Plate Nº 48 · recorded September 30, 2026
Health & Medicine ResearchReported finding
Menopause Training in U.S. Family Medicine Is Widespread but Uneven
A national survey finds 94% of U.S. family medicine residency programs teach menopause care, but coverage varies widely and few programs formally assess competency.
By Marcus Bennett4 min read757 words
In brief
- 94% of surveyed family medicine residency programs reported a dedicated or integrated menopause curriculum, but 56% of program directors said menopause education needs improvement.
- Of 313 program directors responding to the omnibus survey (44.7% response rate), 279 completed the menopause-specific questions.
- The U.K. formally evaluates menopause competency in training; the U.S. does not, despite menopause management being listed as a core knowledge area by the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Most U.S. family medicine residency programs teach menopause care in some form, but the content varies widely between programs and almost nothing is formally assessed, according to a new national survey published in the journal Menopause.
The study, one of the first to map menopause education across American family medicine training, surveyed residency program directors across the country. Of 313 directors who responded to a broader omnibus survey — a 44.7% response rate — 279 answered the menopause-specific questions. Ninety-four percent said their program either has a dedicated menopause curriculum or covers menopause within a broader women's health curriculum. Yet a majority, 56%, agreed that menopause education needs improvement.
The findings matter because of how much care family doctors provide to women at midlife and beyond. Women spend roughly one-third of their lives after menopause — the point when menstrual periods stop permanently and estrogen levels decline. In many parts of the United States, particularly rural and underserved areas where access to gynecological specialists is limited, women rely on family physicians for most of their care throughout their lives. Most U.S. women over 50 receive their cervical cancer screening from internal medicine and family medicine clinicians.
What the researchers wanted to know
Researchers conducted the survey to answer several questions: How broad and structured are existing menopause curricula? What gaps exist in educational content and hands-on clinical training? How do program directors view the need for change? And would programs be interested in a national, standardized menopause curriculum?
The results suggest the problem is not absence but inconsistency. Menopause education appears in most programs, yet without formal competency assessments — standardized checks that a trainee has actually mastered the material — there is no way to confirm how deep or consistent that education really is.
That stands in contrast to the United Kingdom, where menopause competency is formally evaluated as part of medical training. In the U.S., the American Academy of Family Physicians' women's health curricular guidelines now list menopause management as a core knowledge area, but the guidelines do not come with a formal assessment requirement.
The researchers concluded that scalable, on-demand learning modules with built-in competency assessment offer a promising route to strengthening menopause training — a way to raise the floor across programs without demanding more scheduled classroom time.
A growing patient population
The timing adds urgency. More women enter menopause each year, and evidence from earlier studies suggests many family physicians finish residency with significant gaps in menopause-related knowledge and clinical skills. If training quality varies substantially from program to program, future graduates may be underprepared for growing patient demand.
The new study is titled "Building capacity for menopause care: a national needs assessment of menopause education in U.S. family medicine residency programs" (DOI: 10.1097/GME.0000000000000002908).
Outside organizations are already responding
The Menopause Society, a professional organization focused on menopause care, has built its own training materials aimed at the same gap. Its Menopause Academy recently launched a centralized online hub offering courses, continuing medical education (CME) modules — accredited learning credits physicians need to maintain their licenses — as well as videos and podcasts. The materials are designed to fit into busy clinicians' schedules.
The academy is part of the society's broader NextGen Now initiative, which aims to expand and improve midlife women's health training for health care professionals while addressing health inequities in regions with limited specialist access.
"Menopause education initiatives such as those offered by The Menopause Society and others aim to close the persistent and important gaps in menopause training that are again demonstrated in the highlighted study," said Dr. Stephanie Faubion, medical director for The Menopause Society. "Ensuring that menopause education is integrated into residency training programs is key, as is providing learning opportunities for busy clinicians in practice."
What the study can and cannot tell us
As a survey of program directors, the study reflects directors' own accounts of their curricula rather than direct measurement of what residents learn or how well they perform in clinic. Self-reported survey data can overstate coverage, and the 44.7% response rate means more than half of programs contacted did not respond, so the picture may not be fully representative.
Still, the direction of the findings is clear. Menopause education has a foothold in nearly every family medicine residency program, directors themselves say it needs work, and the tools to standardize it — on-demand modules with competency testing — already exist. Whether residency programs adopt them broadly remains an open question.
via Medical Xpress (Source)
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