Maturation 2.0: Menopause Group Education

Background: Up to 80 percent of perimenopausal women in the United States experience at least one vasomotor symptom of menopause, which persists for a median of 7.4 years (El Khoudary et al., 2019). Eighty-two percent report poor overall knowledge about the physiology of and treatment options during the menopause transition (Shahzad et al., 2021). When mid-life women do not understand what is normal versus abnormal as well as what is treatable during their menopausal transition, they may be less likely to seek evidence-based care. This is a knowledge gap that providers can address proactively. Local Problem: Despite the availability of evidence-based menopause care, increasing numbers of women in the United States are obtaining menopause care that is not evidence-based (Smith et al., 2020). Similar trends have been clinically observed in the local community. Methods: A quality improvement (QI) project was developed to educate women in the menopausal transition. Participants were recruited via flyers which were emailed to university faculty and staff, posted on social media, and shared during clinic appointments. Pre-surveys, post-surveys, and eight-week follow-up surveys were sent to participants to determine the effectiveness of the intervention. Interventions: A menopause group education course was developed and presented to the participants via a virtual education session. The hour-long course included menopause physiology, symptoms, treatment options, and controversies. Results: Post-intervention, we found that participants were highly satisfied with the intervention and rated the course a mean score of 9.2 on a scale of 1 to 10 for their likelihood to recommend the course to a family member or friend. Participant knowledge was assessed via a five-question quiz, and scores increased after the course, demonstrating an improvement in knowledge, which persisted eight weeks later. Menopause-Specific Quality of Life scores decreased, but this did not reach statistical significance. Attitudes, which were assessed via Attitude Toward Menopause sub-scales, also improved following the intervention. Conclusions: Our menopause group education QI project demonstrated that menopause group education can improve knowledge, symptoms, and attitudes toward menopause among mid-life women. The course will change current practice and continue to be offered on a regular basis via live virtual format. By providing group education, our health system will more efficiently educate women in a group setting rather than provide baseline knowledge during individual clinic visits, which may not yield adequate time in many settings.