Menopause

Menopause refers to the menopause transition (or climacteric), including perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause. This topic covers posts on the psychological, social, economic, and health impacts of menopause, as well as interventions, research, policy, and workplace implications related to this life stage.

Recent discussion on the EA Forum has framed menopause as a potentially neglected area within global health and wellbeing, especially in low- and middle-income countries where access to evidence-based support is limited. Posts under this topic discuss questions such as:

• the scale and neglectedness of menopause-related suffering,
• impacts on mental health, cognition, sleep, and workforce participation,
• spillover effects on families and caregiving systems,
• workplace and productivity effects,
• and the cost-effectiveness of scalable interventions such as digital cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

Several posts focus on Lunava, a Spanish-language guided internet-based CBT intervention for depression and anxiety during the menopause transition in Latin America. These posts explore the potential for low-cost, scalable mental health support targeted at women experiencing climacteric symptoms, as well as broader questions about caregiver burden and indirect household effects.

The topic may also include discussion of:

• menopause-related public health policy,
• workplace accommodations and advocacy,
• research gaps in women’s health,
• menopause and aging-related disease risk,
• caregiver mental health,
• and the economic consequences of untreated symptoms.