Status of Women Committee on June 11th, 2026

[Roberta Heale]

It's hugely important to have the Government of Canada promote evidence-based information. It can be done in a very collegial way, but also in a way that people will accept, understand and trust.

The women I see are feeling terrible, and they don't know what to believe. If there's something that comes from a government campaign or a public health campaign, I think that would go a long way to help support knowledge not only for the women themselves, but also for their families and the workplaces. There could be a several-pronged approach to do that.

[Marie-Gabrielle Ménard, Liberal, Hochelaga—Rosemont-Est, QC]

Thank you very much.

I would be curious to hear from the other witnesses, if they'd like to add their thoughts.

Ms. Flood, what can you add about this idea of conducting awareness campaigns and improving people's understanding of perimenopause and menopause?

[Amy Flood]

Yes, I 100% agree. I think that campaigns are necessary, evidence-based campaigns, because there is a lot of misinformation out there for women. They are turning to social media, and, nine times out of 10, that social media is ending in, “Click here. Buy this.” They're not legitimate resources, and they're not being promoted for the right reasons.

I think that a lot of the symptoms themselves are trivialized and misunderstood. You talk about it at a party, and men think, “What's so wrong with a hot flash? You get hot.” A hot flash is not a hot flash. It's a mini panic attack. Your heart is palpitating, and you start to sweat and to lose focus, while you're trying to maintain a business presentation, coach your child's rugby game or what have you.

There needs to be evidence-based information for women. There also needs to be emotion-based information for women's allies. Their husbands, brothers, partners need to know what they're going through, and it needs to be rooted in real cause and real fact.

I want to touch on what you just said about the younger girls. There are far more issues correlated to hormones, like polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, fibroids and chronic pelvic pain. If young girls knew more about their hormonal journey, they would be able to advocate for themselves, and they would get diagnosed sooner. The larger issues around fertility, and even magnifying the impact of perimenopause and menopause over your lifespan, can be prevented. This hormonal journey is so necessary and critical for more people to understand.

[Marie-Gabrielle Ménard, Liberal, Hochelaga—Rosemont-Est, QC]

It's cruel, but I'm out of time. However, what I'm hearing is that women are conditioned to function through pain and cope with challenges. I hope that here, we'll be able to change that.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Marilyn Gladu]

I'm so sorry. That's the end of your time.

Ms. Larouche, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Ladies, if I'm not mistaken, I'll be the one to wrap up this truly fascinating hour with you. Thank you very much.

I like to make broader connections with other topics that I've previously studied. I'm going to pick up on what was said in the previous round. The Standing Committee on Health has already done a study on women's health. We found that there were indeed repercussions related to menstruation among young girls from a young age. Sometimes they have to stop what they're doing. Later in life, it's often postpartum depression that affects them.

Here again, these subjects are not discussed. A young girl can't tell her school that she had to stay home because she was in too much pain from her period. A woman can't talk about her postpartum depression either. It's not well known. Women don't talk about their menopause symptoms. More broadly, there's a gap in understanding, a taboo, and the consequences are very real. They even affect research on women's health, which is certainly insufficient.

In order to have better treatments and meaningful discussions in doctors' offices, studies have to be done and proper attention has to be paid to women's health issues, which are somewhat sidelined and considered taboo.

I see some nods. Ms. Alon-Shenker, what do you think it would take? We were talking about awareness in the previous round.

Personally, I'd like to talk about more concrete things, such as health research, which helps us find treatments and take care of women's health.

[Pnina Alon-Shenker]

I think that research and awareness come together. The research will provide you with the information to inform all of the other initiatives, starting with the campaign and moving on to legislation and other regulatory measures.

Research will provide you more evidence-based information about where we're lacking and the economic and social costs of menopausal workers leaving the workforce prematurely. This is not an individual, personal problem. It's a societal, economic issue, and this is why I think that, once—

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Marilyn Gladu]

I'm sorry. That's the end of the time that we have today for the panel, but if you have comments that you'd like to send to the clerk, that would be great.

I want to thank all of our witnesses for their excellent commentary today.

At this point, I'm going to suspend so that we can change panels and vote.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Marilyn Gladu]

We are back.

I want to welcome our witnesses for the second panel.

For the benefit of those who are new, if you want to check the interpretation that you have, English, French or the floor, whichever you want to hear the questions in, that would be good. All questions will come through the chair.

Let me introduce our witnesses. We have, as an individual, Julie Drapeau, senior vice-president, sales and marketing, of Purity Life Health Products LP. We have Dr. Colleen Norris, the Cavarzan chair in women's health research at Edmonton Women's Health Research. We have Aimee Debow, the founder of Menovate.

We welcome all of you. You each will have five minutes for your opening statements.

Dr. Norris, you can begin for five minutes.

[Colleen Norris, Cavarzan Chair in Women's Health Research, Edmonton Women's Health Research]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair and members of the committee, for the opportunity to speak today.

My name is Dr. Colleen Norris. I'm a professor and associate dean of research at the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Alberta and the Cavarzan chair in women's health research. I lead research focused on women's health, women's cardiovascular health and the reproductive transition.

I'm here today because Canada has an opportunity to correct a major gap in women's health care that has persisted for nearly two decades. Two generations of women have been denied appropriate care during the reproductive transition due to the combined effect of the misinterpretation of the women's health initiative and a long-standing failure to recognize the critical role that estrogen plays in women's lifelong health. As a result, the menopausal transition has been treated as an isolated reproductive event rather than what it truly is, a whole-body biological transition.

When estrogen declines, the effects extend far beyond hot flashes. Vascular function changes. Bone loss accelerates. Sleep becomes disrupted. Metabolic risks increase. Mood and cognition are affected. These changes influence not only quality of life but also long-term risk for cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, emotional and psychological distress, cognitive changes and reduced workforce participation with increased health care utilization.

The timing of this transition matters. Women experience these changes during what is often the most demanding time in their lives. Between the ages of 40 and 55, many are contributing at the highest levels of the workforce, while at the same time caring for children, supporting aging parents and serving as leaders in their communities, yet access to care remains fragmented and inequitable.

In Alberta alone, an estimated 300,000 women aged 35 to 55 do not have access to a primary care provider. Across Canada, women increasingly face long wait times and limited access to menopause expertise. This has contributed to the rapid growth of private menopause clinics, effectively creating a two-tiered system in which women with financial means can access specialized care and others cannot.

The consequences extend far beyond individual women. Recent economic analysis estimates that closing the women's health gap could create a $37-billion opportunity for Canadians through improved workforce participation, productivity and reduced health care costs.

The good news is the solutions already exist.

With support from the Alberta primary care innovation fund, we've developed a Cycles to Cessation Clinic, one of Canada's first publicly funded, nurse practitioner-led virtual clinics specializing in the care of women in reproductive transition. The model provides comprehensive assessment, evidence-based treatment, longitudinal follow-up and evaluation of cardiovascular, metabolic, skeletal, mental and reproductive health. Early implementation has demonstrated rapid uptake, high patient satisfaction and significant unmet demand and meaningful symptom improvement. Importantly, it demonstrates that accessible publicly funded virtual primary care for mid-life women is both feasible and scalable.

My message to this committee is simple. Menopause is one day in a woman's life, defined as 12 months without a menstrual period. The reproductive transition is a decade or more. It represents one of the most important opportunities for prevention in women's health. For decades, women's biological realities during the reproductive aging have been minimized, misunderstood or ignored.

The ovaries are not simply reproductive organs. From puberty through menopausal transition, they serve as the architects of women's health, influencing virtually every major physiological system through the production of estrogen.

If Canada is serious about strengthening workforce participation, improving population health and reducing health care costs, we have to invest in evidence-based, publicly funded models of care that recognize the reproductive transition as a critical life stage in health rather than a niche reproductive concern.

Furthermore, when we provide women with the care they need during this critical transition, we can help them remain healthy, productive and thriving while strengthening families, communities, workplaces and the Canadian economy.

Thank you so much.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you very much.

Now we'll go to Ms. Drapeau.

The floor is yours for five minutes.

[Julie Drapeau, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Purity Life Health Products LP, As an Individual]

Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee.

My name is Julie Drapeau, and I'm the senior vice-president of sales and marketing at Purity Life Health Products, which is Canada's leading distributor of natural health products. We supply more than 30,000 products from over 1,000 brands to more than 7,000 retail locations across the country. We employ hundreds of Canadians, including 181 women, and support retailers, health care brands and consumers nationwide.

I'm also a woman with lived experience of perimenopause. We utilize conventional natural health products and private care. I'm here today, both as a business leader responsible for supporting a large, female workforce and as someone with lived experience.

Women in perimenopause and menopause are often at the peak of their careers. They are leading teams, managing businesses, mentoring future leaders and making a significant contribution to Canada's economy, yet many are silently struggling with symptoms that affect their sleep, cognition, energy, confidence and overall well-being. This is not simply a women's health issue. It is a workforce issue, a leadership issue and an economic issue. When women leave the workforce early, reduce their hours or take a step back from leadership opportunities due to unmanaged symptoms, employers lose experienced talent and Canada loses valuable economic contributions.

I believe there is an opportunity for Canada to lead by improving awareness and providing workplace support, manager education and access to evidence-based treatment and/or natural solutions so that women can continue to thrive and contribute to their careers.

I look forward to your questions today.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Debow, now you have the floor for five minutes.

[Aimee Debow, Founder, Menovate]

Thank you, and good afternoon, Chair and members of the committee. My name is Aimee Debow, and I'm the founder of Menovate, a Canadian company that guides corporations to be menopause-inclusive through talks and e-learning courses. Thank you for undertaking this important study.

I spent more than 26 years in the corporate world. In all those years, I never once heard the word “menopause”, not once. Then I experienced perimenopause. Women spend over one-third of their lives in this menopause transition, and most of us enter it without knowing what it is, what symptoms to expect or where to seek help. I was no different—hot flashes, heart palpitations, two frozen shoulders, sleep disruption and severe brain fog, all while trying to carry a heavy corporate job. I watched as other women silently stepped back from leadership opportunities while others left the workforce entirely, not because they lacked any talent or ambition but because the workplace was just not designed to support them. That realization changed my career trajectory. That's why I founded Menovate.

Through my lived experience and my work with employers, I have heard from thousands of women across industries and levels of seniority. The challenges they describe are remarkably similar, and the support is just not there. Research shows that 10% of women are leaving their jobs because of menopause symptoms. Think about what that means—experienced employees leaving at the peak of their careers, like I did, taking decades of knowledge and leadership with them. This is not only a health issue; it's a workforce issue, a productivity issue, a financial security issue and an economic issue.

In recent years, more women are talking about menopause, more health care professionals are developing expertise, and media coverage has grown, but the efforts remain in their infancy, and Canadian workplaces have not kept up. Managers are rarely trained on how to respond. Most organizations have never had the conversation. While awareness is growing at the employee level, most executive teams still do not recognize menopause as a workplace issue.

I would like to leave this committee with four recommendations.

First, I recommend establishing minimum workplace standards for menopause awareness and education. Like workforce harassment prevention programs, organizations must be expected to provide menopause training for employees, managers and leaders. This should include topics like relevant symptoms, coping skills and how to have a conversation with your employer.

This cannot be just a one-session checkbox. The stigma around menopause has been built over decades. Meaningful change is going to take time. That also means bringing men into the room. Inclusion builds the culture where women feel safe enough to ask for what they need, get supportive responses and feel healthy enough to stay.

Second, every organization should have a formal menopause policy so support is consistent rather than manager dependent. This could include flexible work options, temperature control and break flexibility.

The third is meaningful access to care. Menopause care should become a routine component of primary care, reducing the need for women to navigate a multitude of providers before they receive an evidence-based treatment. I saw a multitude of doctors over many years before I received an accurate diagnosis. I had the luxury of seeing both OHIP-covered and private doctors. Many women cannot afford this. I have enormous respect for the private clinics doing the work, but they are filling a gap that should not exist, and it is not equitable.

My final recommendation is for dedicated Canadian research, data collection and national public awareness campaigns similar to initiatives in Australia. Canada does not consistently measure the labour force impact of menopause, and we need national data. By supporting women through menopause, we can help experienced employees remain healthy, productive and fully engaged in their careers.

Now that I've received the treatment I needed, I feel strong, empowered and energized every day to contribute. Every woman should be able to feel this way as they transition through menopause. Canada has the opportunity to be a leader in this space. Menopause is inevitable, but suffering is not, and women shouldn't have to be leaving the workforce.

The great news is that menopause is a solvable workforce challenge facing Canadian employers. Education, manager training, workforce flexibility and access to care can make a meaningful difference.

Thank you. I look forward to your questions.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you.

We're going to begin our first round of questions with Ms. Goodridge for six minutes.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Thank you to all the witnesses for being here.

This is such an incredibly important topic that is definitely not studied as much as it should be. We heard about that very clearly in the last panel.

I'm going to start with you, Dr. Norris, as you're a fellow Albertan.

Could you describe some of the spectacular work that you guys are doing at the University of Alberta when it comes to this?

[Colleen Norris]

I was fortunate enough to get what we call the Cavarzan chair in women's health research, and I definitely got into the literature. I had always done women's cardiovascular health and couldn't figure out why we were missing things in women's cardiovascular health. The symptoms are different, and I'd been advocating, and then I got into the perimenopause literature.

One of the things I think is really important for the committee to understand is that we keep referring to menopause and educating women about menopause in the work day.

As I said, menopause is one day of your life, and I think we need to make the paradigm shift that our research has identified to make sure women are aware of what's going on in their bodies and why they need to follow through. If we frame it the same as puberty, we know the changes that occur until a girl gets her period and then what goes on after that. We need to know that as far as perimenopause and menopause is concerned.

One of the things we're in the process of creating is a digital program for women to use called AURA, which stands for awareness and understanding in reproductive aging. We've only been able to do this work thanks to the foundation that has supported us, because I can't get research dollars to do it, but it is—

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

I want to clarify that. The Government of Canada has tons of money that they spend on research. Are you not able to get research dollars from the Government of Canada to do this incredibly important work?

[Colleen Norris]

It goes to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research committees, and they just don't see it as a priority issue.

We have only advanced—and we've been so fortunate to advance—because of the foundation for women's research in Edmonton, which is part of the collective that was talked about.

The awareness is such a key piece, so we've created this digital format that women can absolutely all get on and learn. It's about awareness and understanding. That's the key to this, because even with the workforce policies in place, women don't understand what's going on in their bodies. Three colleagues in Calgary—young women who were very productive—ended up getting MRIs, which they could afford to do. They thought they were losing their minds or they had early dementia, and it was the brain fog of perimenopause.

Until you've experienced it, as we were saying, you can't understand it. Women need to know to anticipate it and that this is what's happening.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

I'm really curious about the virtual clinic that's available in Alberta.

In our home province of Alberta, we're incredibly lucky to have a spectacular female health minister in Adriana LaGrange, who is really putting women's health out there. We'll be the first province to move to self-referrals at age 40 for mammogram screening.

I was wondering if you could describe what that virtual clinic looks like. If a woman in Alberta was going through this stage of their life, how could they access this virtual clinic?

[Colleen Norris]

It's called Cycles to Cessation, and if they go on cyclestocessation.ca, they will be able to access the virtual clinic. The biggest issue is it's through primary care, and it provides a 50-minute initial assessment, because in primary care in Alberta right now, you get 10 minutes for your visit and it just isn't enough time to understand what's going on in your body.

The clinic provides that, and then you're given follow-up care. We look at every aspect of a woman's life and what's happening in their metabolic health, in their cardiovascular health and in their brain health. They might end up with a prescription for hormones, but there may be other things that have to be addressed.

We were fortunate enough to get a three-year grant to test the model. We had a soft opening in February of this year. As I said, it's a virtual clinic, so you go online and book your appointment based on criteria. The most interesting thing is that we've seen over 600 women since our soft launch. We're funded for one nurse practitioner. We divided that into two half-time NPs so one could cover the other. That's what it costs for this clinic to be set up.

It's scalable across Canada, because NPs are prepared and ready, willing and able to do this. Right now they're all doing it privately, and we need to move them. This is public health for women in Canada.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

It's so incredibly important.

One of the big challenges we see in women's health in general is that it's understudied, underfunded, not understood, and we're supposed to just go and deal with this. Bringing attention to this is so important. Perhaps if you understand what's going on, you won't have to take the time off work because you have the ability to find ways to manage those symptoms or to know that you're not just going crazy and you can find different mitigation systems.

Ms. Debow, you're nodding your head. Do you have anything to add?

[Aimee Debow]

I suffered all of what you just talked about.

I held an executive role and would be in front of meetings on projects that I knew, lived and breathed, and I could remember nothing when I would go up to present. It was horrifying. I did believe I had dementia. I had all the tests for it. When I would go to a doctor, for years nobody said that it was perimenopause. I did have the MRIs. I had all of the tests. Nobody put all of those pieces together. I did it myself, and I had to go back—

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Marilyn Gladu]

I'm so sorry, but that's the end of the time. If you have additional comments, of course, you can send written comments to the clerk.

We're going to move to Ms. Nguyen for six minutes.

[Chi Nguyen, Liberal, Spadina—Harbourfront, ON]

Thank you so much to the witnesses for being here today.

This is such an important study. My colleague just noted how misunderstood it is and mentioned the lack of research we have in the women's health space. This is going back some time ago, but the women's centres of excellence program was a Liberal red book promise in 1993. It established the centres of excellence. We actually have a foundation of doing really important work. It was on pause for some years and has come back now through the women's health research initiative with $20 million over five years. The work continues, and we need more of it to make sure that we understand the implications for women's health.

I think about the evolution of talking about periods in the workplace. We now need to have this conversation about menopause, because women continue to be in the workplace.

I want to thank all of you for the work that you're doing to try and address these pieces.

Ms. Norris, can you talk more about the idea of NPs leading these models? In the first panel, we heard about one that was happening. Where do you think there might be some gains? Are there provinces that are interested in using NPs and funding them publicly in order to meet the demands?