Inquiry into Issues Related to Perimenopause and Menopause

This submission to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee’s inquiry into issues related to perimenopause and menopause identifies where further research is needed, arguing that current knowledge of symptoms, prevalence and impact in Australia is patchy. Research Australia points to cultural differences in symptoms, citing research showing Japanese women report more psychological symptoms and Australian women more vasomotor symptoms, and to evidence that overweight and smoking increase the risk of severe vasomotor symptoms. It notes that few symptoms are unique to menopause, so they can be missed or wrongly attributed, and draws on input from the Australia New Zealand Gynaecological Oncology Group (ANZGOG), including clinicians’ accounts of endometrial cancer diagnosed late because irregular bleeding was assumed to be perimenopause and of uncertainty about Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) after cancer. It recommends research on the interplay of menopause with culture, lifestyle and mid-life pressures, sensitive to culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD), Indigenous, rural and regional and low-income populations; research to establish verified symptoms and their prevalence; research on HRT and other therapies in subpopulations; and better dissemination of evidence to general practitioners. It recommends a strategic approach in which the Women’s Health Advisory Council identifies research priorities, funded through a targeted open call from the Department of Health, with the response built into a revised Women’s Health Strategy and a National Institute for Women’s Health Research to implement its research agenda.