Sign Living360’s petition asking for menopause support to be included in the NHS Health Checks for women over 40.
Last month Living360 surveyed over 600 women and discovered over 60% of women feel uninformed about the healthcare choices available during and after perimenopause, with women in perimenopause and post-menopause continuing to not know (63.1% and 64.2% respectively).
It’s clear to us that menopause support and healthcare for women needs to be improved in the UK, which is why we’ve launched our #IncludeMenopause campaign.
We’re petitioning for menopause support to be included in the NHS Health Checks for women over 40, with the aim of improving the experience for women across the UK.
You can see and sign the petition here.
What are the NHS Health Checks?
Currently, the checks consist of a few basic measurements: height, weight, blood pressure and cholesterol; and lifestyle questions that can contribute to poor health such as smoking, drinking and lack of exercise. GPs should be inviting patients when they turn 40 and again every five years going forward.
Following Living360’s findings earlier this month, we spoke to an additional 297 women and discovered over 70% of women weren’t contacted by their GP, and menopause was only discussed in around 5% of appointments.
Living360 believes adding menopause support to the NHS Health Checks is an easy-to-action change that will help women across the UK enormously. And to not do so would be a gravely missed opportunity.
Taking place every five years, it’s the perfect opportunity for the majority of women to see a healthcare professional before, during and after perimenopause (as most women begin perimenopause in their mid-40s).
This kind of support is well overdue.
The fact that women can go through perimenopause, which often lasts years, and still come away feeling uninformed about the healthcare choices available to them is shocking.
Menopause is often compared to puberty but, in fact, it’s much more of a drastic change than that. There’s no other time a person in the UK would be expected to deal with such a variety of serious physical and mental health symptoms without regular medical support.
The government and the NHS need to be doing more to help women.
Sign the petition here if you agree.
