Canada Launches National Study of Menopause’s Health and Economic Effects

Canada Launches National Study of Menopause’s Health and Economic Effects

Editor’s summary: The Can-RISE study is recruiting participants to examine menopause across healthcare, work, caregiving and daily life. Its value will depend on reaching people routinely excluded from women’s-health research.

TORONTO, Canada — A Canada-wide research team has begun recruiting participants for what its organisers describe as the country’s first national investigator-led study focused on women’s experiences of menopause and the menopausal transition.

The Researching Information, Support, and Equity During the Menopause Transition study—known as Can-RISE—was formally launched on 27 August by Women’s Health Collective Canada and the Partnership for Women’s Health Research Canada.

The initiative is led by researchers from institutions across British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. Its stated scope includes physical and mental health, sexual and reproductive health, chronic conditions, ageing, healthcare access and the social and economic effects of menopause.

That breadth matters. Menopause is often reduced to hot flushes or hormone treatment, although its effects can interact with sleep, mood, cardiovascular health, bone health, relationships, caregiving and employment. Experiences vary widely, and not every symptom occurring in midlife is caused by menopause.

The study’s design and eventual sample will determine how national its findings truly are. Recruitment should include rural and remote communities, Indigenous participants, racialised women, immigrants, people with disabilities and those without reliable digital access. The research team says its expertise includes the health of women, transgender and non-binary people.

Workplace impact requires careful analysis. Some employees need flexibility or symptom-related accommodation, but findings should not reinforce stereotypes that women in midlife are less capable or reliable. Employers need evidence-based policies that protect privacy and allow individual choice.

Can-RISE is supported by Women’s Health Collective Canada, in partnership with GreenShield and through a charitable grant from Organon. Those relationships should be disclosed in publications, together with the funders’ roles and any influence over study design, data or reporting.

The launch does not provide findings and should not be reported as evidence that a particular treatment works. It is a research-recruitment development whose significance lies in building a dataset that could guide future care and policy.

Participants should read consent and privacy information before enrolling, including how sensitive health data will be stored and whether it may be reused.

If recruitment is genuinely inclusive, Can-RISE could help replace fragmented assumptions with evidence about how menopause affects diverse people—and which gaps in healthcare and workplace support cause avoidable harm.

Source Check: Women’s Health Collective Canada launch release, 27 August 2026; Can-RISE official study page, accessed 27 August 2026; Femtech Canada independent report, 17 August 2026.

Image recommendation: Request the official study graphic from the Can-RISE communications team with written editorial permission and supplied credit. Do not use participant photographs without specific consent.

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