PCPs Must Know More About Menopause

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According to Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Women's Health, "It is essential that new curricula be developed to train internists in the core competencies needed to manage menopausal symptoms."  

A commentary published in the March 2014 issue of that journal urges that internists must play a larger role in managing menopausal symptoms.A release from the publisher notes that the number of menopausal women is projected to reach 50 million by 2020. With changing views on appropriate therapies to control symptoms and new treatments available and on the horizon, most internists lack the core competencies and experience to meet the needs of women entering menopause, the authors maintain.

The article, "Competency in Menopause Management: Whither Goest the Internist?", was written by Richard Santen, MD, University of Virginia Health Sciences System (Charlottesville), Cynthia Stuenkel, MD, University of California at San Diego, Henry Burger, MD, Monash University (Melbourne, Australia), and JoAnn Manson, MD, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA). The authors describe the changing landscape of menopausal symptom management, with renewed use of hormone therapy among recently menopausal women at low risk of breast cancer and heart disease. The emergence of new non-hormonal treatments and other approaches may be unfamiliar to internists who are often ill-prepared to manage symptoms in women who have completed their reproductive years and are approaching or beginning menopause.