Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure (a) all health care practitioners are trained in menopause and (b) that menopause guidance is introduced into workplaces in England.

To help ensure women receive the best possible care, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published a guideline on the diagnosis and treatment of menopause in November 2015. This set out the support, information and treatments needed to address the often debilitating symptoms that women suffer.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Royal College of General Practitioners also have important roles to play in relation to awareness of, and clinical practice relating to, menopause. Recently in December 2019, the RCOG published ‘Better for Women’ which calls for a life course approach and includes a focus on general health during and after the menopause.

We encourage employers to rise to the challenge by creating supportive and flexible ways to help those living with these conditions.

Whilst curricula for training healthcare professionals do not necessarily highlight specific conditions for them to be aware of, they do emphasise the skills and approaches that professionals must develop in order to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients.