International Menopause Society recommendations and key messages on women’s midlife health and menopause – 2025
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Following a rigorous systematic review of the literature, the International Menopause Society (IMS) has produced detailed new recommendations and key messages on women’s midlife health, menopause and menopause hormone therapy (MHT) to help guide healthcare professionals to optimize their management of women at this critical stage of life. This guidance provides a summary of the recommendations and key messages generated from the systematic review process. The quality of evidence and the strength of recommendations used in this guideline are based on the Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) and the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research & Evaluation II (AGREE II) approaches. The new recommendations now include levels of evidence, grades of recommendations, good practice points and key messages. The recommendations were developed by a body of 38 authors and 26 support team members derived from the IMS and other organizations. Overall, 341 recommendations (285 supported by research data and 56 good practice points) and 38 key messages have been formulated. These span a diverse range of health topics, including lifestyle, midlife body changes, vasomotor symptoms, genitourinary syndrome of menopause, osteoporosis, cardiometabolic health, dementia, premature ovarian insufficiency and various malignancies. A new section addresses the often-overlooked topic of sarcopenia which requires urgent attention. Current controversial topics, such as the influence of the media, the role of the pharmaceutical industry and publication ethics, are also explored.The overall aim of these recommendations and guidelines is to provide the blueprint for the management of women’s midlife health and menopause, given the latest available evidence. In preparing these international recommendations, experts have endeavored to consider geographical variations in medical care, prevalence of diseases/conditions, symptom severity, availability and licensing of MHT and alternatives, and country-specific attitudes of the public, medical community and health authorities toward menopause management.
Source: Reproductive Endocrinology
Author: REPRODUCTIVE ENDOCRINOLOGY
Language: English
Subfield: Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7203480785