October 18 is World Menopause Day. Finally, this subject has occupied a prominent place in the media. However, the Canadian Menopause Foundation recently released a national survey. This revealed a lack of knowledge among women about menopause, weaknesses in terms of equity in health and in the workplace. Let’s take the time to talk about this important subject that concerns all women in Quebec.
Posted at 1:00 p.m.
The ball was launched by the broadcast of the documentary Loto-Meno which generated wide media coverage and helped bring the topic to the fore. Despite this, as an obstetrician-gynecologist with specialized training in menopause (fellowship), I find that the medical information presented in the media is not nuanced enough. Nevertheless, the debate has brought to the fore a subject which, at first glance, is not very attractive, but which is so important and which will affect every woman.
From now on, women in Quebec have access to two additional treatment options, now covered by the RAMQ, which should please us. However, this coverage still needs to be extended to other treatment modalities available to women who need them.
These two drugs are not the only and ideal therapeutic modality. They are not without risk for all women; that is why the English saying one size fits all cannot apply here.
In the article normalizing menopausepublished on June 15, 2022 in The British Medical Journal, the authors write that “how people go through menopause is shaped by sociocultural and biological factors.” They also believe that the media’s medicalization of menopause (as a problem requiring treatment) “brings negative expectations” to women and “prepares them to expect the worst”. My perception and my clinical experience abound in this direction since the broadcast of the documentary.
My physician colleagues and I have never had so many patients asking to start treatment, modify it or resume it in favor of bio-identical treatment, whether they are symptomatic or not, and even menopausal or not. The treatment of menopause must be based on evidence, as emphasized by Dr.r Jeanne Bouteaud in an article published earlier this month in The Press1. Unfortunately, women spend fortunes on diagnostic or surveillance tests without scientific proof. Others invest a lot of money for all kinds of treatment, some of which are unapproved and even risky.
One thing is obvious and goes well beyond the single subject of menopause. The media must be aware of their influence on the population and governments, and must convey fair and responsible statements.
Our governments must also invest massively and actively prioritize the health of women as a whole in an equitable manner (access to physiotherapy, psychotherapy, specialized nursing support, for example). They must include the main players directly involved in their care, at all stages of their life. Since the beginning of my practice, I have not ceased to notice the opposite. As a society, we owe our women quality medicine based on scientific data.