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black women’s healthcare summit seeks solutions for menopause gap
7 minute read
the systemic racism that occurs within the healthcare system also makes it more difficult for black women to come forward and ask for help, because if they’re not being heard or feel safe to do so, why would they “seek out access” to care?
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menopause affects roughly half of the global population, yet research, care, and treatment options still have their place on the back burner. because of this, people with menopause have been left to deal with the symptoms and consequences of the transition without much help from healthcare providers.
this is an especially painful truth for black women, who often experience more severe symptoms than other ethnicities and begin the menopausal period of their lives much earlier.
dr. sheila wijayasinghe, a menopause certified family doctor and medical director of primary care outreach at women’s college hospital (wch), sees firsthand how medical misogyny continues to lurk in the shadows of care for people who go through menopause.
“the dismissal of symptoms is not uncommon, unfortunately. i think things are changing, but we hear this all the time in the menopause space. people will write me and say, ‘i went and spoke to my family doctor and clearly state that i’m suffering with these symptoms and they told me they can’t help me because this is in my head or i just need to have a glass of wine,” she said. “those sorts of things that are really shocking to hear, but that do happen still.”
she notes that this level of symptom dismissal and refusal to provide any meaningful therapies has “really done a disservice for women because we don’t feel like we have a trusted space to go when we don’t feel like ourselves.”
she goes on to note that both perimenopause and menopause are “tricky” because the symptoms can be vague, with some being “difficult to define.”
“fatigue, not recognizing yourself, not connecting to people in the same ways, joint pain, palpitations, skin sensitivities … there’s a whole array of symptoms. there’s sort of over 30 plus symptoms that have been identified as possible,” she said.
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these symptoms, along with the ones that most people are privy to, such as hot flashes and a lack of or slowing of menstrual regularity, are particularly difficult to deal with for black women.
dr. wijayasinghe notes that, along with longer-lasting and more severe symptoms, black women have to contend with inequities that exist within the healthcare system as well, only compounding the problem.
“black women are less likely to be heard, less likely to be believed and less likely to be offered the same options as others in our healthcare system,” she said. “so, you have a double side there, which widens the gap in a more extreme way.”
wch, which is hosting the black women’s healthcare summit on october 29, 2025, is putting a special focus on perimenopause and menopause in black women as a way to change the experience for people who have been mistreated and left to their own devices when it comes to dealing with menopause.
it’s not just hot flashes
women are dismissed frequently in healthcare, but when it comes to menopause, the dismissal cuts with a sharper knife because providers don’t believe that the symptoms are there. they simply think that women should have to deal with them because that’s just the way it is.
but the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause are far-reaching, and affect a person’s overall quality of life much more significantly than people who haven’t experienced it can imagine.
dr. candace todd, a neurologist at wch’s department of neurology, specialized in headache care for black women, notes that she’s “stumbled in this perimenopause and menopause world” because of her work and sees how incredibly skewed the knowledge of symptoms is.
“from a neurological perspective, we see a lot of things like cognitive fog or difficulty finding their words or difficulty planning their day. we see big changes in sleep,” she said. “so, all of a sudden, their sleep is poor. they develop something called restless legs where they feel like they need to move a lot, and then we see big changes in mood.”
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she also states that people with certain existing conditions, including migraine and mental health disorders, will see those conditions worsening around the time of perimenopause, making it an even more “challenging time” for women.
people going through the perimenopausal transition and menopause may also experience other less well-known symptoms, such as:
- decreased libido and vaginal dryness
- electric shock sensations
- burning in the mouth
- bladder control issues
- headaches and migraines
- hair loss
- weight gain
- breast tenderness
- heartburn
- appetite changes and taste changes
- facial hair growth
- body composition changes
when considering the experience as a whole, over the period of time it takes for someone to go through the transition, quality of life is significantly reduced.
disparities affecting black women
an uncontrollable disparity that exists affecting black women who go through menopause is the way they experience symptoms. according to dr. todd, the vasomotor symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats are 50 per cent more common and more intense in this population than other ethnicities.
“we also note that depression and mood and sleep, the outcomes were really kind of similar, but we do see a small signal where there’s an increased risk of new onset and more frequent depressive symptoms when we compare to our caucasian counterparts,” said dr. todd.
but that’s not where the inequities end.
some clinics specialize in providing the available therapies to people with menopause, but according to dr. todd, those clinics are far more accessible to “our caucasian counterparts.”
this accessibility makes it a challenge to find the care required to deal with symptoms, but it’s not the only hurdle.
“black women, specifically, are getting less prescriptions for hormone replacement therapy in particular,” said dr. todd. “so, we’re just seeing some gaps in the care.”
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dr. wijayasinghe notes that these issues stem from systemic problems that have yet to be addressed within the healthcare system.
“there’s anti-black racism that exists and that is something that you know is recognized more and more, but there’s still much work to do to ensure that people are being heard and cared for,” she said.
the systemic racism that occurs within the healthcare system also makes it more difficult for black women to come forward and ask for help, because if they’re not being heard or feel safe to do so, why would they “seek out access” to care?
“providers aren’t asking questions, are not offering the same level of detail and options to our black patients, but then also black patients, because historically they’ve been poorly treated within our healthcare system, are less likely to come and get that support,” said dr. wijayasinghe.
trying to fix a broken system
the therapies to help people with menopause, including black women, are available, but the barriers to getting them often continue to be too strong to break through.
at first, hormonal therapy wasn’t seen as a viable option because of outdated information regarding the effects of hormonal therapy. a particular study from decades ago found that it wasn’t safe for people in an older age group, around 63 to be exact, but a lack of data surrounding the actual window of perimenopause and menopause wasn’t taken into account. in fact, the age at which most women begin perimenopause is in their 40s, with some experiencing changes as early as their mid-30s.
this study noted that hormonal therapy wasn’t safe due to higher risks of heart disease, breast cancer and stroke, in the older age group. however, many women don’t fall into that category while going through perimenopause or menopause, showcasing an unfounded fear around a viable therapy that could help a lot of people.
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“i remember when that study came out, and like overnight, prescribing for menopause was turned off, and it really has had a ripple effect through multiple generations of clinicians like myself,” said dr. wijayasinghe. “i was also one of those that was basically very afraid to prescribe hormonal therapy, and when you don’t have a good option to treat our patients, we are told don’t ask because if you don’t have an option, why would you ask?”
now, dr. wijayasinghe will gladly prescribe the medications to people who need it because that data has finally caught up with the reality of the situation: it’s very safe in many patients “within the first ten years of going through menopause.”
“science evolves. that’s the beauty of science. we learn more. we understand that these things can be interpreted better, and i think things are shifting, but we’re sort of catching up to the wave of the public demand to do better.”
catching up requires events like the black women’s healthcare summit and specialized menopause clinics and care centres because people, especially black women, deserve better.
“the really beautiful part about it is that women’s college has this black health plan or black care initiative,” said dr. todd. “it’s just a really good way to reach communities that we otherwise don’t have access to … what i’m seeing is that black patients are just not getting to me, whether they get referred and the wait list is too long, or they’re not having these conversations with their healthcare provider. i think we could spend lots of time looking at gaps in the system and the care.”
she continues, “this is still a stage in women’s lives that we don’t discuss with each other, and so this is the black women’s healthcare summit, which is a really nice place where you can meet people that look like you, are going through a. similar experience and then have access to healthcare providers.”
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