Let’s Talk About it: Black Women in Menopause Need Better Care

Black women are often left feeling dismissed and unheard in healthcare environments. I believe that there is a clear gap between Black women and healthcare professionals. My thoughts? Healthcare professionals (who don’t look like us) aren’t fully equipped to provide the proper care and treatment options/plans that we need. How so? Well for starters, how can one provide the proper care and treatment to a Black woman when racial biases are evident? The sad reality is most of the time it’s unconscious.  Menopause is a natural biological process, it’s the end of a woman’s menstrual cycle and fertility. Typically, menopause happens after the age of 50, but some women reach menopause early (mid-late 40s), such as Black women. This may be due to our family health history, or procedures like a hysterectomy procedure. Black women are three times more likely to undergo a hysterectomy procedure for fibroid tumors than any other ethnicity. RELATED: I’m in My Early 40s – Can This Be Menopause? How to gauge if you’ve reached menopause: When you haven’t had a menstrual cycle for 12 months in a row When your ovaries no longer make estrogen and progesterone (both are hormones needed for fertility)  Black women...