public sector to help other medical professionals who deal with women in this age group do a better job.”
Men and MDs, it’s your turn to respond.