For years, countless women on Prince Edward Island have quietly navigated the unpredictable and often isolating journey through perimenopause and menopause, unsure where to turn for honest answers and understanding. Now, a meaningful movement is beginning to take shape, one that aims to replace silence with conversation, confusion with clarity, and isolation with community. A newly established non-profit, the P.E.I. Menopause Society, has stepped forward with a simple but powerful mission: to improve access to care and provide reliable, evidence-based information about this deeply personal stage of life. The organization was co-founded by two family physicians, Dr. Michele Murray and Dr. Kathie McNally, who have witnessed firsthand the struggles of patients dealing with symptoms that can upend daily living—hot flashes, sleep disturbances, anxiety, brain fog, and mood changes. “We know that there is a need in P.E.I. to improve access to menopause care,” Dr. Murray told CBC’s Island Morning, her voice carrying both urgency and optimism. “We want to improve the culture, create a community of people that want to have a conversation about this, and we’re really excited to get started.” It’s a sentiment that feels long overdue, and for the women who have felt dismissed or unprepared for this chapter of life, the arrival of an organization dedicated to their wellbeing is something close to relief.
What makes this initiative so necessary, according to the founders, is not just a lack of services, but a deeply rooted gap in medical education that has left both doctors and patients in the dark. Dr. McNally noted that in recent years, more and more patients have arrived at her clinic with internet searches in hand, carrying a jumble of facts, half-truths, and outright misinformation about menopause. “People are coming in with a lot of information they’ve gotten off the internet, and a lot of it’s incorrect,” she explained, adding that she now spends more and more time in clinic correcting false information rather than simply offering guidance. The problem, she says, begins long before patients walk through the door. Menopause simply was not part of her own training as a physician. “We didn’t get trained about it in medical school. I received little to no training … and I don’t think that’s changed,” McNally said. She pointed to a startling statistic: less than ten percent of medical school curriculum is focused on women’s health, and the vast majority of that is dedicated to reproductive health—pregnancy, fertility, and childbirth—while the decades of hormonal transition after a woman’s reproductive years are largely ignored. The result is a health-care system that often treats menopause as an afterthought or a natural nuisance to be endured rather than a legitimate medical experience deserving of skilled, compassionate care.
The society is wasting no time in building momentum. Its first event was scheduled for Friday evening as part of an ongoing Speaker Series designed to bring women and health-care providers together around factual, reassuring, and practical information. One of the featured presentations would delve into a landmark IWK Foundation survey on women’s health, a project that gathered responses from more than 27,000 women across the Maritimes—a powerful reminder that this is not a niche concern but a shared experience touching hundreds of thousands of lives. Another presentation in the series would explore the different stages of menopause, helping women understand what is happening in their bodies from perimenopause through post-menopause and beyond. For those who cannot attend in person, the organization plans to share updates, articles, and resources through its website and social media channels, aiming to become a trusted beacon in a sea of online noise. Meanwhile, public health authorities are taking notice. In a statement to CBC News, Health P.E.I. said it remains committed to improving access to high-quality care. The agency noted that salaried physicians receive up to two weeks of paid time each year for professional development and that doctors are encouraged to pursue educational opportunities that support their practice—a category that could certainly include menopause and perimenopause care. While some may see this as a modest step, it signals a growing recognition that menopause education is not optional but essential.
Beyond the clinic walls, another organization is looking at the bigger picture, examining how menopause intersects with community, workplace, and economic life. The Atlantic Summer Institute has been working to identify gaps in menopause support on the Island, and its coordinator, Patsy Beattie-Huggan, has been listening carefully to women’s stories. In the project’s first phase, focus groups with women across Prince Edward Island revealed a troubling pattern: countless participants had visited their doctors with symptoms like anxiety, mood changes, hot flashes, and sleep problems, only to leave without ever hearing that menopause might be the culprit. The silence left many women feeling confused, frustrated, and even guilty, wondering why their bodies were betraying them with no explanation. The project identified three critical areas for action: education for physicians and other health-care providers, workplace policies that accommodate women’s needs during this transition, and public education designed specifically for women so they can recognize symptoms and seek help early. Beattie-Huggan framed the issue in stark and compelling terms: “Menopause and perimenopause are not just an experience that women have; it’s a socio-economic factor.” This sentence reframes the conversation entirely—menopause is not merely a private health matter but a public issue with ripple effects through families, careers, and economies.
The socio-economic dimension is one that many women know intimately, even if they have never seen it articulated so clearly. Symptoms like insomnia, brain fog, heavy bleeding, and crushing fatigue often strike during a woman’s mid-career years, the very moment when many are at the peak of their professional responsibilities. Some women reduce their hours, pass on promotions, or leave the workforce altogether, not because they lack ambition or ability, but because they cannot find the support they need to thrive during this transition. Beattie-Huggan emphasized that this dynamic affects more than individual livelihoods; it undermines the broader economy and deprives workplaces of experienced, talented women. To address this, the Atlantic Summer Institute is moving into the second phase of its project, bringing community workshops to Summerside, Montague, Charlottetown, and O’Leary. These sessions are designed to check in with women, to ask whether the first phase accurately captured their experiences, and to gather further recommendations directly from those who live this reality every day. The institute plans to carry this community input all the way to a policy forum in February, where decision-makers at every level—from provincial officials to workplace leaders—will be invited to listen, learn, and act. A final report will then be prepared, calling for concrete changes to improve the lives of women on the Island.
What is unfolding on Prince Edward Island is more than a series of meetings and educational sessions; it is a cultural shift, a long-overdue restoration of dignity and knowledge to women who have been expected to suffer in silence. The new P.E.I. Menopause Society and the Atlantic Summer Institute’s project are two threads in a larger tapestry of change, one that recognizes that women deserve better than guesswork, better than dismissive appointments, better than being told “this is just part of getting older.” It is about creating spaces where women can speak openly about their bodies, where physicians can admit what they don’t know and learn what they need to know, and where employers can see menopause not as a taboo but as a normal, manageable, and even empowering phase of life. The road ahead will not be short—retraining doctors, rewriting curriculums, reshaping workplace policies, and changing public attitudes are enormous tasks. But every conversation helps. Every question asked at a workshop helps. Every woman who leaves a doctor’s office feeling heard helps. And on this small Island, a growing chorus of voices is refusing to let the subject stay hidden. For those who want to join the movement, the P.E.I. Menopause Society’s website and social media channels offer a doorway into this new community, and the Atlantic Summer Institute welcomes registration for its upcoming workshops by phone or online. After so many years of silence, the message to women on Prince Edward Island is finally clear: you are not alone, you are not broken, and your experience matters—not just to your own future, but to the health and vitality of the whole community.