SALT LAKE CITY — Menopause has become one of the biggest conversations around women’s health today. But beyond podcasts, books and social media posts, a Utah nonprofit group is questioning whether the government should do more to support women through these channels.
Emily McCormick, founder of the Policy Project, says menopause deserves attention in part because of where it often falls in a woman’s life.
“It’s such a special generation,” she said. “We call it the ‘sandwich generation’.”
Many postmenopausal women care for aging parents while continuing to care for teenagers or young adult children.
“Women’s health can be pretty misunderstood,” McCormick said. “There are some gaps there.”
Current system gaps
- More than one in five Utah women are in or near menopause.
- 59% of women in their 40s said they had never heard of perimenopause.
- 90% of doctors surveyed feel ill-prepared to treat menopause.
The Policy Project recently helped pass legislation providing free menstrual products in Utah schools, but McCormick said their work naturally led them to another step in women’s health.
“Now we look at women who are starting to age, and there is a gap,” McCormick said. “It’s about 59% of women in their 40s who have never heard the word perimenopause and that’s when it starts to happen.”
The problem is not menopause itself. It’s the lack of understanding surrounding it. Without knowing it, many women find themselves confronted with symptoms that they do not understand and do not know how to treat.
Lack of supplier knowledge
“90% of family physicians and obstetrician-gynecologists report that they have not received adequate training on menopause,” McCormick noted.
This creates a frustrating situation for women. They recognize that something seems different but can’t find answers.
“Not only do they not know what’s going on, but the providers sometimes don’t know,” McCormick said.
She said this was a significant gap in care. Patients are looking for information while providers wish they had more specialized training on the subject. This can leave women feeling stuck at a stage in their lives where they already have significant responsibilities.
Strategies to close the gaps
- Make care more accessible.
- Better equip medical providers.
- Invest in Utah-specific research.
- Make it easy to find reliable answers.
McCormick emphasized that policymakers are not doctors, but she believes legislation can still improve support around menopause.
“We’re not providers, we’re not medical professionals, but we work with them to figure out what would have the most impact on women in the state of Utah,” she said.
She explained that they wanted to make sure that the everyday woman has access to information that helps her understand what is happening with her body. She also said the organization is pushing for better education of health care providers.
“We really want to help providers,” McCormick said. “Help them better understand what symptoms might be related to menopause.”
One proposal that McCormick is excited about is the creation of a centralized menopause resource center.
“What if there was a place where a woman could go and she could see, like, oh my God, I have all these resources,” she said.
The idea is to create a trusted source of information where women can learn what’s normal, understand their symptoms and find professionals who can help them.
Making Utah a leader in menopause research
“There’s so much we still don’t know about menopause,” McCormick said.
She hopes Utah universities and healthcare institutions can help fill these knowledge gaps.
“Let’s have the University of Utah, the state of Utah, let’s have some of our research professionals in the state really get involved and help us understand menopause better,” she said. “Utah can become the leader in this area and help other states do the same.”
McCormick said interest in the issue was strong.
“I think there’s a lot of hunger out there,” she said.
The response shows what many women have already said: they want better information, better support and better resources. McCormick also said there would be opportunities to get involved, including attending events and engaging in the upcoming legislative process.
“We are going to ask our legislators to step up and help the women of the state,” she said.
This story originally aired on KSL TV and has been reformatted for a digital audience using artificial intelligence.
The key takeaways from this article were generated with the help of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article itself is solely written by humans.
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