Towards a holistic and improved clinical management of menopause

As life expectancy increases, women may spend a significant number of years that can amount to almost a third of their life in the post-menopausal lifestage.1 Menopause represents a unique stage in a woman’s lifetime, wherein menstrual cycles cease and women experience vasomotor, genitourinary and neurocognitive changes that can impact their quality of life due to the sudden loss of estrogens.2 While all women go through menopause, the experience is unique to every individual—often affected by comorbidities, socio-economic factors and cultural beliefs—making its diagnosis and treatment complex.1 Menopause remains a sensitive topic, often resulting in healthcare providers being unable to manage symptoms and offer efficacious treatment. Therefore, there remains an urgent need to improve the clinical management of menopause globally. There is also a paucity in research on Asian women’s health that needs to be addressed, as large population health studies tend to focus on Caucasians only.