Menopause is a natural part of life, marking the end of menstrual periods and changes in reproductive hormones.
While all women go through this transition, research has shown that women Veterans may experience earlier or more symptoms. Just like other transitions you’ve faced, you don’t have to go through this one alone. VA offers support and care to help you manage these changes with confidence and comfort.
Understanding menopause phases
Menopause doesn’t happen overnight. It unfolds gradually in three phases: perimenopause, menopause and post-menopause. Each phase brings different changes. Knowing what to expect can help you manage symptoms more effectively.
- Perimenopause: The adjustment period before menopause. It often begins in your 40s. During this time, your ovarian function begins to decline. You may notice changes in your menstrual cycle, such as periods that are heavier, lighter, longer or shorter. Hot flashes, mood changes, night sweats, weight gain, thinning hair and trouble sleeping can also begin during this phase.
- Menopause: Occurs when you have not had a menstrual period for 12 consecutive months. Most women reach this point in their early 50s, though it can happen earlier or later. Hot flashes, mood changes and other symptoms may continue. At this point, your body adjusts to lower hormone levels and you may need extra care to manage symptoms.
- Post-Menopause: After menopause, your body continues to change. While some symptoms may ease, your risk increases for health conditions like heart disease, osteoporosis and urinary incontinence. Ongoing care can help you stay healthy and manage these long-term changes.
Menopause as a Veteran
As a woman Veteran, you’re more likely to experience earlier or more intense menopause due to a combination of military-related stressors and exposures.
Chronic stress, posttraumatic stress disorder, trauma and higher rates of depression can disrupt hormones and worsen symptoms. Smoking or increased tobacco use is linked to earlier menopause, while exposure to environmental hazards like burn pits and chemicals may impair ovarian function.
Managing menopause
No other health care system understands your experience as a Veteran better than VA. We recognize your unique needs and tailor our services to you. You may be eligible for services, including:
- Medication: Medications, including hormonal and non-hormonal options, can reduce symptoms and restore balance.
- Sleep support: VA offers tools and treatments to help you sleep better, which supports your overall well-being.
- Whole Health: A variety of additional options for managing symptoms are offered through Whole Health, including acupuncture.
- Mental health support: VA offers counseling, medication and peer support to help with mood changes, stress or emotional shifts.
- Lifestyle counseling: VA helps you build healthy habits around diet/weight, exercise and stress management through various therapies and medications.
- Bone density testing: VA monitors bone density to detect early signs of bone loss and personalizes plans to prevent or manage osteoporosis.
- Vaginal therapies: VA offers therapies for vaginal and urinary symptoms, including topical medications and pelvic floor physical therapy.
In addition to VA care, there are steps you can take on your own to ease symptoms such as hot flashes, mood changes and irritability. CA recommends to dress in layers, avoid hot beverages, limit alcohol, practice mindfulness, exercise regularly and eat a healthy, balanced diet.
Embrace this New Chapter with VA
Visit the VA Women’s Health Menopause page or download the Women Veterans Menopause brochure to learn more. Call the Women Veterans Call Center (1-855-VA-WOMEN) to speak to a real person who can help you enroll, schedule an appointment and connect you to care you can trust.
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Glad to finally see this!
I am 63 YO female vet who has been asking for help for years – finally got a Dr. to refer me for HRT and OB/GYN said I was too old and referred me to Behavioral Health! Really?
I’ll try asking again – I hope they can provide some help!
This article is excellent, however I am a veteran 70% disability rating, PTSD, exposure to burn pits and I went to the Women’s Health Care at my local VA and I was denied any medication. (That had been prescribed by my outside physician) I had provided all the necessary medical note. I wasn’t offered any therapy or anything. The Wilmington Delaware VA. Provider is Nurse Practitioner Regan
So happy for the care that the VA provided me for menopause! I felt like I was loosing my mind and going crazy, I reached out for help and they took my concerns seriously and got me the help and medication (Estradiol patches) that I needed to get back to “normal” Man I am feeling so much better. Thank you!! It makes me so mad that not all people are provided the same health care at their VA’s!!!
The VA used to prescribe prometrium a bioidentical progesterone pill that i had been on from 2007-2021 or 22. That prescription medication was replaced with the generic progesterone which really really sucks. Instant dry brittlehair, hair loss falling out in hand fulls. couldn’t sleep, hot flashes. 3+ years later im kind of used to the crap sleep but still feel the VA needs to do better. I was on prometrium for a very long time and these last few years have pretty much sucked without it.
The VA does not support menopausal care for veterans. If you want the truth the VA provides veterans with substandard medical care, substandard prescriptions. Im 23 years post radical historectomy and salpingo ophrectomy without informed consent, all due too medical interference, redacted medical imaging, redacted medical records by VA medical staff.
I happen to be intersex, so don’t be surprised that my decades of medical experiences within the VA are actually fairly horrendous. I am treated a great deal better these days ie current years of care are better but the VA has decades of past mistakes that need to be improved on. One of thier so called better care as stated in the article above along with one of the other comments posted and you’ll really see fairly clearly that there isn’t any actually care available from the VA.
I’m grateful the gals are being car3d for on many levels these days. I’m a 70 yo disabled female vet and appreciate the care I pr3sently have and I am grateful to those persons who have moved care at the VA in a whole person direction. I only wish I had the same opportunities when I began care in the mid 1970’s on. I have a sense of the struggle with 3 family members with health issues and the tension and financial burden that in part led to my husband’s suicide. If I’d had ptsd and depression diagnosed in my menopause years, I may have had skills to cope better.
I am ever so grateful for the VA’s marked progress made over the last 48 years.
Men have a similar time of adjustment to accepting the limits time and limits allows
A type a personality can find it strenuous in their 4oes.the disappointment mwith my acomplishments
really? I asked my female Dr at the Minneapolis VA WOMEN’s CLINIC and she said “we don’t do hormone testing because there is nothing we can do about it, it’s just a part of life/” So I had to hire a functional MD OB/GYN and paid him out of pocket to do testing and prescribe bio identical hormones!!
Yes, I got push back from the same facility! Both Minneapolis and St Cloud said no to HRT, and two female nurse practitioners didn’t even know what perimenopause was. I was prescribed birth control pills instead. Thank you for your comment! It’s comforting to know I’m not alone in my experience.
My recent experience with menopause and the VA was terrible. The practitioners were dismissive and ignorant about menopause care. Please stop spreading a false narrative that the VA is supportive of menopause health. I was told by multiple doctors and nurses: “We study on men, not women,” and “The VA doesn’t offer HRT (hormone replacement therapy) because it causes breast cancer.” The breast cancer study of the early 2000s was found to have overstated the risks. Yet, no VA doctors or NPs I spoke with were aware of this, and nearly all them had little to no knowledge of common symptoms related to menopause. I gave up on VA Healthcare. I only go as a last option and to avoid high ER costs.
We desperately need better menopausal healthcare. But we also need better, more up to date information and education passed on to our PCPs. When we are told this is just a phase of life and that we are too young for HRTs, it’s defeating. I might be young by menopausal standards, yet here I am.
Good for the females, now it’s time for the VA to approve the full-spectrum of TRT (Testosterone Replacement Therapy) for men.
We go through Andropause, also known as “male menopause,” which is a term used to describe the gradual decline in testosterone levels in men as they age. It is characterized by a range of physical and psychological symptoms, including:
Decreased libido
Erectile dysfunction
Fatigue
Mood changes
Reduced muscle mass
Increased body fat
Andropause is a normal part of aging and typically occurs in men over the age of 50. While not all men experience andropause, it is estimated that up to 50% of men may have some symptoms by the age of 60.
Funny my VA Doctor says there is nothing the VA can do to help me except birth control pills. Fibroids? No problem you can take Motrin. Oh you can’t have Motrin because we’ve been pushing it on you for years? Take Tylenol.
I started experiencing menopause while on active duty and have lived with it since retirement. I’m a 100% P&T disabled Veteran and was recently prescribed hormone replacement patches through Tricare. This year, at my very first appointment with my new VA PCM, I was immediately told, “The VA won’t cover that,” when I mentioned using patches or estrogen inserts.
It’s frustrating to hear the VA claim, “No other health care system understands your experience as a Veteran better than VA. We recognize your unique needs and tailor our services to you,” when treatments like these — which can drastically improve quality of life for women — are dismissed outright.
For comparison, men are readily prescribed medications for Erectile Dysfunction (also a hormone-related) without hesitation as part of service-connected care. Why isn’t the same level of support and understanding offered to women Veterans for equally life-impacting conditions and with the same priority?
Hi there! I think this is a very recent change. A few months ago, I was told that the VA didn’t cover/prescribe hormone therapy. After more research/reading, I decided to ask again. My gynecology provider prescribed estrogen patches for me at my appt this week! I’m so glad the VA is now covering this much needed benefit for women’s health and well being. If at first you don’t succeed, try try again!
I love seeing menopause being brought up in the VA News. I’ve been advocating for better menopause care, and this is wonderful to see. As a menopause and fitness expert, I’m also happy to help the VA in any way I can to better support women in this phase of their lives.
The va puts out a lot of propaganda that makes it seem like great strides are being taken to help veterans. If you actually worked with veterans and read the responses already written, you would realize nothing good is truly offered to those suffering with menopause. Care is not the same from each clinic, hospital or region. Its a mess and care is typically substandard then the great care this article proports.
Dr/pa’s are limited on what they can prescribe because its the pharmaceutical companies who drive what is on the shelf. No new drug is offered to people. And, of course, no alternative therapy or holistics suppliments like herbs or essential oils are ever considered.
If you’re not a va dr, then praising a system you know nothing about shouldn’t be done.