What do Midlife Women Want from Primary Care Clinicians?

Tracy Flanagan, MD; Carl A Serrato, PhD; Andrea Altschuler, PhD; Karen Tallman, PhD; Elizabeth Thomas, MD

Winter 2005 - Volume 9 Number 1

Introduction

As the Baby Boomers move into their 50s and 60s, a larger proportion of Kaiser Permanente (KP) members will be menopausal women. Menopause and midlife have many potential short-term and long-term health consequences, including heart disease, osteoporosis, and physical and emotional symptoms of low estrogen levels. Even if menopause and midlife do not have dramatic health consequences for individual women, many women at this stage of life are looking for strategies to stay healthy or to become healthier. How well KP meets these health care needs has implications for how KP is viewed by its members and by the community at large.