A first-of-its-kind-study in B.C. is shedding much-needed light on how women are impacted by menopause – from the symptoms they suffer, to having their concerns dismissed by doctors, to paying out-of-pocket for effective treatments, to being fired from their jobs.
Lead researcher Dr. Lori Brotto, a professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UBC, says women’s health in general is woefully under-researched, getting only seven per cent of available national funding. Of that seven per cent, only a small portion goes to studying menopause, which impacts all biological females to varying degrees.
“There’s more that we don’t know than we do know when it comes to midlife health,” Brotto told CTV News.
In British Columbia, there are more than 875,000 women between 40 and 65 years old, the final report Health and Economics Research on Midlife Women in British Columbia says. The study involved surveying and interviewing 2,000 women in the …