A third of women with menopausal symptoms say they are not taken seriously by their GP

Palpitations, hot flashes, and dizziness are some of the typical complaints of women going through menopause. However, one in three women with menopausal symptoms feel that their general practitioner does not take them seriously. This was reported by over 2,000 women in an EenVandaag Opinion Panel. The women are either told they are too young to have menopause, or the symptoms are sometimes mistaken for panic attacks, according to the study.

A study by the EenVandaag opinion panel shows that almost half of the women (48%) surveyed took a long time for their GP to take their complaints seriously and determine that they were menopausal symptoms. And this was the case for women with typical symptoms. The figure is much higher for women who do not show typical symptoms. Around 70 percent of premenopausal women whose periods have not yet stopped but who are already showing symptoms of menopause stated that it took the general practitioner a very long time for the correct menopause diagnosis to be made.

Around a third (35%) of the women surveyed said that they did not feel taken seriously by their GP. When they mentioned menopause in the consultation, their suspicions were merely “smiled at” or “relegated to the realm of fantasy.” It was also mentioned that the complaints were associated with mental illnesses instead of being attributed to menopause.

And because there is no proper diagnosis, an effective treatment plan often fails to materialize. Six out of 10 participants (62 percent) said that they were not given a treatment plan during their consultation that would have helped them with their symptoms.

The study was conducted between 7 June and 8 July 2024. About 2,207 women who are in menopause or who are already experiencing menopausal symptoms participated in the study. Of these, 1216 contacted a general practitioner because of these symptoms.