New study reveals persistent gaps in and limitations of family medicine residency training programs in the United States relative to the needs of menopausal women
CLEVELAND, Ohio (Sept. 30, 2026)—Many family physicians care for women their entire lives, yet little is known about the menopause education they receive during training. A new study suggests that, although menopause education is broadly incorporated into U.S. family medicine residency training programs today, content coverage is variable and training programs lack formal assessments. Results of the study are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society.
Women spend approximately one-third of their lives in the postmenopausal state, yet evidence suggests that many family physicians graduate from residency training with significant gaps in menopause-related knowledge and clinical skills. This is especially problematic in areas where specialized gynecology access is limited, and women rely on their family physicians for the majority of their care throughout their lifetimes.
In recent years, there has been greater awareness of and focus on the need for better, more standardized menopause training to the point that the American Academy of Family Physicians’ women’s health curricular guidelines today identify menopause management as a core knowledge area. However, the absence of formal competency assessment means the actual depth and consistency of menopause education across programs remains unknown. This is a notable contrast to training frameworks in the United Kingdom, where menopause competency is formally evaluated.
As a result, the quality and depth of menopause education in family medicine training programs may vary substantially, leaving future graduates underprepared to meeting growing patient demand as a result of more and more women entering menopause each year. This is a major gap considering that the majority of women over 50 in the U.S. receive their cervical cancer screening from internal medicine and family medicine clinicians—especially women in rural and underserved communities where specialist access is limited.
To characterize the current state of menopause education in U.S. family medicine training, researchers involved in a new study conducted a national survey of family medicine residency program directors. Their goals were to describe the breadth and structure of existing menopause curricula, identify gaps in educational content and clinical training opportunities, and understand the directors’ perspectives on the need for improvement and gauge interest in a national standardized menopause curriculum.
Of 313 family medicine program directors who responded to the omnibus survey (44.7% response rate), 279 completed the menopause-specific questions. The majority (94%) reported either a dedicated menopause curriculum or menopause education integrated within a broader women’s health curriculum. Overall, 56% of program directors agreed there was a need to improve menopause education. Based on the results, the researchers concluded that scalable, on-demand learning modules with competency assessment represent a promising avenue for strengthening menopause training.
Study results are published in the article “Building capacity for menopause care: a national needs assessment of menopause education in U.S. family medicine residency programs.”
Organizations, such as The Menopause Society, also recognized the lack of menopause education and the need for scalable learning and created training materials designed to address this gap. Recently, The Society’s Menopause Academy launched a centralized online hub for menopause education, including courses, continuing medical education (CME) modules, videos, and podcasts.
The Menopause Society’s training materials are specially designed to conveniently fit busy clinician schedules and are part of The Society’s broader NextGen Now initiative—which is designed to expand and improve midlife women’s health training for healthcare professionals while also addressing health inequity issues in areas that lack 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. Ensuring that menopause education is integrated into residency training programs is key, as is providing learning opportunities for busy clinicians in practice,” says Dr. Stephanie Faubion, medical director for The Menopause Society.
For more information about menopause and healthy aging, visit www.menopause.org.
The Menopause Society is dedicated to empowering healthcare professionals and providing them with the tools and resources to improve the health of women during the menopause transition and beyond. As the leading authority on menopause since 1989, the nonprofit, multidisciplinary organization serves as the independent, evidence-based resource for healthcare professionals, researchers, the media, and the public and leads the conversation about improving women’s health and healthcare experiences. To learn more, visit menopause.org.