Let’s Clear Up Some Menopause Misinformation

Setting the record straight on menopause hormone therapy and heart disease, dementia and more.

I keep tabs on a wide range of menopause influencers - it's helpful to know who’s putting “spin” on various menopause guidelines or outright ignoring them all together.

As various menopause influencers gain larger and larger audiences (some reaching into the millions), misinformation is becoming more problematic. So much so that The Menopause Society released a statement this past fall clarifying common misconceptions repeated over and over and over again by a handful of menopause influencers.

But first, what is The Menopause Society and why do their guidelines matter?

The Menopause Society (formally known as The North American Menopause Society) is a nonprofit organization established in 1989 with the purpose of providing evidence-based resources and guidelines for treating midlife women during the menopause transition.

The organization publishes a monthly medical journal called Menopause, hosts an annual conference where researchers can present their latest findings, runs a training course to teach medical providers how to appropriately treat midlife women for menopause symptoms, and provides a database where the public can look up qualified menopause practitioners by zipcode.

The guidelines released by The Menopause Society take into account the wide body of research on any given menopause-related topic. And their guidelines are widely respected throughout the world.

Alright, you have my attention. What does The Menopause Society’s statement on misinformation say?

The statement reminds us that two things can be true: Hormone therapy can be incredibly helpful for a variety of menopause symptoms, but recommending all menopausal women take hormone therapy is not the standard of care. Not all women want or need to take hormone therapy.

The statement also clarifies that based on the existing science and clinical evidence, estrogen isn’t recommended for preventing heart disease (unless you reach menopause prior to age 45) or for preventing dementia, arthritis, frozen shoulder, joint pain, weight gain, hair loss, wrinkles, or for the prevention of aging.

Testosterone continues to be recommended for hypoactive sexual desire disorder (low libido/desire) in women where other causes of low libido have been ruled out.

But testosterone therapy is not recommended for overall well-being or treatment for other age related conditions. Why? Because legitimate scientific research has studied the use of testosterone in thousands of women and the research findings don’t support these claims. I’ll be writing more on this soon.

Got it. But what about influencers who are showing or citing research in their posts?

Scientific research is a complicated process. You need to isolate a variable and then account for every factor that might influence the results, of which there are many. Smaller studies are usually pilot studies where researchers are looking at possible questions for much larger, longer, more expensive studies. Then those larger studies need to be replicated by other researchers and the results confirmed to reach scientific consensus.

Some menopause influencers are cherry picking small, isolated studies to support their pre-existing beliefs. This is a process known as confirmation bias.

Some of these same influencers have featured research articles that I was genuinely interested in reading, so I forwarded the relevant info to my cardiologist husband who can access the articles - which are often behind a paywall - from work. In several cases the article didn’t say what the influencer was claiming it said in her social media post, which - not gonna lie - felt shocking and dishonest.

This is why The Menopause Society (and other influential menopause organizations like the Australasian Menopause Society and The British Menopause Society) play such an important role: they are looking at scientific consensus over a much wider body of research.

Anything else I should know?

Yep, let’s talk about some major red flags. I would consider unfollowing any menopause influencer who is:

🚩 Blatantly going against the guidelines put forth by the major menopause societies.

🚩 Making claims that all women should go on hormone therapy.

🚩 Making claims that all women should avoid hormone therapy.

🚩 Using fear to manipulate your feelings about hormone therapy, one way or another.

So who should you be following on social media? I’ll tell you who I do trust in an upcoming newsletter - so stay tuned!

xo, Rebecca

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