Menopause Care Gap in Arab Region
The Vocabulary That Shapes a Diagnosis
In Arabic, menopause is still commonly called sin al-ya’s, which translates as ‘the age of despair’. [3] The term describes the end of menstruation as something to endure rather than to openly discuss.
The framing matters because it tells women what to expect: endurance, not treatment. Menopause research is underfunded globally, and care for it is uneven across the world. In the Arab region, the problem is compounded by gaps in physicians’ training and the widespread belief that menopause is a private and natural transition that does not require medical intervention.
A survey of 254 physicians across the Middle East and Africa found that fewer than 30% correctly identified the diagnostic criteria for menopause. [2].
When medical education treats menopause as a footnote, the physicians it produces carry that assumption into every consultation. The result is a region where women navigating this transition often do so without a clinical framework to understand it.
The Evidence Gap That Compounds the Silence
Hormone replacement therapy can relieve menopause symptoms. [2] Concerns about breast cancer became a barrier to its use after a broadly misinterpreted 2002 report linked the two. [2].
Nuanced conversations with physicians can help to weigh up the benefits and risks, which vary with the timing, formulation and route of treatment. But those conversations require two things that are often missing: a physician trained to have them, and a patient who trusts that the conversation is worth having.
The Slow Thaw and the Work Ahead
Things are slowly changing. Specialist services are beginning to emerge. Health systems must now capitalize on this growing awareness to provide better training, clear communication and accessible care.
The danger in that opening is real. Where trusted clinical guidance is difficult to obtain, social media and commercial wellness providers sometimes fill the information gap, potentially amplifying poor advice.
The cultural and religious dimensions are not incidental. Some Muslim people value their ability to fast and pray without interruption from menstruation. Poorly managed menopausal symptoms can disrupt individuals’ health, careers and ambitions. When a woman cannot sleep through the night because of hot flushes, when her bones are silently losing density, when her mood swings make her question her own competence — those are not private inconveniences. They are public health problems wearing the mask of private ones.
Hala Zahreddine Fahs, a senior consultant in drug discovery and development at New York University and a women’s health science communicator based in Abu Dhabi, described seeing the consequences in her own family. For two decades, her mother experienced hot flushes that affected her work and quality of life, and later developed osteoporosis. Her symptoms were dismissed. Fahs eventually turned to the scientific literature herself and questioned why HRT had not been discussed with her mother. [1].
No one should need to have a scientist in the family for their symptoms to be taken seriously. That sentence is the whole problem in miniature. The knowledge exists. The treatments exist. The guidelines exist. What does not exist, in too many places, is the infrastructure to deliver them — the trained physicians, the local research, the cultural permission to speak.
The review in Frontiers in Global Women’s Health is a map of that absence. [2] A 2026 review of 22 Arab countries found only 15 studies of HRT use, drawn from seven countries. [2] Physician counselling is often lacking. These are not findings that describe a region failing at menopause care. They describe a region that has not yet begun to try.
The three changes the source identifies — better training, clear communication, accessible care — are not complicated. [1]. They are expensive, slow, and require institutions to decide that the health of half their population past the age of 50 is worth the investment. That decision has not been made. The growing awareness on social media has created an opening. Whether health systems walk through it or let the wellness industry walk through it instead is the question the next decade will answer.