Perimenopause and Menopause: An Opportunity to Engage, Inform, and Empower Women to Live Well

Abstract

While awareness of the issues facing women leading up to, during, and following the menopause has increased in recent years, it remains a condition of significant unmet need. Reasons include a stigma around asking for help, and a lack of awareness of the symptoms and associated risks among women and healthcare professionals alike. Standard medical training includes limited education on perimenopausal and post-reproductive healthcare, meaning clinicians are often ill-prepared to intervene. However, there is much that healthcare professionals, regardless of their specialty, can do to help women entering their post-reproductive years, say Rossella Nappi, Chief of the Research Centre for Reproductive Medicine and Director of the Gynecological Endocrinology and Menopause Unit at IRCCS San Matteo Foundation, University of Pavia, in Italy; and Katrin Schaudig, co-founder of the Centre for Gynaecological Endocrinology, Hormone Hamburg, Germany, and President of the German Menopause Society. Moreover, perimenopause represents an important opportunity to engage, inform, and empower women to take charge of their health for years to come. In this key opinion leader interview, Nappi and Schaudig explain the physiological changes associated with menopause, their clinical manifestations, and their associated risk factors. They talk about the need to tackle the stigma that is often attached to this phase of life, and why healthcare professionals have a duty to work with women to spot the signs of menopausal transition from an early stage. They argue that holistic care, which focuses as much on the prevention of chronic disease as it does on the treatment of menopausal symptoms, is key to ensuring women stay physically and mentally fit and healthy as they get older.