Dear Friends,
Thank you to everyone who attended my Senior Resource Fair last Friday at the Ambler Area YMCA! It was wonderful to see so many of you, and I hope you found the information, tools, and resources you were looking for. I am incredibly grateful to my staff, all of the vendors who participated, and the Ambler Y staff for helping make the event such a tremendous success. If you were unable to attend, please do not hesitate to reach out to my office during our business hours, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. You can also find a recap of the Senior Resource Fair here.
The last two weeks in the Capitol have been incredibly busy. So, apologies for the long email. Last week, I had two bills move through the Aging Committee and another move through Health, while a bill I co-prime sponsored moved through the Human Services Committee. This week, three of my bills passed the House and another advanced from committee.
This week, I want to focus on how this legislation illustrates how much the conversation around women’s health is changing in the Capitol.
That change has not happened overnight, and it has not happened without some growing pains. But we are having conversations that should have happened decades ago. We are talking about women’s health, the health and economic consequences of menopause, the impact on our workforce and the support women deserve throughout every stage of their lives. You can watch a rally we hosted here.
When some of the women working on these issues with me, including Senator Maria Collett, joined the General Assembly in 2018, Pennsylvania ranked 49th in the nation for women’s representation in government. Since then, women have changed the face of the Capitol, and, importantly, they have changed the conversations happening inside it.
Over the past several years, while working on women’s health legislation, I have had deeply meaningful conversations with women who have shared their experiences with perimenopause and menopause. They have taught me a great deal about what women are going through and how we as policymakers can do better. I have looked at what other countries are doing to better support women and reduce the healthcare and economic costs associated with this stage of life and used that to help create good policy.
These conversations and this policy are long overdue.
In the 24 hours after I spoke about menopause on the House floor, more than 10 members of the Capitol community, from both sides of the aisle, reached out to tell me how much my words meant to them. After last week's rally, a woman reached out to tell me that hearing us talk openly about menopause empowered her to ask her doctor more questions and advocate for better treatment options.
That is the power of discussion, education and information.
I know this conversation has made some of my colleagues uncomfortable.
One colleague told me he supports my efforts but thought I should stop talking about women’s health because it was “gross.” The Health Committee minority chair told me that, while she had listened to my speeches and appreciated my points, I was making people uncomfortable by talking about menopause. Some members joked that we would be “heroes to all men in the Commonwealth” for “ending menopause.” In a committee hearing, one member said that if menopause were really important, “we’d have done something about it already.” Another dismissed the issue because no one had ever personally talked to her about their menopause symptoms. And another argued that employers would be better off simply not hiring women than accommodating their needs.
Those comments demonstrate exactly why this conversation matters.
When a serious public health issue is met with ridicule, dismissal, or discrimination, that is not an argument against addressing it. It is an argument for why we need to keep talking about it, and why good public policy matters.
If we are going to have a serious conversation about perimenopause and menopause, we need to start by understanding what women are experiencing, and the healthcare, economic and workforce consequences of continuing to get it wrong.
Menopause is a healthcare issue.
For too long, we have treated menopause as something women should simply endure. Too many women enter perimenopause without understanding what is happening to their bodies or knowing what symptoms they may experience.
A 2025 AARP poll found that 32% of women said they lacked important information about perimenopause and menopause. A 2026 Gallup survey found that only 37% of women felt they had a good understanding of menopause, while just 25% said they understood their treatment options.
Even when women seek help, they can struggle to find a healthcare provider who has the knowledge and training to help them. Only 31% of OB-GYN residency programs include a menopause curriculum, and fewer than 7% of residents report feeling adequately prepared to care for menopausal patients. Too many women end up seeing multiple doctors before they finally get answers or relief.
And this matters because the hormonal changes that begin years before menopause can affect nearly every aspect of a woman's life, including sleep, mental health, and overall well-being. Cardiovascular risk increases significantly. Women can lose up to 20% of their bone density in the first five years after menopause, and one in two women will experience an osteoporotic fracture in their lifetime.
Those fractures are devastating for women and their families, but they are also incredibly expensive. The cost of osteoporotic fractures among Medicare beneficiaries was estimated at $57 billion in 2018 and is projected to exceed $95 billion by 2040.
We see the same problem with genitourinary syndrome of menopause, or GSM. GSM can cause recurrent urinary tract infections. Recurrent UTIs can mean repeated doctor's visits, antibiotics and urgent care, and, in serious cases, hospitalization and sepsis.
Yet we have treatments that can help prevent some of these problems. Research has estimated that broader use of topical hormone therapy could save Medicare between $6 billion and $22 billion a year by reducing UTI-related healthcare costs. But too many women, and too many healthcare providers, still do not know that these treatments are options.
So, why we are spending billions treating problems that, in many cases, we have an opportunity to prevent?
Menopause is also an economic issue.
The Mayo Clinic estimates that menopause costs the U.S. economy $26.6 billion each year in direct medical costs and lost workdays, with the broader economic impact reaching as high as $150 billion when lost productivity and workforce attrition are included. In Pennsylvania, lost productivity associated with menopause has been estimated at approximately $215 million annually.
Behind those numbers are women missing work, reducing their hours, passing up opportunities and, in some cases, leaving their jobs because they are struggling to manage symptoms without adequate support.
Women already spend more than men on healthcare. Women pay $15 billion more in out-of-pocket healthcare costs than men each year. Women who experience early menopause because of a hysterectomy or another medical intervention can also face significant additional healthcare and financial challenges.
When women cannot get the care they need, the consequences do not stop in the doctor's office. They reach into household budgets, employers, businesses and our economy.
And menopause is a workforce issue.
More than 75% of women experience menopause while they are still working. One in three women report reducing their workload, one in four report passing up leadership opportunities, and two in five have considered leaving the workforce. Women experiencing menopause symptoms also see their earning decline by approximately 10% within four years.
Women do not suddenly become less capable, less ambitious or less committed because they are going through menopause. But when symptoms are poorly understood and inadequately treated, women can end up missing work, reducing their hours, passing up opportunities or leaving jobs altogether.
There is broad agreement that we can do better. More than half of women believe employers need to improve their support for women experiencing menopause, and nearly three-quarters of employers agree. Nearly two-thirds of women and three-quarters of employers also believe that lawmakers at every level should do more to improve access to treatment.
When women cannot get the care they need, the consequences do not stop with their health. They affect their families, their employers, and our economy.
So how are we addressing the problem?
Representative Cephas’ and my House Bills 1345 and 1346 would expand access to menopause treatment by requiring coverage through Medical Assistance and private health insurance. Depending on the coverage, these bills would help women access important care such as hormonal and non-hormonal treatments, behavioral health services, pelvic floor therapy, bone health care, preventive services, and other treatments related to menopause. The bills passed by 193 and 146, respectively.
My House Bill 1411 would improve menopause education by directing the Pennsylvania Department of Health to work with healthcare providers to make accurate information about perimenopause and menopause more readily available. Better education can help women recognize symptoms, understand their health risks, and seek appropriate care earlier.
I first introduced this legislation in 2021, and while it did not receive a vote that session, I kept working on and talking about it. It passed committee in 2023 and then passed the House 106-97 before stalling in the Senate. Since then, my menopause education policies have been adopted in other states, and are moving forward in others. The conversation we started here in Pennsylvania is helping move this issue forward across the country. I want to make sure that Pennsylvania women benefit from it, too. This year, HB 1411 passed the House Health Committee 24-2 and the full House 189-14.
The premise of HB 1411 is simple: women deserve accurate, accessible information about their own health. They deserve to understand what is happening to their bodies, know when to seek care and have the information they need to ask informed questions and make informed decisions. My full remarks on the House floor can be found here (warning they are very long but I wanted to get onto the record the full scope of this issue and I believe this is the most comprehensive overview of the topic given in any chamber in the country.)
House Bill 2135 by Rep. Cephas would help women remain healthy and successful in the workplace by providing reasonable accommodations for menopause symptoms. Simple measures such as flexible breaks, access to cold water, temperature adjustments, less restrictive clothing and appropriate scheduling flexibility can make a meaningful difference for employees while establishing reasonable standards for employers. It passed with 126 votes.
Representative Shusterman’s resolution to have the Joint State Government Commission study these issues and make recommendations to the legislature on Perimenopause and Menopause Policies passed with 159 votes, and she had two bills go through the Aging Committee that I expect will soon see floor action. HB 1827 to increase Preventative Measures for Hip Fractures and HB2545 to increase Insurance Coverage for the Prevention of UTIs. As did my Pelvic Floor Health Insurance and Education bill, HB1244.
Together, these bills recognize a simple principle: women should be able to get the care and support they need to remain healthy, financially secure and active in the workplace and their communities. This is how comprehensive women's healthcare policy should look. Behind every statistic is a woman trying to understand what is happening to her body, find appropriate care, stay in the workforce, and continue living her life, and we see that want to support her!
Please note that my office will be closed on Monday, October 12, 2026. We will reopen at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, October 13. If you need assistance, please leave a message at 610-277-3230 or email me at RepHanbidge@PaHouse.net, and we will get back to you upon our return.