Timing Is Everything: What Every Midwife Needs to Know about Hormone Therapy in Perimenopause, Menopause, & Beyond

Menopause is emerging from decades of fear around hormone therapy, and midwives can be at the forefront of providing the evidence-based care that midlife women so desperately need. In this webinar, we will review the current guidelines & evidence on hormone therapy during the menopause transition. We will cover how to prescribe hormone therapy to maximize safety and minimize risk, why the timing of initiation of hormone therapy is so important, and the different formulations of hormone therapy. We will also briefly cover current guidelines on nonhormone therapy & lifestyle recommendations for midlife women. This presentation seeks to increas midwives’ comfort with counseling about, prescribing, and continuing MHT for eligible patients and offering evidence-based nonhormonal alternatives when indicated.

Vanessa Ross, MSN, CNM, MSCP, CLC (she/her) Vanessa Ross has been a practicing CNM since 2001. For the past decade, she has focused on chronic pelvic pain, sexual health, & menopause care. She is a Menopause Society Certified Provider and is passionate about educating providers & the public about menopause. Vanessa is a faculty member of the Baystate Midwifery Education Program & the UMass-Chan Medical School. She is also a member of the Baystate Coaching Program. She loves supporting student midwives with coaching & doing private health & life coaching for midlife women. Vanessa lives in Western Mass with her 2 teenaged kids. When she is not working, she is likely to be found practicing or teaching hot yoga, hiking, paddleboarding, or playing pickleball.