Today's Lancet has a series of 7 papers on the menopause. Here are extracts from the intro and the first paper, which emphasise the importance of reliable healthcare information, as do the others. See also my comment below.
Executive Summary: Menopause is an inevitable life stage for half the world’s population, but experiences vary hugely. Some women have few or no symptoms over the menopause transition while others have severe symptoms that impair their quality of life and may be persistent. Many women feel unsupported as they transition menopause. To better prepare and support women, the Lancet Series on menopause argues for an approach that goes beyond specific treatments to empower women with high-quality information, tools to support decision making, empathic clinical care, and workplace adjustments as needed. Targeted support is needed for groups who experience early menopause or treatment-induced menopause, and for those at increased risk of mental health problems. The authors recognise how gendered ageism may contribute to negative experiences of menopause and call for reduced stigma and greater recognition of the value and contribution of older women.
https://www.thelancet.com/series/menopause-2024
Many women transition this stage of life uneventfully, whereas some experience prolonged or severe symptoms and need information, support, or medical treatment...
Easy access to impartial information—not from those who are marketing a product or service—both before and during the menopause transition, as well as an informed, engaged clinician who will listen with empathy, are crucial to facilitate shared decision making...
It is time for a sensible conversation about menopause to enable informed, individualised decision making on optimal management of this transition...
A paucity of information and education on menopause has led to symptoms being dismissed by uninformed health-care professionals and a lack of understanding in the workplace...
menopause does not herald the start of a period of decay and decline but is a developmental life stage that can be negotiated successfully with access to evidence-based information as well as appropriate social and medical support. Women deserve nothing less.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)00462-8/fulltext
WHO defines empowerment as an active process of gaining knowledge, confidence, and self-determination to self-manage health and make informed decisions about care...
in 2005 the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) identified the need to develop and disseminate information emphasising menopause as an ordinary, healthy phase of women's lives and promoting its demedicalisation...
To be empowered, women must be informed and listened to...
We propose a more inclusive approach (figure 1). Key components of menopause empowerment include access to evidence-based and balanced information...
How clinicians can support empowerment in the management of menopause Before menopause: Provide evidence-based information about what to expect...
Provide realistic information about the likely effects of treatment, the potential for residual symptoms, and the possibility that symptoms could recur when treatment stops...
More information is needed about how best to manage bleeding problems and menopausal symptoms over this period...
Women need easy access to unbiased, accurate information in a form they can understand, created without industry influence and without any hidden agendas to sell a drug or service...
Accessing credible information can be challenging, particularly for women in LMICs where home remedies, ayurvedic, and homoeopathic therapies are often preferred to medical treatments for menopausal symptoms...
Normalising menopause and providing realistic and balanced information about the likely nature, severity, and duration of symptoms can be empowering for women and help them to make decisions about management..
Clinicians should offer evidence-based information about the range of effective interventions for problematic symptoms...
Many women seeking treatment for menopausal symptoms report feeling dismissed and receiving inaccurate information and ineffective treatments...
Provision of realistic and impartial information is essential... Much information about menopause available online is driven by commercial interests.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)00462-8/fulltext
COMMENTS (NPW):
1. It is encouraging to see such high awareness of the importance of reliable healthcare information relating to the menopause. Health professionals working in sexual and reproductive health have long been at the forefront of advocacy around reliable healthcare information. Access to reliable healthcare information is only recognised once in the Sustainable Development Goals, and this is specifically in relation to sexual and reproductive health. I have never been able to find out why the SRHR community seems more progressive than the rest of healthcare, and why they were able to get healthcare information into the SDGs while others didn't.
2. For those working in other areas of health care, I invite you to replace the word 'menopause' above with any health issue you like. You will find that the statements hold true not only for the menopause, and not only for SRHR issues, but for all health issues.
With thanks, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org
