{"id":622487,"date":"2026-09-12T13:52:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T13:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/622487\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T13:52:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T13:52:49","slug":"menopause-is-missing-from-most-electronic-health-records-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/622487\/","title":{"rendered":"Menopause Is Missing from Most Electronic Health Records, Study Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Menopause is frequently missing from women\u2019s electronic health records, according to a University of Colorado Anschutz<\/a> study of nearly 396,000 women participating in the National Institutes of Health\u2019s All of Us Research<\/a> Program.<\/p>\n

Researchers found that menopause appeared nearly seven times more often in participant surveys than in electronic health records (EHRs). The findings, published in Menopause<\/a>, highlight both the potential of large-scale research programs to improve understanding of menopause and the need to routinely capture reproductive health information.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, we cannot study what we do not measure. We cannot treat what we do not know,\u201d said Audrey Hendricks<\/a>, PhD, associate professor of bioinformatics at CU Anschutz and the study\u2019s principal investigator. \u201cMenopause has enormous implications for women\u2019s health, but if we don\u2019t consistently capture when menopause occurs and other important reproductive health information, we limit our ability to understand how this transition affects disease risk and health outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Menopause is a physiological transition that can affect cardiometabolic health and many other aspects of women\u2019s health. Yet relatively little is known about how factors such as the timing and type of menopause influence health outcomes across diverse populations.<\/p>\n

Large-scale initiatives such as the NIH All of Us Research Program offer an opportunity to study those questions by bringing together information from participant surveys, electronic health records and genomic data. But researchers can answer menopause-related health questions using these datasets only when key reproductive health information is available.<\/p>\n

How often is menopause documented in electronic health records?<\/p>\n

Researchers compared menopause-related information reported by participants through surveys with menopause diagnoses recorded in their EHRs.<\/p>\n

They identified approximately 193,000 menopause observations in survey data, compared with roughly 28,000 menopause diagnoses in EHR data. Menopause was documented in EHRs for only about 7% of women in the dataset.<\/p>\n

Nearly all participants with a menopause diagnosis in their EHR also reported menopause in survey data, suggesting that EHR diagnoses generally aligned with participants\u2019 own reports when the information was present. However, far fewer women had menopause documented in their electronic health records.<\/p>\n

Important details about menopause were also frequently unavailable in EHR and survey data, including age at menopause, an important factor researchers may want to examine when studying women\u2019s risk of chronic disease.<\/p>\n

Why does missing menopause data matter for women\u2019s health research?<\/p>\n

Missing menopause information can make it more difficult for researchers to study how the menopause transition relates to health and disease.<\/p>\n

The findings provide guidance for researchers using All of Us data, including how to define menopause-related study populations, design studies and calculate the number of participants needed to answer important research questions.<\/p>\n

More broadly, the researchers say the findings point to a fundamental gap in how women\u2019s health information is collected.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an enormous opportunity to use large-scale datasets to understand women\u2019s health across the menopause transition and to identify who may be at greater risk for disease,\u201d said Hendricks. \u201cBut we need to make sure that the information researchers need is actually being collected. We must do a better job of capturing women\u2019s health information, including reproductive health and measures related to menopause.\u201d<\/p>\n

Better menopause data could strengthen future research<\/p>\n

As the NIH All of Us Research Program continues to grow, more complete and consistent collection of menopause and reproductive health information could help researchers better understand how the menopause transition relates to health and disease.<\/p>\n

Improving the availability of this information could also help researchers investigate how factors such as age at menopause relate to disease risk and health outcomes across diverse populations and ultimately contribute to better care for millions of women.<\/p>\n

Key points:<\/p>\n

A CU Anschutz study of nearly 396,000 women in the NIH All of Us Research Program found that menopause was documented in electronic health records (EHRs) for only about 12% of women with EHRs compared to about half of womenin the survey.<\/p>\n

Researchers identified approximately 193,000 menopause observations in survey data, nearly seven times more than the roughly 28,000 menopause diagnoses in EHR data.<\/p>\n

More consistent collection of menopause and reproductive health information is necessary to strengthen research into menopause, disease risk and long-term health.<\/p>\n

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