UCalgary to recruit participants for menopause study

University of Calgary researchers are encouraging women to participate in the MOMENTUM menopause study.

Menopause, including pre, peri and post, affects 10 million Canadian women, yet the team says its an understudied area of health care.

"I think women are just tired of not having answers. We have very little information for women based on women actually being studied," said MOMENTUM researcher Leigh Gabel.

It's much more than a change in the reproductive system.

"It's a whole-body condition. Every system is impacted by this huge change in your hormones," said Nicole Culos-Reed, a principal investigator with MOMENTUM and a professor with the University of Calgary's Faculty of Kinesiology and Cumming School of Medicine.

The 11 researchers are all based in the Faculty of Kinesiology and will focus on different aspects.

Exercise physiology will be one piece but also bone, gut and brain health, and the impacts of going through menopause during injuries or cancer.

Researchers are aiming to gather data to tailor programs, improve health outcomes, create educational resources and inform guidelines and policies.

"No one has done it with this comprehensive wellness focus like we're proposing to do here, and to really track women over time," Culos-Reed said.

The goal is to get hundreds of Alberta women to take part.

Rhonda Yacey signed up because she wants to learn more about her own health and help others.

"I think being part of the study is just expanding the knowledge base for all of us women going through that time of life," the 50-year-old said.

"And maybe create more innovative ways to help us deal with it."

One day each year, participants will do a set of tests to track their health, to provide evidence-based advice for themselves and others.

"To help women take charge of their health through this menopause journey (and) be able to hopefully inform our health-care providers," Culos-Reed said. 

The team is looking for Alberta women between 40 and 60 years of age to join the first research cohort.

Initial funding is from the Joan Snyder Fund for excellence in kinesiology research.