Coming off the heels of the $100 million Sprint for Women’s Health, menopause care and treatment grabbed the spotlight on Capitol Hill on May 2, 2024. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) led a bipartisan group of 17 female senators to unveil the “Advancing Menopause Care and Midlife Women's Health Act,” a $275 million bill championed by actor Halle Berry and aimed to improve care and treatment for menopause and midlife women’s health.
The bill aims to address gaps in research, clinical care, and public awareness regarding perimenopause and menopause through a comprehensive public health approach. Supporters say the legislation will have a significant impact on improving midlife health outcomes for millions of women. The bill’s key provisions:
- Advance menopause research: dedicating $25 million annually for National Institutes of Health (NIH) research on acute and chronic menopause symptoms and midlife women’s health and trajectories, prevention of related conditions, and development of new treatments; focusing research to accelerate the translation of research on perimenopause and menopausal symptoms; expanding public health research, data collection, and reporting on midlife women’s health outcomes by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); and creating new categories for chronic or debilitating conditions among women to analyze and coordinate research on menopause, menopausal symptoms, and their effects on midlife women's health.
- Improve menopause detection and treatment: allocating $10 million in annual grants for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to support early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of menopause symptoms.
- Address menopause misinformation: creating an HHS-led public awareness, education, and outreach program on menopause and midlife women's health for patients, providers, and stakeholders. Further, expanding outreach and engagement activities with accredited schools of medicine, higher education institutions, and research institutions to support research on menopausal symptoms and establish menopause care training programs and Centers of Excellence to improve care quality and address disparities.
With over 50 million women (about twice the population of Texas) reaching menopause each year in the United States, lawmakers emphasized the need to address this major public health issue. As Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) stated, "Menopause is not just hot flashes; it's a make-or-break moment for women's health."