World Menopause Month 2023

Authors: Shayda Swann, MD/PhD Candidate, University of British Columbia, Department of Medicine, Shannon Mahony, BSc, Human Biology, University of Toronto, Krembil Research Institute

To kick off the blog series, Shayda Swann and Shannon Mahony gave a breakdown of the different stages of menopause and related symptoms. They shared that there are more than 30 symptoms of menopause and that unfortunately, 1/3 of women felt their symptoms were undertreated, despite the availability of effective treatments.

Read the full blog here.

Author: Katrine Yare, PhD, Medical & Cognitive Research Unit (MCRU), Austin Health, Melbourne, Australia

Did you know that reproductive hormones impact more than the menstrual cycle and reproductive organs? In the second blog of this series, Dr. Katrine Yare discusses the systemic effects of reproductive hormones and the importance of understanding how hormones function.

Read the full blog here.

Authors: Romina Garcia de leon, PhD Student, University of Toronto, Alana Brown, PhD Student, University of Toronto, Jingmin Zhang, BSc, Human Biology, University of Toronto, Krembil Research Institute

To wrap up the blog series, Romina Garcia de leon, Alana Brown, and Jingmin Zhang discuss the importance of consider factors like timing and duration of hormone therapy in personalized treatment strategies for women.

Read the full blog here.

Author: Malak Ibrahim, MSc Student in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of British Columbia

Endometrial cancer rates increase by 2% for every passing year in women over the age of 50; however, most women do not seek treatment until progression has worsened significantly. This may be due to overlap between endometrial cancer bleeding and abnormal menstrual cycles caused by menopause. This blog post suggests how women can be more aware of possible cancer symptoms. Read the full blog here.

Author: Bhairavi Warke, PhD Student, Simon Fraser University

This blog highlights the personal and socio-cultural burdens of menopause beyond physical symptoms, and how personalized self-care tools are a step forward in helping women through their menopause journey. Read the full blog here.

Authors: Arrthy Thayaparan and Alex Lukey (Blog Coordinators)

Complications from high blood pressure (hypertension) are overlooked in women as until menopause, they are at a lower risk compared to men. Despite this, hypertension symptoms are often dismissed in post-menopausal women as side effects from stress or menopause. This blog post discusses how to recognize high blood pressure symptoms and ways that women can monitor their risk for hypertension. Read the full blog here.

Speaker: Dr. Glen Pyle, Professor of Molecular Cardiology & Member of IMPART Network at Dalhousie Medicine

Talk summary: For much of their lives, females have a lower cardiovascular disease risk profile than males, but after menopause cardiovascular morbidity and mortality risk rises to match or even exceed levels of age-matched males. While this risk phenomenon has been recognized for quite some time, the molecular mechanisms in the heart that contribute to the increased risk are unknown. Cardiovascular symptoms in perimenopausal females like “hot flashes” suggest that changes in the cardiovascular system are established before the onset of menopause, but the lack of suitable animal models has prevented the investigation of this important transitional phase. Using a unique mouse model in which a prolonged perimenopausal-like state precedes ovarian failure, we have investigated a number of key risk factors that evolve during perimenopause in the heart. We have also compared the post-menopausal state following a perimenopausal transition with the abrupt form of menopause brought about by surgical removal of the ovaries: a path to menopause that is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular mortality in females. Understanding the timing of cardiac changes that occur in association with menopause is critical to identifying windows of risk and opportunity for therapeutic intervention, while mechanisms of change are critical for rationale therapeutic development.

Video recording of the talk will be available soon – click here to see the event page for the latest updates.

Speaker: Dr. Donna Korol, Associate Professor, Biology Department, Syracuse University

Speaker: Dr. Farida Sohrabji, Regents Professor & Interim Department Head, Texas A&M University 

This was the first event in our 10-part virtual Women’s Brain Health Conference series, which aimed to bring attention to the brain health issues women face and encourage the medical, scientific and commercial communities to address them. Through a fire-side chat, guest speaker Dr. Carol Tavris and Cluster Lead Dr. Liisa Galea will engage in a deep conversation about hormone therapy research and explore how politics has impacted widespread adoption of this treatment in Canada.

In this symposium, we heard from 4 renowned speakers who discussed pertinent topics related to middle age, menopause and women’s health. Dr. Karyn Frick chaired the event and facilitated the conversation.

“Hormone replacement therapy should be the first line of treatment for perimenopause for the vast majority of women” – Amanda Thebe

You can listen to this episode on your favourite podcast platform. Subscribe to get notified for more episodes, which are released every second Wednesday of the month. We have more menopause content coming to you in Season 2!