Misinformation and Menopause: What the LGBTQ Community Needs to Know

The truth is that speaking about menopause is a taboo topic. Although 80 percent of individuals assigned female at birth will face hot flashes and night sweats that come with menopause, the topic is still rarely discussed. Menopause is treated like an unavoidable condition for cisgender women only and some medical professionals trivialize the symptoms that should be prioritized (and can be treated in a variety of ways).

Because of these reasons, it should come as no surprise that there is a lot of misunderstanding about menopause and a lack of education about the conditions. For example, hot flashes and night sweats are known as Vasomotor Symptoms (VMS). Since there is little education on menopause for cisgender women, that means some LGBTQ+ individuals assigned female at birth are largely unaware that they can experience menopause too.

While discussing his menopause experience, human resource specialist Dru Forbes - who is a trans man - expresses the importance of destigmatizing menopause for the LGBTQ+ community.

"A lot of trans men don't even know this exists. I actually spoke to a few people last week about it in one of my trans men groups. I was like, 'How many of you guys understand you're going through menopause?'I did the math and 92 percent of people had no idea."

This education on menopause needs to be discussed openly so that awareness can spread. Luckily, queer actress and sales executive Carina Buie believes there is hope as we look to younger generations to not stay silent when it comes to their health.

"Now with the younger generation so eager to learn and so excited to know themselves more, this is so important because now they get to know younger, they get to go to school and teach more people about what this is like. Now, generation after generation can know younger, like I did, instead of having people learning as they're going through it."