Today is the 10th anniversary of the first World Menopause Day. The day, which was established by the International Menopause Society, has been observed since 2009 to show support to women across the globe and to recognise the challenges of menopausal symptoms and related conditions.
The last ten years have seen significant medical advances and vastly increased public awareness of the effects of the menopause but experts say there is still a lot more that needs to be done to improve the experience of menopause for millions of women.
Menopause related health issues can occur before, during and beyond the menopause and common symptoms include difficultly sleeping, low mood or anxiety, hot flushes, night sweats, reduced sex drive, vaginal dryness and discomfort during sex, reduced muscle mass, memory problems and headaches.
The severity and impact of these symptoms vary from woman to woman and the duration, although mostly between 4 to 12 years, may be longer.
World Menopause Day aims to raise awareness of these issues and consequently improve the experiences of women going through the menopause.
Professor Susan Davis, President of the International Menopause Society said:
“The menopause is a natural part of the female life cycle but it’s not something we talk about enough. We’ve taken giant leaps in awareness raising in the last ten years and we’re seeing the start of a global conversation about the experiences of menopausal women.”
“Despite this, there is still much more that we need to do to improve the health and wellbeing of women at this stage of life both in terms of awareness raising and medical advancements. Our recent Global Position Statement on the use of testosterone in the treatment of women is just one example of the international medical community working together to make a huge difference to women’s lives.”
In the past ten years, the International Menopause Society has led on the creation of global resources to improve awareness of the menopause and the lives of middle aged women, including education YouTube videos in multiple languages, A Practitioner Toolkit for Managing Menopause, global consensus statements to advise women and the medical community about effective treatments for menopause symptoms and IMPART– an international education tool for health practitioners.
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