Texas Woman’s eyes institute focused on perimenopause

An estimated 1.3 million women enter menopause in the United States each year, with another estimated 2 million women experiencing perimenopause – the transitional time leading to menopause.

That transitional phase is marked by a variety of symptoms, including night sweats, hot flashes, fatigue, depression, anxiety, joint pain and heart palpitations. Although some symptoms are manageable, a significant portion of midlife women will experience symptoms that negatively affect sleep, mood and quality of life, according to Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Women’s Mental Health.

While various studies indicate that moderate to severe symptoms are relatively common in midlife women, they are not limited to the perimenopausal phase and could persist for many years beyond the menstrual cycle, the center found. The adverse impacts have many potential consequences, including ongoing health issues, healthcare costs or loss of work productivity.

It’s an area of study that requires more extensive research, some scientists say, and it’s in line to be the focus for a new research initiative at Texas Woman’s University.

Texas Woman’s leaders are eyeing a proposal to expand the university’s existing Institute for Women’s Health (IWH) and making perimenopausal research its primary focus. The institute currently occupies space at TWU’s Denton and Houston campuses and recently was awarded a $40,000 planning grant from the Dallas-based Texas Women’s Foundation to study extending the institute’s presence to TWU’s Dallas campus.

The planning effort will be led by assistant professor of nursing Mehri Mirzaei Rafe, PhD, in collaboration with Dallas campus President Monica Christopher and TWU faculty colleagues.

Mirzaei Rafe said the planned expansion would position the institute as a national leader in women’s health research and outreach.

“The expansion allows the institute to become a central force in advancing women’s health equity in North Texas,” Mirzaei Rafe said, adding: “It will help foster partnerships with clinics, hospitals and community organizations across the region, while also supporting an interdisciplinary research agenda that addresses critical gaps in women’s health, starting with the health needs of women in and beyond menopause.”

Among the members of the planning team is Stephanie Collins, RN, BSN, BCPA, a Texas Woman’s College of Nursing alum and co-founder and chief patient advocacy officer of Eido Bio, a biopharmaceutical company focused on treatment options for women.

She envisions an institute with a multifaceted approach to addressing issues related to perimenopause, including piloting new care models, generating groundbreaking research, training clinicians and designing solutions that reflect what women experience in their 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond.

“Together, we’re building the blueprint for what doesn’t yet exist: a coordinated, science-informed, community-rooted approach to one of the most misunderstood phases of a woman’s life,” Collins said.

“Our shared goal is simple but bold: to lay the foundation for a model of care that finally sees, studies and supports women through this critical life stage,” she added.

Collins noted that perimenopause can lead to serious medical concerns, such as changes in cardiovascular function and bone density, and sometimes can go undetected until disease is present, leading to quality-of-life issues and long-term health costs.

Rhett Rigby, the institute’s director, noted that the university already has faculty at all three campuses who have expertise in women’s health, including the perimenopausal, menopausal and postmenopausal phases of life.

University leaders and affiliate faculty that have an interest in this specific area of women’s health will be meeting this summer to generate ideas for future research at the institute and to discuss strategies for seeking foundational support.

“This is the first time that we have brought faculty across all three campuses to collaborate in a subject matter that prioritizes women’s health,” said Rigby, who also serves as the university’s interim director for the School of Health Promotion and Kinesiology. “The collaborative nature of this is huge.”

The institute currently serves partly as a research hub and partly as clinical space, which together draw on resources from multiple health science disciplines at Texas Woman’s to address women’s health issues. Some recent research has examined how the menstrual cycle affects female athletes and how heat affects symptoms of Parkinson’s disease in women.

“We hope that the IWH becomes a source of information and expertise for women going through menopause,” Rigby said. “I think this (Texas Women’s) Foundation grant is really going to help establish, in part, the identity of the Institute for Women’s Health.”