Advocating for Better Menopause Care and Support, with Wendee Lee Curtis

The advice Wendee Lee Curtis, a patient panelist who spoke at the the Menopause Society 2024 Annual Meeting, would give to any patient is this: be relentless in seeking information. It’s out there, she says, but you do need to sift through it. Her hope is that events like this will help consolidate that information, making it more accessible and centralized.

“The reason I wanted to speak to this audience is because they're already calibrated around concerning care for women who are navigating the menopause journey, and we simply cannot have enough allies in that space,” Curtis says. “Deepening everyone's understanding around what we're experiencing beyond just the medical—how it's impacting us, personally, professionally, relationally—is a really big piece of the puzzle that can bring real value to the care.”

She explains that this can truly enhance the care they provide for patients dealing with menopause and overall wellness concerns.

Curtis emphasizes that as we age, we change, and it isn’t about trying to reverse time—instead, it’s about recalibrating your care so you can still recognize and honor the person you see in the mirror.

One of the struggles that has really surprised her is the lack of deep training and education healthcare providers receive about menopause. She realized at a previous menopause event that even doctors who have helped patients through childbirth or managed their gynecological care often don’t have extensive training on how to help women through menopause.

However, just because this has been the norm doesn’t mean it always has to be. Menopause isn’t just a “woman’s issue,” she says. Everyone connected to a woman undergoing menopause is affected by their menopause experience. Supporting women through this journey also supports everyone around them.

Curtis looks forward to the day when conversations about menopause are commonplace, and the unnecessary suffering so many women endure is eliminated. Menopausal women can then focus on living life fully.

“It's the weirdest thing to suddenly come into all this knowledge and all of this sure footedness and self-confidence [only] to be stymied by the very powerful symptoms of menopause,”
 she concludes. “I'm looking forward to that time when we can not only reclaim our wellness but stand in the power and the [well-earned] knowledge that we now have.”

This transcript was edited for clarity.