Menopause Empowerment Guide | 2 If you’re feeling frustrated trying to find relief from your menopausal symptoms, you’re certainly not alone. As a matter of fact, The ‘Pause Life’s FREE community is buzzing with members who feel the same way! Despite the discomfort women experience throughout their menopausal journey and the readily available safe and efficacious therapeutic options that could improve quality of life and possibly prevent a number of chronic illnesses, only a small fraction of women are offered treatment. How did we wind up here, and what can we do about it? I’m so glad you asked! How Did We Get Here? Much of the lack of treatment for menopausal symptoms is a result of the inadequately designed, evaluated, and reported results of research conducted by the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative, which created panic among patients and physicians alike. The erroneous message communicated by the media, as a result, was that hormone therapy posed more risks than benefits for all women. On top of this misinformation, according to a survey of U.S. obstetrics and gynecology residents, only one in five residents received formal training in menopause medicine.1 This staggering statistic signifies that many practitioners feel they lack the appropriate knowledge necessary to treat women in perimenopause, menopause, and beyond, which further widens the gap between women and the relief of their menopausal symptoms. Many years later, The Menopause Society (formerly The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) created an advisory panel to evaluate new research and reanalyze the WHI trial. As a result of this research and subsequent analysis, a new consensus was released.2