VancouverMETRO VANCOUVER NEWS
Four in 10 Canadian women don’t know where to seek menopause support, report says
A GreenShield report says 40 per cent of Canadian women don’t know where to seek menopause care. The share rises to 45 per cent among racialized women, and just one-third said they had discussed symptoms with a health professional.
A new report from health-care and insurance organization GreenShield says about four in 10 Canadian women (40 per cent) don’t know where to seek menopause care. The gap is more pronounced among racialized women: 45 per cent said they were unaware of where to get help for perimenopause or menopause symptoms. One-third of racialized respondents had discussed their symptoms with a health professional, compared with roughly half of women respondents overall. Some workplaces offer menopause supports, but nearly one in four women said the supports at their workplace were not “culturally appropriate.”
Harriet Ekperigin, vice-president of clinical services growth at GreenShield Health, said menopause symptoms can be complex and interconnected. Women are often left trying to interpret symptoms that may initially seem unrelated and searching on their own for credible answers.
A separate 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 survey attributed this 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 can no longer consistently produce the reproductive hormones estrogen and progesterone. Perimenopause, typically occurring between ages 40 and 50, is the transition when a person’s periods begin to change; it ends after they have gone 12 months without a period. Health Canada puts the average age of menopause in Canada at 51. Common symptoms can include fatigue, hot flashes, night sweats, sleep disturbance, heart palpitations, anxiety, mood swings, weight gain and brain fog.
The Menopause Foundation of Canada’s 2022 research report found that 46 per cent of Canadian women “feel unprepared for this stage of life.” It also found that, in a world where no topic is off limits, more than half (54 per cent) believe menopause remains taboo.