Study finds the perimenopause is understudied and untreated.

[Piggywaspushed]

This caught my eye in The Guardian today. Interesting , I thought?

I didn't know there was vanishingly little research into the perimenopause and HRT.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/26/ignoring-hot-flushes-is-wrong-study-challenges-assumptions-about-perimenopause-symptoms

I have certainly been finding that my treatment has been haphazard and variable because my periods have remained in situ and no one seems quite sure what to do with me.

It's quite an odd feature .

The study found 37.3% of women in late perimenopause had moderately-to-severely bothersome hot flushes: meaning they were five times more prevalent among perimenopausal women compared with pre-menopause.
Severe vaginal dryness was 2.5 times more prevalent among perimenopausal women compared with pre-menopause.

Isn't that stating the obvious? women who are not in peri or post menopause aren't going to have these symptoms.

You've got to ask what the value of this research really is.

The BMS and IMS put menopausal symptoms affecting 75% of women - not the 30-40% quoted here. That 75% is broken down into severe, moderate and mild.

The article is explicit though that this was a blind study (ie participants didn't know what it was for) and that there are plenty of studies on the menopause (the paragraph on why they exclude perimenopasual women is telling...). This is specifically about perimenopause - so perimenopausal symptoms and what they look like and why they are overlooked.

Over and over again on here there are posts from women confused about the perimenopause and/pr whose GPs are confused/undertrained/gaslighting.

What the study is saying is thta women in peri menopause experiencing VSMs (that 40%) are not receiving treatment because of the simple fact that they are menstruating. That's important!

It is an Australian study though, not UK.
Happy to be corrected but I've read a few things coming out of Australia on HRT and meno etc and they seem to be 'behind' the UK some of the time and very conservative on treatments.
It's hard to compare research and treatments on a world-basis .

Over and over again on here there are posts from women confused about the perimenopause and/pr whose GPs are confused/undertrained/gaslighting.

I agree with this but it comes back again to GPs being 'generalists' and not investing time in CPD to be aware of the basics.

The BMS runs professional development courses all year round on meno and HRT (mostly online for a very low fee), all advertised on its website, as well as its annual conference.

There's never been more on peri and menopause in the media here, as there is now. Women's mags, online sites, forums etc.