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Menopause – supporting healthy ageing for women

Australian women now spend over one-third of their lives in the post-menopausal phase, yet menopause remains under-recognized in routine healthcare.1 Midlife is a critical window of opportunity to address the increased risk of chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes, mood disorders, and certain cancers. Despite this, structured perimenopause and menopause consultations are often not yet standard practice in primary care, which could mean missed opportunities for early intervention and symptom management.

While menopause is a unique experience for each woman, up to 80% experience symptoms, and 20% report severe, life-altering impacts on their quality of life.2 The recent 2024 Senate Inquiry into menopause and perimenopause highlighted issues relating to accessing adequate healthcare for women during this life stage.1

There is evidence many women may not be fully aware of or have access to the full range of evidence-based treatment options to support menopause symptom control. For example, in 2024, only 4% of women in their 50s in our region were using menopausal hormone therapy (MHT).3 While it may not be needed or appropriate for all women, MHT is the most effective way to control menopausal symptoms.2

An informed decision-making process, which includes discussing the risks and benefits of both hormonal and non-hormonal options, is essential for tailoring approaches to women during the menopausal transition.

This toolkit is designed to equip primary care providers with evidence-based strategies to initiate timely conversations, assess individual risk factors and implement effective interventions that empower women to age well.

Empower healthy ageing for women by incorporating structured perimenopause and menopause care into routine healthcare.

To achieve this goal, you can access a range of resources:

  1. HealthPathways: Explore locally tailored approaches for menopause. Simply enter “Menopause” or “Menopause Hormone Therapy” in the search bar to get started.
  2. Jean Hailes provides a range of online courses for GPs, nurses and health professionals
  3. The Australian Menopause Society is the peak body for menopause in Australia and New Zealand. It provides a range of educational resources for clinicians and patients including regular updates about medications and a structured template for a menopause consultation.
  4. The Practitioner’s Toolkit for Managing Menopause has been developed by the Women’s Health Research Program at Monash University.

Kickstart your quality improvement activity by bringing together a quality improvement team. Together, you’ll identify the key challenges and come up with innovative solutions, ensuring you all share a clear understanding of the improvement objectives and strategies.

  1. Engage with your Primary Health Coordinator from CCQ; they can offer tailored support, resources and guidance to enhance your QI efforts wherever you are in your QI journey. Your Primary Health Coordinator can support your practice to:
    • Bring a QI team together to decide on an improvement idea
    • Plan, start and finish a QI activity
    • Facilitate QI meetings
    • Create practice-wide systems improvement
  1. Gather data and information. Review current practice data and processes for managing perimenopause/menopause.
  2. Identify and discuss any common enablers and barriers to optimal care for perimenopause/menopause. Consider using process maps, flow charts or driver diagrams to generate change ideas and improve processes.

What data might you need? You’ll need data to understand the problem and measure your outcomes. We suggest you start with:

  1. Primary Sense can provide insight, detailed reports, and targeted guidance for improving data quality. The following reports are available within Primary Sense:
    • Health Assessments: identifies patients missing health assessments for 40-49-year old.
    • Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors: highlights patients who are at risk of cardiovascular disease.
    • Bowel and Breast Cancer Screening: identifies patients aged 45-74 without evidence of bowel and/or breast cancer screening completed in the past two years.

To achieve your goal, you can consider several improvement ideas such as:

  1. Develop a practice procedure for offering a regular comprehensive perimenopause/menopause health assessment with the practice nurse and treating GP. Tip: Ensure this includes assessment of cardiovascular risk, osteoporosis risk, cancer screening and mental health.
  2. Conduct a practice education session on evidence-based treatments for perimenopause and menopause using the Australian Menopause Society or Jean Hailes resources as a guide.
  3. Conduct a patient awareness campaign about the importance of cardiovascular risk assessment for women in the mid-life stage. Consider leveraging Heart Health checks and utilising the Primary Sense report “Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors” to identify appropriate patients and initiate conversations about perimenopause/menopause as part of these appointments.
  4. Consider how to incorporate regular discussion and management of bone health for women around perimenopause/menopause. Some possible examples could include adding a reminder to the patient file of all women aged 55, a patient education campaign or a screening questionnaire at reception for women over the age of 51.
  5. Develop a practice procedure to flag patient files in your clinical software when a woman reaches 45. When the patient presents to practice, consider a standardised workflow where a nurse opportunistically discusses perimenopause/menopause with the patient prior to their appointment.

Remember to self-report your QI project as a CPD activity. QI is a great tool for measuring tangible outcomes and demonstrating improvement in patient care!

Share your results with your CCQ practice support team and with your patients. Ensure you document your quality improvement activity to meet PIP QI guidelines and for CPD purposes.

References

    1. Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. (2025). Government response to the inquiry into issues related to menopause and perimenopause. https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-02/government-response-to-inquiry-issues-related-to-menopause-and-perimenopause.pdf
    2. Australasian Menopause Society. (n.d.). What is menopause? Retrieved February 26, 2025, from https://www.menopause.org.au/hp/information-sheets/what-is-menopause
    3. Primary Sense. (2025). General Practice Data Extraction Program. Accessed February 2025.
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