Back in 2021, myself and my brilliant colleague, Kate King, undertook some research looking at the experiences of servicewomen who were suffering from symptoms of the perimenopause. Although this was a cross-sectional survey, with all its limitations, what really hit home were some of the challenging experiences our servicewomen were having, from the Chain of Command and Healthcare Professionals, as well as in their working environment.
With my educator hat on, I then looked at how confident our GPs were in offering advice in the perimenopause. While most were up to date with their knowledge and familiarity with guidance, the lack of regular experiential practice and limited patient contact meant that confidence in applying guidelines was a real issue. In other words, knowledge wasn’t the barrier — experience was.
Fast-forward to this year, and a paper by Peters and colleagues in the Journal of Advanced Nursing has captured, through a mixed-methods approach, what many of us already recognise in our clinics and conversations: that women are still being told, in one form or another, to “just put up with it.” Their study of over 400 women in Australia uncovered three familiar themes — the unexpected sequelae on daily life, stigma and shame, and feeling dismissed and devalued.
The accounts are powerful. Women spoke about the intensity of symptoms — heavy bleeding, insomnia, brain fog, hot flushes so severe they avoided social events. They described the shame of not talking about menopause, even with friends or family, and the frustration of health-care encounters where symptoms were minimised or met with antidepressants. The words “shouting into the void” stand out.
What strikes me most is how transferable these experiences are to our own setting in Defence Primary Care. We know that stigma, silence, and gendered assumptions still shape the care women receive. The same structural issues — limited appointment time, inconsistent access to specialist advice, and discomfort in talking about reproductive health — all play their part.
Peters et al. end with a clear call to action: better education for all clinicians, nurse-led multidisciplinary care, and workplace policies that recognise the real impact menopause can have on performance and wellbeing. For me, that aligns perfectly with where we need to go in Defence — normalising the conversation, building confidence among clinicians, and creating an environment where women feel supported rather than sidelined.
Menopause shouldn’t be something our patients have to endure. It’s a phase of life that deserves understanding, compassion, and competence — and that starts with us being willing to talk, listen, and learn.
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