Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, W.Va., is getting support from an A-list celebrity for her bill to support medical research for women going through menopause. Halle Berry, who has been a Bond girl and an X-Men superhero, is also taking a lead role as an activist for women’s health.
Capito introduced the Advancing Menopause Care and Mid-Life Women’s Health Act. If passed, the bill would:
Increase funding for menopause research.
Create Research, Condition, and Disease Categorization for chronic or debilitating conditions related to menopause.
Provide funding for health care provider training.
Seventy-five million women in the United States are in perimenopause, menopause, or post-menopause, and 6,000 women reach menopause each day. Despite that, a recent study found that only 30% of U.S. residency programs offer formal curriculum on the subject and 80% of OB-GYN residents say they’re not properly prepared to discuss it.
“Menopause can impact every aspect of a woman’s life — from their career to their relationships — and for too long, it has only been whispered about among our friends and health care providers,” Capito said in a statement.
“Women have deserved more from our healthcare systems for far too long, but that’s about to change,” Berry added.
Berry participated in a roundtable discussion with Capito in West Virginia.
If Capito’s bill is signed into law, it would provide five years of funding.