For Far Too Long, Perimenopause And Menopause Have Been Overlooked, Misdiagnosed Or Dismissed
Elle Canada, September 2024
For decades, perimenopause (the stage that starts as early as your mid-30s and is typically marked by irregular periods due to fluctuating hormones) and menopause (the stage that is reached once it’s been 12 months since your last period and marks the end of your ability to reproduce) have been misunderstood, misdiagnosed or dismissed by doctors.
When Dr. Iliana Lega and Dr. Michelle Jacobson, menopause specialists at Toronto’s Women’s College Hospital, noticed “gaps” in the care their patients had received—whether they weren’t listened to or their symptoms were “not treated in an evidence- and guideline-based way”—they published a review in the Canadian Medical Association Journal last year. “There’s a real lack in the medical curriculum, which has led to sort of a discomfort in practitioners out there [because they’re] not able to treat menopause in a way that’s evidence-based and that they’re confident about,” says Jacobson. “So we decided that a review in a journal that has good reach, like CMAJ, made a lot of sense because it really gets that message out there.” They would often see patients with standard menopausal symptoms who had been put on antidepressants or sleeping pills. “And this happens all the time,” says Jacobson.
“Women who are younger or within 10 years of their final period have a window of opportunity where hormones can have a positive impact on their cardiovascular outcomes, on their bones and certainly on their symptoms,” says Dr. Michelle Jacobson, OBGYN.
