Moncton, N.B., consultant Cindy Comeau tracks her fitness progress on her Apple watch. She began getting hot flashes and other menopause symptoms in her late 40s. “I want to know as much as I can to take care of my own health,” she says.Viktor Pivovarov
Cindy Comeau began experiencing a range of menopause symptoms in her late 40s. There were constant hot flashes, heart palpitations, brain fog and insomnia, as well as conditions that she – and even her doctors – didn’t realize were related to menopause, including high blood pressure and vertigo.
“I went through it all blindly,” says Ms. Comeau, 67, who runs a consulting business in Moncton, N.B., that mentors women and new immigrants in career advancement. “There are so many mixed messages about menopause.”
Her understanding began to change last year when she signed up for sanoMidLife, a web app that tracks her symptoms and connects virtually with a health coach and a nurse practitioner for personalized support.
Closing the knowledge gap
sanoMidLife is among technological tools and resources that have been slow to come but are now growing in number and usefulness for women looking to improve their menopause care.
“Women have so many questions,” says Trish Barbato, co-founder and board chair of the Menopause Foundation of Canada, an advocacy organization that aims to close the knowledge gap on menopause, help women get menopause care and create menopause-inclusive workplaces.
The foundation, which operates under a medical advisory board, has published a report on the stigma surrounding menopause and another on its impact on Canadian businesses, with an estimated cost to the Canadian economy of $3.5-billion a year.
Among the organization’s findings: 77 per cent of women trust their doctors to discuss menopause with them, but 72 per cent say the information they receive from doctors ends up being only somewhat helpful or not helpful at all, while 40 per cent feel their symptoms are under-treated.
“Women are left saying, ‘I have a problem, I am going crazy, I don’t feel like myself,’ and our health-care system is not addressing their needs,” Ms. Barbato says, noting that entrepreneurs with products to help women deal with their symptoms are filling the void. “The whole market has opened up, because there’s so much opportunity.”
New virtual menopause-care providers and hubs now offer services ranging from ordering and analyzing blood tests to prescribing and dispensing compounded hormones. These include sanoLiving, which makes sanoMidLife, as well as Blair Health, Coral Virtual Menopause Care and Felix Health.
To help women decipher what’s being offered, how to assess quality and what out-of-pockets costs to expect, the foundation has published an online tool with a questionnaire, she says.
Bringing science and technology together
Dr. Jeanne Bouteaud, a Montreal-based obstetrician-gynecologist specializing in menopause, says advancing science and technology in this area is critical.
“We have a lot of gaps in knowledge, and that leaves a lot of room for interpretation for particular regimens and for people who have practices that deviate from the standard,” she says.
Dr. Bouteaud, who is a board member of both the Menopause Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Menopause Society, which deals with academic training on the topic, expects to see an expansion of technologies that improve efficiency in menopause care, for instance triaging or pre-diagnosing patients.
Apps and wearable devices such as Calm, Headspace, WHOOP and the Oura Ring can be used to track symptoms that are related to menopause, including disturbed sleep, elevated stress and unusual eating patterns, helping women to identify when something is off. But these technologies are “for information purposes only, they’re not diagnostic grade,” Dr. Bouteaud cautions.
Meanwhile digital-health platforms for menopause like sanoMidLife that combine online advice and treatment by medical practitioners offer a more integrated “whole-person approach,” she says, combining data collection and information with a multi-disciplinary service.
Women are left saying, ‘I have a problem, I am going crazy, I don’t feel like myself,’ and our health-care system is not addressing their needs.
— Trish Barbato, co-founder, Menopause Foundation of Canada
Angela Johnson, chief executive officer of sanoLiving in Richmond Hill, Ont., says sanoMidLife was the first and remains the largest digital platform for menopause in Canada.
Ms. Johnson got the idea for the technology after entering perimenopause at 35 and suffering symptoms so “horrendously debilitating” that by 40 she had to take a leave of absence from her job as an executive at IBM. “I ran on two, maybe three hours of sleep for years,” she recalls.
She co-founded sanoLiving in April 2023 and the company’s app launched six months later. The platform addresses menopause and broader midlife health through a self-guided assessment, evidence-based education, health coaching and nationwide access to licensed clinicians who can diagnose, treat, prescribe and order tests.
“When in-person care is indicated – blood work, mammograms, pelvic-floor exams – the platform coordinates referrals and pulls results back into the system for follow-up,” Ms. Johnson says.
Empowering women and their loved ones
A critical element of the technology is the self-guided assessment, which helps women track symptoms “and understand where they are at in their midlife journey,” she says.
“Women who use the technology say, ‘I felt heard for the first time,’ and ‘I feel empowered,’ because they get educated along the way,” says Ms. Johnson.
The service is often included in workplace and retirement benefits packages, and it’s now offered by 1,400 companies representing 1.6 million employees, she says. “Much like mental-health coverage, you should have coverage for your menopause care.”
Technology for menopause “is an emerging market, and new companies are entering quickly,” Ms. Johnson says. “There are a lot of women who have been impacted by menopause, like me, who want to make it better for others.”
Ms. Comeau, who is planning to host a day-long seminar on menopause through her company, C3 Leadership Ltd., still experiences three or four hot flashes each day, but now feels she can manage symptoms with confidence backed by expert advice through the app and its resources.
Such technologies, she adds, “Equip women with knowledge and educate men, who often know little about menopause. I want to know as much as I can to take care of my own health, and we all need allies to understand and support us.”