Status of Women Committee on June 16th, 2026

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

Merci beaucoup.

I'm going to start my questions with Ms. Huntjens.

Thank you so much for being with us today. I wanted to dig in a little bit. I'm curious about whether we have good data on the intersections of disability and menopause, if that is an area of research that we should be thinking about, and if you can offer any perspectives on that.

[Evelyn Huntjens]

There is a lack of research when it comes to looking at the intersection of disability and menopause and, in particular, if you look at indigenous women and two-spirit individuals. A lot of first nations communities don't have the data to really look at holistic care and look at some of the barriers that are faced when accessing health care. We know we have the data that says yes, it's a social determinant of health, and how do we overcome that?

When communities are facing capacity with just the primary health care needs—when we have things like locums, and we have travel nurses, and we don't have relationships with health care workers—and you're transitioning into perimenopause and menopause, often that is something that is going to get left out because you don't have that relationship with your doctor. There's no understanding. Again, it's that silent, invisible suffering, that is taking place.

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

Could you speak a little bit to any cultural practices, accommodations or ways of knowing and understanding what menopause looks like in indigenous communities? Obviously there are many versions of that, but if there's something that you'd like to share with us, that would be helpful.

[Evelyn Huntjens]

I think the big thing with indigenous communities is around a holistic approach. It's the emotional, the mental, the physical and the spiritual well-being. It may not just be physical symptoms, it may not just be emotional well-being, but looking at all of that together and having supports in the community to be able to recognize and provide care.

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

Thank you, Ms. Huntjens.

I'm going to ask Dr. Prévost a question.

You spoke a little bit about social media and all of the information that's out there. I'm of a certain age, and so my Instagram feed is all filled with perimenopause. It feels like there are some of us who are having approaches and therapies and suggestions on what we should be doing.

How do we think about ensuring that Canadian women have access to high-quality, good information, especially when the noise and the disinformation is out there? What can we be doing there to support that?

[Anne-Patricia Prévost]

As you say, myths and misinformation are indeed major problems. Weight gain, excess cortisol and perimenopausal symptoms are issues that affect us greatly, so everyone wants to sell us natural products.

At present, there isn't enough evidence to confirm the effectiveness of natural products, aside from some positive findings regarding soy. So we need to be cautious.

What can we do? Should we regulate social media? Should we set guidelines for it? Some people even claim to be doctors when they're not, so it's very dangerous.

Furthermore, women experiencing these symptoms are in a vulnerable position, so they also tend to turn to these alternatives. That's why we need accessible health care. It's to meet women's needs.

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

Are there any models of peer support groups that are working well in terms of sharing good information?

[Anne-Patricia Prévost]

I don't know, but I'm sure they're out there. There might be some forums on perimenopause and menopause.

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

Thank you very much.

My last questions are for Madame Brunot.

I wanted to talk a little bit more about your feminist approach to this question and if there are best practices you can speak of. Are there feminist organizations that are doing this work really well from an HR perspective that we should be thinking about as good lessons and insights?

[Élise Brunot]

I don't know. I'm not saying there aren't any, but not to my knowledge. I think that this is evidenced by the current interest in our website's content on how employers should make accommodations for menstruation and menopause. This is a new initiative for us this year at the RQASF. We launched it in response to the many requests we've received, for example about how to address these topics in the workplace.

We do our work with the resources we have. It probably won't surprise you to hear that fewer than 20 of us work at the RQASF. We're doing our best to meet the demand.

To sum up, to the best of my knowledge, there are no such organizations, but the need is there. Obviously, the very large number of requests the RQASF receives attests to this.

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

This is my last question.

Do any of the three witnesses have a universal policy approach or one prescription for us to think about as a recommendation to take forward?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Please forgive me, colleague, but your time is up.

Ms. Larouche, you have the floor for six minutes.

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

You could share that with us as a written submission.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Ms. Nguyen. I also want to thank the witnesses, namely Ms. Huntjens and Ms. Brunot, as well as Dr. Prévost, for being with us today. I appreciate it.

Right from the start, at the first meeting on this study, I said that it was much broader than just the issue of menopause from a health perspective. As has been noted, there are issues that characterize women's health, ranging from menstruation through pregnancy to premenopause, menopause and perimenopause. We can see that at every stage of life, women face certain realities. When the Standing Committee on Health examined the multi-faceted issue that is women's health, it sought to demystify the subject by asking whether there was a lack of research, a lack of evidence or a lack of knowledge.

Why do we always get the impression that when it comes to women's health, it's harder to find solutions and study the issue scientifically? That's what we hear. We're not talking about the economic aspect. There are prejudices against, for example, a teenage girl who misses school and is stigmatized; a woman in her twenties trying to get her first job who is asked outright if she plans to have children; a woman in her thirties or forties who is overwhelmed by her family life; or a woman whom employers assume, during the hiring process, will also experience the effects of perimenopause or menopause in her 40s or 50s.

And yet, as you pointed out, that's often when she's at the peak of her professional career. That's when women have typically acquired all their knowledge and could also succeed in earning a higher salary to prepare for retirement.

So this study is much broader in scope, both in terms of health and finances. Again, we need to demystify what falls under the purview of health administration. Doctors' offices are largely under Quebec's jurisdiction, while research and medications fall under federal jurisdiction. So we need to untangle all of that.

Let's start with the issue of health. We heard earlier that there are studies on perimenopause and menopause, but that the problem lies in the subsequent integration of that knowledge into medical practice.

Can you confirm this information that was shared with us by the previous witnesses?

Ms. Brunot, please go ahead and respond first.

[Élise Brunot]

Yes, I agree with you.

It's clear that there's a serious lack of research on women's health and that this information needs to be communicated. What do we do with the data? How do we tackle something as far-reaching as labour policies? Beyond policies, there's the broader view of the labour market, according to which women—as we all know, I'm not telling you anything new—weren't included at the same time as men, at least not on a large scale.

There's also the fact that their bodies have been overlooked. I wouldn't want to give the impression that I'm forgetting about men, even though we are a feminist organization. I think men suffer from this as well. I wanted to make that clear. The fact is that women's bodies have been overlooked. I think this resonates with each of us when we talk about pregnancy, menstruation, menopause and, of course, all the difficulties that can be associated with menstruation.

It's something we don't really think about, actually. Women, more than anyone, are hesitant to bring this up because they're afraid of the repercussions. That's what I wanted to say.

I don't know if I'm answering your question exactly, but it's hard to put all of this into words. Do we want to take a stand or not? What will the backlash be? There's a lack of research. It's a global issue, actually. That's the reality, and that's why it's so important to talk about it today. There's still a lot of work to be done to make progress on this issue. It's very important that the women affected be able to speak out on this topic.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Dr. Prévost, what's your take on this?

I also have another question for you.

Are there any good international best practices that we could draw from on the health side of things?

[Anne-Patricia Prévost]

There's definitely research being done. We see progress in all areas. There's been progress regarding menopause, but also in terms of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Earlier, Dr. Demers mentioned the 2002 WHI study. After that, we switched to a treatment that was supposed to end after five years. Then they decided it wasn't useful since the dose was low.

Now we have access to other data based on age or the duration of menopause. We must continue to conduct research, of course, because that's what drives medical progress. It's true that we sometimes change our practices, but we do so for many other issues as well, ones we haven't necessarily researched. So this doesn't only apply to research on menopause.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Ms. Huntjens, what do you have to say about the stigma surrounding women's health and the difficulty of conducting studies on the subject? When there are studies, it's sometimes hard to integrate them properly in the field, meaning in doctors' offices.

What could be improved?

What could be done to improve data integration?

How could we make up for the lack of data, if necessary?

[Evelyn Huntjens]

I'm sorry. My earpiece isn't working.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Ms. Larouche, you have 15 seconds left.

Ms. Huntjens, did you hear the question?

[Evelyn Huntjens]

I didn't hear the question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Ms. Larouche, you have the floor for 20 seconds in total.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Ms. Huntjens, do you think the problem is the lack of data or the lack of data integration and good practices in medical offices?

What is the main problem?

[Evelyn Huntjens]

If we're looking at it through a lens of indigenous women who experience perimenopause and menopause, the main problem is often a lack of trust within the health care systems that really drive that. Access to health care is a social determinant of health, and when we look at—

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Thank you, Ms. Huntjens.

I'm sorry. I have to interrupt you.

Mrs. Roberts, you have the floor for five minutes.