We Have to Say the Word Menopause

Last week matters. This week matters. And women’s health matters every single day.

On September 16, Congress held its first hearing devoted entirely to menopause. The hearing was called Half the Country, Zero Hearings, a powerful title and an infuriating summary of how long women have waited.

On September 17, the FDA held a public meeting about the use of testosterone by women experiencing menopause. Despite women and clinicians reporting meaningful benefits from appropriately prescribed testosterone, there is still no FDA-approved testosterone product specifically formulated for women in the United States.

On Tuesday, September 22, advocates, clinicians, and policy leaders will gather for the first Capitol Hill Day for Perimenopause and Menopause.

These are historic moments, but history does not happen only inside hearing rooms. It happens because people talk, organize, write letters, tell the truth about their bodies, and refuse to let women’s health remain an afterthought. I love all of this motion as we lead into October, National Menopause Month.

 

 

Saying menopause on a technology stage

In August 2025, during my keynote at TechCon Atlanta, I stood onstage and said the word “menopause.”

As far as I know, I may have been the first person to say that word during a keynote at a large technology conference. I am incredibly proud of that.

I did not whisper it, soften it, or hide it behind vague language about “wellness.”

Menopause.

I talked about using AI to organize my symptoms and health history, identify patterns, prepare for an appointment, ask better questions, and advocate for myself with my doctor. I printed the report from Copilot and brought it with me. My doctor was impressed by how thoroughly I had prepared, and those conversations ultimately helped me obtain treatment.

I continued the conversation in May 2026 during my keynote at the Digital Workplace Conference in Melbourne, Australia. Since then, menopause has become part of nearly every conversation I have about AI, work, leadership and the future of how we support people through change.

It should not be remarkable to say “menopause” on a technology stage. Half the population will experience it, including many of the people building, buying, leading and using technology. Yet we routinely discuss productivity, retention, leadership, accessibility and the future of work without acknowledging what millions of women are navigating in their own bodies.

Women in midlife are learning AI while managing hormonal changes. We are leading teams while battling brain fog. We are expected to innovate while caring for parents, children, partners, communities, and ourselves.

I said it because silence is part of the problem. I said it because women in technology deserve to hear their experiences named.

And I am proud that I helped bring the word menopause onto that stage.

I wrote more about that experience, and why I connect menopause, AI, and self-advocacy, in my July 2026 essay, Why I Keep Talking About Menopause When I Talk About AI.

Curiouser and curiouser, the rabbit hole of my health

My symptoms began in 2023, although I did not initially understand what was happening. And I had had COVID and thought maybe they had to do with that as well.

I had brain fog, hip pain, some hot flashes, and itchy ears. The backs of my legs would become so sweaty that they were almost dripping. It was strange, uncomfortable, and difficult to explain.

Then, in July 2025, I learned that my estradiol level had fallen to 6 pg/mL.

I did not know why I felt so unlike myself. I did not understand how estrogen loss could affect my brain, bones, cardiovascular system, muscles, joints, bladder, vagina, sleep, mood, and overall well-being.

I was also navigating life without a thyroid after a total thyroidectomy. That adds another layer of energy, metabolism, stress, and weight struggles.

I started using an estradiol HRT patch in December 2025. My current prescription is a 0.0375 mg-per-day patch.

No single “normal” estradiol number applies to every 35-60-year-old woman. Levels vary, and clinicians generally treat the whole person and her symptoms rather than chasing one laboratory value.

But now I have information I didn’t have before. I can see the change, understand my symptoms more clearly, and participate in decisions about my care.

That is what becoming the expert of yourself looks like.

It does not mean pretending to be a doctor. It means paying attention, collecting information, asking questions, and refusing to be dismissed.

 

Not an ending, an initiation

Western culture often describes menopause almost entirely through the language of loss.

Loss of estrogen. Loss of fertility. Loss of youth. Loss of desirability.

But some cultural and spiritual traditions offer another way to understand this passage. A woman who is no longer cycling through the hormonal and physical demands of possible childbearing is not disappearing. She is entering a different stage of life.

She may be recognized as an elder, guide, truth-teller, or wisdom keeper. Her accumulated knowledge, lived experience, and freedom from the reproductive expectations placed upon younger women can become sources of authority.

I love that framing.

It does not mean ignoring painful symptoms or pretending that every woman feels instantly liberated. Menopause can affect the brain, bones, heart, muscles, sleep, sexual health, and quality of life. Women still deserve informed medical care and access to treatment.

But care does not require us to define this stage only as decline.

What if menopause is also an initiation?

What if this is the point when a woman’s experience becomes one of her greatest forms of power?

What if the body is not betraying her, but crossing a threshold into a new kind of knowing?

We should treat the symptoms. We should fund the research. We should demand better care.

And we should also stop telling women that their power ends when their fertility does.

Perhaps this is when a different kind of power begins.

How a fear headline changed women’s healthcare

There is also a painful history behind why so many women were never offered hormone therapy or were frightened away from it.

In 2002, early findings from the Women’s Health Initiative, or WHI, reached the media. The complicated results of a large clinical trial were reduced to a terrifying headline: hormone therapy causes breast cancer, heart attacks and strokes.

Fear traveled faster than nuance.

News coverage often failed to explain that the WHI was primarily studying whether specific hormone formulations could prevent chronic disease in postmenopausal women. It was not designed principally to evaluate hormone therapy as a treatment for menopause symptoms.

The average participant was approximately 63 years old, more than a decade older than the average age of menopause. Many participants began hormone therapy years after their menopause transition.

The headlines also rarely distinguished between relative and absolute risk. They did not adequately explain the differences between estrogen alone and estrogen combined with a progestogen. They did not distinguish between oral and transdermal delivery, between systemic and low-dose vaginal estrogen, or between beginning treatment near menopause and beginning it much later.

The media got hold of the findings and turned them into a fear story with almost no nuance.

Experts have since spoken extensively about the consequences. Women stopped taking hormone therapy. Clinicians stopped prescribing it. Medical training absorbed the fear. Millions of women were left to endure hot flashes, sleeplessness, brain fog, vaginal and urinary symptoms, bone loss, and other problems without being given a complete, individualized discussion of their options.

Even low-dose vaginal estrogen carried sweeping warnings derived from research involving systemic hormone therapy, despite being a local treatment with far less systemic absorption.

This did not merely influence a news cycle. It shaped women’s healthcare for more than two decades.

Long-term follow-up and later analyses produced a much more nuanced understanding. The NIH now emphasizes individualized decision-making and reports that, for many healthy women younger than 60 or within approximately 10 years of menopause onset, the benefits of hormone therapy for treating significant symptoms may outweigh the risks.

Hormone therapy is not appropriate for everyone. The type of therapy, dose, delivery method, medical history, age, timing, and individual risk factors all matter.

That is precisely the nuance women should have received from the beginning.

In November 2025, the FDA began removing broad boxed-warning language concerning cardiovascular disease, breast cancer and probable dementia from menopausal hormone-therapy products. In February 2026, it approved the first six updated product labels. Certain important warnings remain, including the endometrial-cancer warning for systemic estrogen used without appropriate uterine protection.

This was not the discovery that hormone therapy had suddenly become safe. It was an acknowledgment that the evidence had been communicated and applied too broadly.

Women deserved the complete information in 2002.

We deserve it now.

We should not replace fearmongering with the claim that HRT is appropriate for everyone. We should replace fear with evidence, individualized care and genuine informed consent.

This is another reason women must be involved in research, journalism and policy. The way a study is designed, announced, reported, and translated into medical guidance can shape women’s lives for generations.

Menopause is also a bladder and urinary-health issue

This is deeply personal for my family.

My grandmother, my mother’s mother, died of sepsis caused by a urinary tract infection.

Recently, another family member developed a UTI so severe that we initially thought she had experienced a stroke. UTIs and other infections in older adults can be associated with sudden confusion, delirium, weakness, and other frightening symptoms. They are not merely an inconvenience. They can become life-threatening.

The bladder, urethra, and vagina are connected. They develop from related tissue and contain estrogen receptors. When estrogen declines, that tissue can become thinner, drier and more fragile. Changes in vaginal pH and protective bacteria can contribute to burning, urinary urgency, frequency and recurrent UTIs.

This collection of symptoms has a name: genitourinary syndrome of menopause, or GSM.

Many women have never heard that term. Many have been taught to think only about hot flashes when they hear the word menopause.

Yes, that is vaginal estradiol cream on my finger. We have to be willing to talk about the treatments that can protect women’s health. Use the amount and application method your clinician prescribes.

 

I use vaginal estradiol cream to support and protect that tissue. Low-dose vaginal estrogen is different from systemic estrogen delivered through a patch or pill. You apply it locally, where it can help restore tissue health and reduce urinary and vaginal symptoms. At standard low doses, only a small amount is typically absorbed systemically.

And we need to be able to say the words vagina, vulva, urethra, bladder, and estrogen without embarrassment.

Silence does not protect women. Information can.

Women also need practical information they are not always given. Some menopause specialists recommend applying a measured amount of vaginal estrogen with a clean finger, particularly around the vaginal opening and urethral area, instead of automatically placing the entire dose high in the vagina with an applicator.

The correct amount and method depend on the prescription, so women should ask their clinician or pharmacist how to use their product.

The point is not that everyone should throw away an applicator because of something they saw online. The point is that women deserve clear instructions about what the medication is meant to treat, where it needs to work, and how to use it properly.

We also need to talk about UTI prevention research.

MV140, also known by the brand name Uromune, is a sublingual bacterial immunotherapy intended to help prevent recurrent UTIs. It has been studied and made available through varying authorization or special-access pathways in several countries, but it is not FDA-approved in the United States.

Where is our access?

Where is the American research, regulatory urgency, and public conversation?

Women should not have to wait for repeated infections, antibiotic resistance, hospitalization, or sepsis before prevention becomes a priority.

Then came the cough

This summer, I developed rib bruising from a deep cough that lasted for weeks. I coughed so hard that it caused “stress incontinence”.

Me and the Poise pad got to know each other very well.

I can laugh about that line now, but it was uncomfortable, inconvenient, and revealing. Pelvic-floor and urinary symptoms are common, yet we are trained to hide them. We whisper about leaking, the oops sneeze, urgency, or pain if women mention them at all.

No more whispering.

These issues affect how we exercise, travel, sleep, work, have sex, care for other people and move through the world. They deserve medical attention, research, and honest language.

Later this month, I will have surgery to remove a fibroid. That is another women’s health issue too often minimized, endured quietly, or treated as something we should simply learn to live with.

I am telling this story because all of these things are connected.

Menopause care is not a luxury. Access to estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and other appropriate treatments should not depend on a woman’s ZIP code, income, insurance plan, physician’s personal comfort, or ability to find the right expert on social media.

We must also be able to obtain the medications our clinicians prescribe. That includes addressing shortages of estradiol patches and other essential therapies.

A prescription is not access if the pharmacy cannot fill it.

 

Policy is beginning to move

Rhode Island became the first state to require employers to provide reasonable accommodations for menopause-related conditions. Employers covered by the law must engage in a good-faith process to identify appropriate accommodations unless doing so would create an undue hardship. The law also includes workplace notice requirements. It has been in effect since June 24, 2025.

Illinois has now become the second state to enact statewide workplace protections. Beginning January 1, 2027, Illinois employers must treat perimenopause, menopause and related conditions under the same discrimination and accommodation framework applied to pregnancy-related conditions. Accommodations may include additional breaks, modified hours, access to seating and temperature-controlled workspaces.

Washington Governor Bob Ferguson signed an executive order directing state agencies to review their accommodation policies, train managers and develop practical guidance for supporting employees experiencing perimenopause and menopause. It directly governs state agencies rather than creating a new right against every private employer, but the resulting resources are also intended to help other public and private workplaces.

Michigan has directed the development of workplace recommendations. New Jersey’s civil-rights agency has said that existing state law may require accommodations for qualifying menopause-related needs.

Philadelphia passed a city ordinance prohibiting workplace discrimination based on menstruation, perimenopause and menopause. Beginning January 1, 2027, it will also require reasonable accommodations when symptoms substantially interfere with an employee’s work, unless the employer can demonstrate undue hardship.

And here in California, AB 1940 has passed both chambers of the legislature and is now on Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk. It would explicitly include perimenopause, menopause, postmenopause and related medical conditions within the definition of sex under California civil-rights law.

This is momentum, but it is not yet a national standard.

Your rights should not depend on your ZIP code.

More than half of the states have considered or enacted some form of menopause-related legislation since 2023. These proposals cover workplace protections, insurance coverage, clinician education, public awareness, and access to treatment.

But proposed legislation is not the same as enacted legislation, and guidance is not the same as an enforceable right.

We need to be at the table.

We need to help write the policies, introduce the bills, secure the funding, testify at hearings and make sure the resulting programs actually work for women.

Two weekends ago, at a San Francisco screening of the documentary film created by Under the Sisterhood (an amazing organization that collects, shares, and champions women’s stories) and the launch of their Under the Hood Breast Health Initiative, I met Theresa Patton and Liz Powell, founder of Women’s Health Advocates, a political organization working to advance women’s health through education, advocacy, policy, and funding.

I became a member of their organization, and I plan to get more involved in policy writing and advocacy. My public policy class this summer at the University of Chicago’s Harris School has me hooked. More on that soon.

And I don’t want to talk only about what is broken. I want to help write what comes next.

Women’s health remains underfunded

For far too long, women have been underrepresented in medical research, and conditions that predominantly or differently affect women have received a disproportionately small share of research attention and funding.

A National Academies committee analyzed NIH grant spending from fiscal years 2013 through 2023. Using its research definition and methodology, the committee found that only 7.9 percent of NIH grant spending in fiscal year 2023 was devoted to research specifically related to women’s health.

In 2013, the share was 9.7 percent.

That means the proportion actually declined over the decade, even as total NIH grant funding increased.

Across 2013 through 2023, the committee classified only 8.8 percent of NIH research-grant spending as women’s-health research.

The report also identified persistently low funding for conditions including endometriosis, fibroids, pelvic-floor disorders, polycystic ovary syndrome, postpartum depression, uterine cancer and vulvodynia.

Women are not a niche population. We are more than half the country.

Access is not equal

I also need to acknowledge what my own story contains.

Even when I was confused, symptomatic and struggling to understand what was happening to my body, I had health insurance. I had access to technology and my medical records. I had enough time, education and professional confidence to research my symptoms, use AI to organize my questions and keep pressing for answers. I could pay out of pocket when insurance did not cover something.

That is not every woman’s experience.

“Talk to your doctor” assumes you have a doctor.

“Get another opinion” assumes another clinician is available, accepting patients, covered by your insurance and close enough to reach.

“Become your own advocate” is powerful, but no woman should need a graduate-level understanding of medicine, hours of unpaid research and extraordinary self-confidence just to receive competent healthcare.

Black women often experience more frequent and severe menopause symptoms, with earlier onset and longer duration, yet receive hormone therapy less often than White women. Women covered by Medicaid are also significantly less likely to use menopausal hormone therapy than women with private insurance. These disparities are not evidence that race itself causes inferior outcomes. They reflect the accumulated effects of structural racism, economic inequality, chronic stress, medical dismissal, uneven insurance coverage and unequal access to knowledgeable clinicians.

Women of color are not a monolith. Neither are low-income women. Their experiences differ across race, ethnicity, language, geography, disability, immigration status, occupation and community. Our research, medical education and public policy must be specific enough to see those differences.

Access cannot mean creating better menopause clinics that only affluent women can afford. It must include Medicaid coverage, affordable generic medications, community health centers, culturally responsive care, language access, paid time to attend appointments, reliable transportation, workplace protections for hourly and contract workers and meaningful representation in research and policymaking.

If we build a menopause movement that works only for women with flexible jobs, good insurance and money to spend, we will have reproduced the same healthcare hierarchy we claim to be dismantling.

We need every woman at the table, especially the women who have historically been expected to endure the most while receiving the least.

Doctors cannot provide training they never received

Every woman should have access to clear, evidence-based information about perimenopause and menopause before symptoms begin, not after she has spent years wondering what is wrong with her. Menstruation and menopause should be taught in the same way.

Every clinician caring for people in the perimenopausal and menopausal age range should also receive enough training to recognize the possible signs, explain the options, and know when to refer a patient to a specialist.

Yet menopause education remains inadequate throughout medical training.

One study surveyed 183 residents in family medicine, internal medicine, and obstetrics and gynecology across 20 United States residency programs. One in five respondents reported receiving no menopause lectures during residency.

Only 6.8 percent felt adequately prepared to manage women experiencing menopause.

Think about that.

Women may turn to a psychiatrist who has not been trained to distinguish certain menopause symptoms from anxiety. They may see a cardiologist who has received little education about menopause and cardiovascular risk. Their primary-care doctor may have received almost no training in perimenopause.

Even the specialists have reported significant educational gaps.

In a separate national survey completed by 99 OB-GYN residency program directors, only 31.3 percent reported having a menopause curriculum. Only 29.3 percent said their trainees had dedicated time assigned to a menopause clinic.

Almost 93 percent agreed that residents nationwide should have access to a standardized menopause curriculum.

The people running these programs know more education is needed.

Representative Valerie Foushee of North Carolina has introduced H.R. 9273 to begin addressing the problem. The bill would require public institutions receiving grants through the federal Medical Student Education program to include menopause training in their medical-school curricula. Its stated purpose is to better prepare physicians across specialties.

The bill was introduced on June 11, 2026, and referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. It has not yet become law.

This is exactly why we must pay attention after a bill is introduced. Introduction is the beginning, not the finish line. A bill needs cosponsors, committee attention, public support, and sustained pressure if it is going to move. And things don’t always pass the first time, so the continued push and attention are needed.

Women can seek help from intelligent, caring, and well-intentioned clinicians who were never adequately trained to recognize or treat what their patients are experiencing. That is a systems failure, and systems failures require policy solutions.

We need medical schools to teach menopause. We need family physicians, internists, psychiatrists, cardiologists, urologists, OB-GYNs, and other clinicians to understand how hormonal changes can present across the body. We need continuing education for the professionals already practicing.

Menopause doesn’t belong to only one medical specialty because it doesn’t affect only one part of a woman’s body.

Menopause is only one part of the larger fight for women’s health. I have much more to say about reproductive healthcare, breast health, breast-cancer screening, early detection, and the women affected by breast implant illness. Those stories deserve more than a passing paragraph, so they will be another essay.

For now, this is where I am beginning: menopause, the word we were not supposed to say, the healthcare gap we were expected to endure, and the policy movement we now have an opportunity to shape.

 

Talking about our health changes lives

We must talk about these things.

We must write letters to Congress and our state legislators. We must call our representatives. We must share reliable information and repost the moments when senators, representatives, regulators, and advocates finally bring women’s health into public view.

We must vote for people who believe women deserve bodily autonomy, scientific research, and competent medical care throughout our entire lives.

I know that speaking publicly can make a difference because I have seen it happen.

Years ago, I began talking about my thyroid condition (mine has been fully removed). Three different women I know went to have their thyroids checked because of those conversations.

Every time I post a photograph of myself in a gown getting a mammogram, someone tells me it reminded her to schedule hers.

At my yearly breast cancer screening mammogram

 

Early detection saves lives.

Sometimes advocacy looks like testifying before Congress. Sometimes it looks like writing legislation. Sometimes it looks like posting a photograph from a mammogram appointment. Sometimes it looks like standing on a technology stage and saying “menopause.” Sometimes it looks like holding up a tube of vaginal estrogen cream and explaining why it matters.

Personal stories create awareness.

Organized advocacy turns awareness into policy.

We need both.

 

Beware of menoslop

There is also a lot of what I call “menoslop” online.

Menopause is finally getting attention, which is wonderful. But that attention has also created a booming marketplace of influencers, supplements, hormone claims, miracle cures, expensive memberships, and one-size-fits-all protocols. We are a trillion-dollar market. Gen Xers in the house with disposable income and a LOT of rage.

You can watch 15 videos before anyone gives you a useful answer, only to discover that the person giving the advice is trying to sell you something.

An algorithm is not a medical degree. A viral video is not clinical evidence. A supplement being described as “natural” does not automatically make it safe, effective, or appropriate for your body. And the loudest person in your feed is not necessarily the most qualified.

That does not mean every creator, telehealth provider, or online community is unreliable. Social media introduced me to physicians, researchers, books, and questions that changed my life. Women sharing their experiences can help us recognize patterns, find language for our symptoms, and feel less alone.

But personal testimony is a starting point, not proof that one treatment is right for everyone.

Read the books. Follow qualified experts. Look for original sources, medical guidelines, and fact-checked information. Ask who conducted the research, how many people were studied, and whether someone stands to profit from the recommendation.

Use AI to help organize information, compare reputable sources, and prepare questions, but do not ask it to replace a qualified medical professional.

Bring what you learn to your doctor. If your doctor dismisses you or is not trained in menopause care, seek another opinion or ask for a referral to a menopause-informed clinician.

Be curious. Be skeptical. Keep asking questions.

Becoming the expert of yourself does not mean diagnosing or treating yourself alone. It means becoming an informed partner in your own care.

Protect your queendom.
Press play.

 

The Sample

“We must say the word menopause. We must say vagina. We must say estrogen. Silence has never protected women’s health.”

Track Notes

People and books (YouTube channels) that can help

I have read books, followed, and listened to the podcasts of the folks below. They are some of the physicians, educators, and advocates whose work can help women ask better questions and understand their options:

• Dr. Rachel Rubin, a urologist and sexual-medicine specialist whose work focuses on hormones, sexual health, GSM and recurrent UTIs. She contributed to When Sex Hurts: Understanding and Healing Pelvic Pain.

• Dr. Sharon Malone, author of Grown Woman Talk: Your Guide to Getting and Staying Healthy.

• Tamsen Fadal, author of How to Menopause: Take Charge of Your Health, Reclaim Your Life, and Feel Even Better Than Before.

• Dr. Jen Gunter, author of The Menopause Manifesto, The Vagina Bible and Blood: The Science, Medicine, and Mythology of Menstruation.

• Dr. Heather Hirsch, author of Unlock Your Menopause Type.

• Heather Corinna, author of the perfectly titled What Fresh Hell Is This? Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities, and You.

• Dr. Avrum Bluming and Carol Tavris, authors of Estrogen Matters: Why Taking Hormones in Menopause Can Improve Women’s Well-Being and Lengthen Their Lives, Without Raising the Risk of Breast Cancer. The book examines the history and interpretation of hormone-therapy research, including the Women’s Health Initiative, and argues for a more evidence-based and individualized discussion of estrogen.

• Dr. Christiane Northrup, author of The Wisdom of Menopause and other books about women’s health. And I love her Oracle Cards.

• Liz Powell, Founder, Women’s Health Advocates

• Elizabeth Elfenbein, Founder, Under the Sisterhood

• Kristin Nobles, Founder, BNobleCare and SickTitties.org

A book or social-media post is not a substitute for individual medical care. It can, however, give us vocabulary, context, and questions to take into the examination room.

That matters.

 

Liner Notes

I am not a doctor.

I am an advocate for my own health, women’s health, voting rights, and preserving our history, lands, and public spaces.

I believe advocacy begins by paying attention. It grows when we speak. It becomes powerful when we organize.

This week matters. Next week matters.

The hearings matter. The research matters. The legislation matters. The medications matter. The stories matter.

Say the word menopause.

Say the word vagina.

Say the word estrogen.

Tell the truth about what is happening to your body. Ask for help. Ask for the test. Ask why a treatment is unavailable. Ask your representative what they are doing. Write the letter. Make the call. Share the post. Join the organization. Sit at the table.

And if there is no seat for us yet, we will bring our own chairs. Or we’ll build the table.

Menopause. Say it, repeat it, and say it again.

 

Sources and further reading

The personal experiences in this essay are my own. You can explore the medical information, research findings, statistics, and policy developments referenced above through the following sources. If I made a mistake, apologies, and I’m happy to make corrections. I’m not claiming to be a doctor, a researcher, a scientist, or a reporter. Just my shared experience, a lot of reading, and trying to make sense of what is going on with my body and sharing it, as it is too important not to. And I am in awe and inspired by the Doctors, Nurses, Researchers, Advocates and Lawmakers who are pushing the envelope on Women’s Health. Please share and let me know if this resonates, as I’d love to keep learning.

 

My menopause and AI story

• Heather Cook: Why I Keep Talking About Menopause When I Talk About AI

Congressional and FDA action

• U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging: Half the Country, Zero Hearings

• FDA Public Meeting: Testosterone Use in Menopausal Women

• Women’s Health Advocates

The Women’s Health Initiative and hormone therapy

• NIH: Researchers Review the Women’s Health Initiative 30 Years After Its Launch

• The Women’s Health Initiative Randomized Trials and Clinical Practice: A Review

• Ideal Health: The WHI Study: How Misinterpretation of Hormone Therapy Data Hurt Women’s Health

• FDA: Hormone-Therapy Labeling Changes and Benefit-Risk Considerations

• FDA Approves Labeling Changes to Menopausal Hormone-Therapy Products

Vaginal estrogen, GSM and recurrent UTIs

• American Urological Association: 2025 Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause Guideline

• American Urological Association: 2025 Recurrent UTI Guideline

• Systematic Review: UTI-Associated Delirium in Older Adults

• Research on MV140 and Recurrent UTIs

Equal Access

• Insurance Type and Menopausal Hormone Therapy Use Among US Women, JAMA Network Open

• Disparities in Reproductive Aging and Midlife Health Between Black and White Women, Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation

Women’s-health research funding

• National Academies: A New Vision for Women’s Health Research

Menopause education and federal policy

• H.R. 9273: Federal Menopause-Training Proposal

• Menopause Management Knowledge in Postgraduate Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Obstetrics and Gynecology Residents

• Needs Assessment of Menopause Education in United States Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Training Programs

Workplace protections and state policy

• Rhode Island’s Workplace Accommodation Law

• Illinois Menopause Equity and Care Act

• Washington Executive Order 26-01

• Philadelphia Bill No. 250849

• California AB 1940: Current Legislative Status

• National Overview of State Menopause Legislation

Women’s Stories and Advocacy

• Under the Sisterhood

• SickTitties.org

• Cultural Differences in Women’s Experience of Menopause: A Qualitative Review A 2026 cross-cultural review examining how social beliefs, cultural expectations and community narratives influence women’s understanding and experience of menopause.

 

Next Track

A deeper conversation about reproductive healthcare, breast health, mammograms, early detection and why posting the photograph can sometimes save a life.