Medical professionals should be better educated on menopause during their degrees and women experiencing menopause need more flexibility in the workplace, a Senate inquiry has found.
Greens senator and spokesperson for women, Larissa Waters, tabled the bipartisan consensus report from the inquiry on Wednesday evening. It was initiated by the party almost a year ago to investigate the health and economic impact of menopause and perimenopause on Australian women.
Over several months, the committee heard women were dismissed or offered ineffective treatments by healthcare professionals when they sought menopause care, including one who was told by her GP all he learned in medical school was that menopausal women were either “mad or sad”.
The report said there was a need for more undergraduate and postgraduate medical education on perimenopause and menopause and more research into its economic impact on women.
Waters said that the inquiry had made it clear that menopause wasn’t well understood – by the community, in the workplace and by some doctors.
“Women shared that they were disbelieved, wrongly diagnosed, or dismissed when they sought treatment – many felt gaslit,” she said.
“The committee heard that some medical degrees had only one hour of education on menopause, so I am pleased to see a recommendation for more undergraduate and postgraduate medical education.”
The report recommended the federal government encourage the Australian Medical Council to consider explicitly including menopause and perimenopause in its medical programs, and for the Australian Medical Council to work with Medical Deans Australia to ensure modules were included in all medical university curriculums.
The director of Monash University’s Women’s Health Research Program, Prof Sue Davis, said while her institution had a compulsory unit on midlife women, including menopause training for GPs, it wasn’t the norm.
“This is 50% population, they will all go through it,” she said. “Just like we train people in gynaecology, we should train people in menopause – no question.”
Davis said practitioners were “thirsting for knowledge” into the topic but there had been a historic lack of research into the area.
“In our last big study of 2,000 women in 2014, we were seeking funding and it was just desperation,” she said. “We couldn’t get money because nobody was interested.
“There’s a rigid view that nobody really has that much of a problem … so why do research in this space. What has not been as acknowledged is it’s a major life event – 80% of women will be in the workforce when they go through it.
“Even without severe symptoms, we should understand it.”
Waters said the most encouraging part of the report was its first recommendation, that the Department of Health and Aged Care Commission conduct research to establish a comprehensive evidence base about the affects of menopause and perimenopause, including its differentiation from midlife stressors and impact on mental health.
“That acknowledges the fact we don’t have enough data, that we are walking blind,” she said. “Information is knowledge and knowledge is what we need to make health better.”
The report also called for more workplace flexibility, consideration of gender-inclusive reproductive leave and the development of a national awareness campaign.
Waters said while more than half of the population experienced menopause and perimenopause, there was “little federal policy to address its impacts”.
“It sends a powerful message that after a year-long inquiry, all the political parties involved in the inquiry have agreed on the recommendations,” she said.
“While some women experience this natural phase of life with little to no symptoms, others experience debilitating symptoms, and we need policies that work for all women and people who experience menopause.
“I am pleased the committee recommended a right to request flexibility, developing workplace policies, and looking into reproductive health leave so that women can be better supported at work.”
The federal government has three months to respond to the recommendations.
