4 in 10 women don’t know where to seek support for menopause: report

While roughly half of the population will experience menopause, many women in Canada struggle to find resources that can help them through this phase, a new report has found.

Around four in 10 (40 per cent) Canadian women reported that they do not know where to seek menopause care, a new report by health care and insurance organization GreenShield says.

The barriers are particularly striking for racialized women in Canada, 45 per cent of whom say they are unaware of where to seek help for perimenopause or menopause symptoms.

Only one-third of racialized women said they had discussed their symptoms with a health professional, compared to roughly half of women respondents overall. While some workplaces have supports available for menopause, nearly one in four said those supports at their workplace were not “culturally appropriate.”

“Menopause symptoms can be complex and interconnected, and too often, women are left playing detective with their own bodies, trying to understand symptoms that may initially seem unrelated and searching for credible answers on their own,” said Harriet Ekperigin, vice president of clinical services growth at GreenShield Health.

Another GreenShield survey, conducted by Ipsos in March, found that 33 per cent of Canadian women “wait more than two years for effective menopause care.”

The March survey said that this was due to “a complex series of barriers ranging from confusion over symptoms and dismissed concerns to not knowing where to turn for help.”

Menopause occurs when the ovaries cannot consistently make the hormones of reproduction called estrogen and progesterone. Perimenopause, which typically occurs between the ages of 40 and 50, is a transitional phase that occurs when a person’s periods start to change and ends when they have not had a period of 12 months.

According to Health Canada, the average age of menopause in Canada is 51. The most common symptoms could include fatigue, hot flashes, night sweats, sleep disturbance, heart palpitations, anxiety, mood swings, weight gain, and brain fog.

According to the Menopause Foundation of Canada’s 2022 research report, 46 per cent of Canadian women “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.”