Dear Mr. President-

Approximately 75 MILLION WOMEN are currently going through perimenopause, menopause, or post menopause in the United States, with 6,000 more added every day to that list.
Despite this, even the most generous statistics show only about 10% of research is dedicated to women’s health overall.  Even worse, there is so very little research on perimenopause that it is difficult to find accurate data, but it is estimated that less than 1% of research is dedicated to perimenopause, despite it affecting every woman on earth that lives beyond child-bearing age, and lasting longer than 14 years in some cases. 

This is not only unacceptable, it’s irresponsible. 
Treatment options remain not only limited for women, but unnecessarily villainized by the FDA, resulting in black box warnings and proven therapies being denied and denounced as unnecessary or even harmful.

We spend decades paying tens of thousands of dollars for insurance, and are flatly denied coverage for what men are graciously provided with little or no question. Women are denied Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) by insurance companies and left either paying astronomically inflated prices for “med spa” HRT, or more often, going completely without any medical treatment at all. 
We are told our symptoms are “in our heads”, or we “just need to lose weight”, or we’re prescribed antidepressants, anti anxiety medication, mood stabilizers, or sleeping pills and live life in constant exhaustion, stress, and brain fog, wondering how we feel so horrible, if “nothing” is wrong with us.

We are told our hormone levels are “normal”, but no one mentions that “normal” doesn’t equal “optimal” and those “normal” ranges are actually based on levels of women in menopause themselves. No one admits that we are subject to comparison within an entirely separate age category. A category that minimizes our symptoms, knowing full well those hormones decline as we age and also seriously impact our quality of life. In some cases, the same declines can threaten our very lives. 

We are told that testosterone is not an FDA approved hormone for women, despite it being a primary hormone in women, responsible not only for sexual desire, but for tissue and bone health and red blood cell development. Yet we are denied FDA-approved access to therapeutic testosterone therapy and gaslit into believing we don’t need it, because the FDA flatly refuses to acknowledge the absolute absence of clinical evidence showing any safety risks. 

The economic impact of women in perimenopause and menopause is estimated to cost in the billions of dollars annually. Individually, women suffer an income reduction of 10% or more due to lost wages, reduced hours or job changes from symptoms alone. 

We are SUFFERING and screaming into the void, begging for change. We deserve better. We deserve recognition and representation in research, access to FDA approved, reasonably affordable treatments covered by insurance , and to live the second half of our lives healthy, productive, and strong. 

Mr. President, the women of America respectfully ask that your administration develop and propose Research and Development programs to Congress that prioritize women and our health for the first time in US history. We ask you to demand that we no longer be ignored and denied access to safe, affordable healthcare that we deserve by insurance companies. We ask that you intervene on our behalf with the Federal Drug Administration and insist the fear-mongering be stopped and new, correct information be widely distributed to medical professionals regarding available treatments. We ask that you stand in the gap on our behalf and not waiver until we have what we need to live healthier, safer, more productive lives. 

Respectfully- 

American Women and the Men Who Love Them