National Menopause Awareness Month

Posted by Liz on Sep 10, 2008 in women's health | 3 comments

[image source: 123NewYear]

I received an email from menopauseexpert.com the other day touting National Menopause Awareness Month. I have a lot of respect for Rebecca Hulem and the programs she has in place to educate women about menopause. However, I think that there are a few problems with this initiative.

National Menopause Awareness Month was started by the FDA in 2004 primarily to raise awareness and provide education about hormone replacement therapy. Since its inception, there have been efforts to broaden the topics to include some alternative treatments but a quick glance at available materials says “outdated information” and “not broad enough”  to me. So, do we really want to tout a dated and data-limited campaign that is probably driven by lots of manufacturers of hormone replacement? I say a resounding “NO!”

Mind you, there are a lot of organizations and independents who are using the month as a springboard for promoting solid health information and advice on how to deal with symptoms and diseases related to menopause. I applaud those groups.

I believe that the effort to educate women about menopause needs to be ongoing and more importantly, all-inclusive and not relegated to a single month in the year.

The original intent of the month was to raise awareness about HRT. To promote the medicalization of menopause.  As I wrote last week, menopause is not a disease.

Let’s get out of the disease mindset. And start looking at ways to raise awareness in a consistent and meaningful fashion that that doesn’t pigeonhole, exclude or minimize.

What do you think?