Menopause Education Lags in Residency Training Across Primary Care Specialties

Graduate medical education programs in internal medicine (IM), family medicine (FM), and obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN) consistently underprepare residents to manage menopause-related health concerns, according to a scoping review presented this week at The Menopause Society’s 2025 Annual Meeting, in Orlando. The findings underscore a critical need for structured curricula and innovative teaching approaches to equip future physicians to address midlife women’s health, study authors wrote.

The review, conducted by researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, analyzed literature published from 2000 to 2025 using PubMed and Google Scholar. The team included articles that addressed menopause education in IM, FM, or OB/GYN residency programs and reported on resident preparedness, perceived knowledge gaps, curricular content, or proposed educational solutions.

Little Structured Education

Across all 3 specialties, the literature revealed substantial deficiencies in menopause education:

• Fewer than 30% of IM and FM residents reported receiving structured teaching on menopause.
• Among OB/GYN programs, only about one-third of surveyed program directors nationwide confirmed having a formal menopause curriculum.

Even when programs offered didactic content, residents frequently reported low confidence in managing hormone therapy, vasomotor symptoms, and other long-term challenges associated with menopause.

Interest in additional training proved high, the study authors wrote. They identified practical strategies to address curricular gaps, including integrating menopause topics into clinical rotations, adopting interactive teaching methods, and developing standardized educational tools. Programs that already incorporated multimodal or interactive approaches showed promise in improving resident knowledge and confidence.

The results suggest a systemic gap in graduate medical education that leaves residents ill-equipped to manage common midlife health issues among women despite regularly encountering them in practice. The authors conclude that strengthening menopause education through structured, practical, and specialty-focused curricula will be essential to prepare future physicians to deliver evidence-based, patient-centered care.

The review’s findings prompted a menopause education initiative at the authors’ institution; the team reports that "efforts are underway to create a comprehensive training program designed to build resident knowledge and confidence" they stated.

Bracing for change