Manipulating the menopause: unveiling the benefits, pitfalls and imperatives in a complex landscape

Introducing a new treatment or service into clinic can be an exhilarating and exciting experience. As practitioners we are highly motivated to help and support our patients with new offerings and enthusiastic to share our new-found knowledge.

But what happens when we don't know what we don't know? (Kruger and Dunning, 1999). What happens when clinics are offering a percentage of a service that, if full provision were available, would be a CQC regulated activity, but with that missing percentage becomes an unregulated service vulnerable to the kind of lack of regulation we have long been campaigning against in the world of medical aesthetics. What happens to our credibility, ethics and most importantly, what happens to our patients?

The menopausal transition is a profound and intricate phase in a woman's life, marked by biological, psychological and hormonal changes. The growing aging population and societal recognition of menopause has led to an increased demand for menopause care services (Lambrinoudaki et al, 2022) both within the public healthcare system and the expanding private sector.