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DRAFT REPORT (2026/2055(INI))

On menopause beyond a health issue: turning menopause into an economic, working and social priority

FEMM-PR-796150

Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality · Rapporteur: Lina Gálvez

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✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 22 Oct 2026

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A draft report by Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality calls for an EU-level strategy on menopause covering research, health, work and awareness. It asks for more EU research funding, a dedicated mission on women's health in FP10, and menopause training for health professionals. It wants menopause recognised as a public health issue and addressed in the Quality Jobs Act, with research on the gender pay and pension gaps. It calls for Commission guidelines against disinformation and stigma, and for harmonised AI-driven data collection on menopause.

Committee position. The rapporteur proposes that Parliament call for an EU-level menopause strategy and for menopause to be integrated into research, health, labour and awareness policies, including through FP10, the Quality Jobs Act and Commission guidelines against stigma.

Key points

  1. Calls on the Commission and member states to develop an EU-level strategy on menopause, based on broader research and evidence-based public campaigns to reduce stigma and improve healthcare and workplace support.
  2. Regrets that menopause is not routinely integrated into EU and member state research programmes and stresses the lack of medical, social and economic research on its long-term effects.
  3. Calls for a dedicated EU mission on women's health in FP10 and more funding for research on menopause, including on the use and efficiency of hormone treatment.
  4. Notes that most medical research focuses on the years of fertility, overlooking puberty, perimenopause and menopause, and calls for more inclusive clinical trials.
  5. Calls on the Commission and member states to recognise menopause as a public health issue and integrate it fully into primary healthcare services.
  6. Urges member states, with the medical profession and educational institutions, to add compulsory, gender-sensitive, patient-centred training on menopause to curricula.
  7. Calls on the Commission to launch, before 2028, its committed study on the economic and societal benefits of closing the women's health gap.
  8. Stresses that menopause affects the labour market and competitiveness, and calls for research on its link to early labour market exit and the gender pay and pension gaps.
  9. Reiterates its call on the Commission to organise an exchange of best practice to combat menopause poverty at national level.
  10. Calls on the Commission to address menopause within the Quality Jobs Act for all workers, drawing on the approach taken in the United Kingdom.
  11. Calls on the Commission to issue clear guidelines to member states to counter disinformation and stigma around menopause, and stresses the role of education, healthcare and public institutions.
  12. Emphasises the need to harmonise AI-driven data collection on menopause across the EU, with a focus on data security and privacy, and to move beyond the idea that women's value is tied to fertility.

Who is affected

  • Women in the EU experiencing menopause, who would gain from research, healthcare, workplace support and information campaigns.
  • Employers and public finances, which the text says bear costs from unaddressed menopause symptoms.
  • Member states, asked to act on research, training, healthcare and guidelines.
  • The Commission, asked to develop a strategy, fund research, launch a study and issue guidelines.

Figures and deadlines

  • 231 million women in the EU in 2026, according to Eurostat demographic data.
  • Around 51.9 million women in the EU will be experiencing menopause by 2030.
  • 96 % of women experience menopausal complaints.
  • In 2020, only 5 % of global research and development funding went to women's health research, with only 1 % for women-specific conditions including menopause.
  • A 3.3 % drop in earnings one year post-diagnosis and a 7.4 % drop after four years, described as the 'menopause penalty'.
  • The Commission is asked to launch its study on closing the women's health gap before 2028.
  • Postmenopause represents almost a third of a woman's life.

Legal basis: Articles 2 and 3 of the Treaty on European Union; Articles 10, 19, 157, 8, 153 and 168 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.