Characteristics of Insurance-Covered Women Newly Diagnosed with Menopause Symptoms and Their Providers in the United States
Aidan P. Sullivan, Jihaeng Heo, Ryan N. Hansen, Julia Cameron, Eliza Dow, Kristina Rosa Bolling, Jennifer Cameron, Anneliese LaRose, Ryan FarejBackground:
Over one million Americans develop menopausal symptoms annually. There is limited information regarding the population-level management of women who develop these symptoms. We described provider characteristics and clinical and demographic characteristics of females newly diagnosed with perimenopausal or menopause symptoms in the United States.
Methods:
We performed a retrospective cohort study using Optum Clinformatics data between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2024. Eligible female patients between the ages of 40 and 65 years of age were identified by their first claim with a diagnosis code indicating menopause or perimenopausal or menopausal symptoms between 2013 and 2024. We categorized the diagnosing health care providers and tabulated the demographic and clinical characteristics of these patients, along with treatments that were prescribed and dispensed. We stratified the population into three age groups to observe potential differences based on age of onset of menopause symptoms.
Results:
There were 297,928 eligible female patients initially diagnosed with symptoms during the study period, diagnosed by 95,178 unique health care providers. Providers in the areas of family practice, internal medicine, and obstetrics and gynecology were the most common to diagnose these initial symptoms. Most of the women (69%) did not receive medications for treatment.
Conclusion:
Symptomatic perimenopause and menopause are natural reproductive phases for all women, and some treatments have been proven to cause harm. Women experiencing problematic vasomotor symptoms and sleep problems in perimenopause and menopause likely need treatment. We found that prescription pharmacologic treatment for symptoms was initiated in 31% of women.