As an Emmy-winning journalist, Tamsen Fadal has covered hundreds of stories throughout her broadcast career. One story that widely remained buried was one that half of the world’s population will experience at some point: menopause.
Using the power of storytelling, Fadal is a leading charge in bringing menopause conversations into the mainstream, shining a light on topics often overlooked related to women’s midlife health and breaking down commonly held stigmas about the life stage and its symptoms. Her two documentaries, “The M Factor: Shredding the Silence on Menopause” and its follow-up “The M Factor: Before the Pause (Perimenopause)” started a wider movement by addressing the “silent epidemic” that impacts women across the globe.
The docuseries speaks to the fact that people “need to hear other stories” outside of medical information alone, she told Fierce in an interview ahead of her keynote session at Fierce Pharma Week.
“Storytelling has done a couple of things,” Fadal explained. “I think it’s lifted up, and shown us that we need to normalize the conversation.”
Importantly, highlighting menopause stories has also helped to outline critical gaps in care for women and reframed the issue as “beyond just healthcare,” she added.
Fadal's own story with menopause stems back to 2019, when she had an on-air hot flash episode while at work. That event, and the confusion that followed, led her to career transition as a menopause advocate, helping to educate and empower women everywhere.
“I realized that this exact story has happened to so many women,” she said, reflecting on the 2019 event. “I’m grateful because we were able to figure out what that pain point was and help women in a lot of ways.”
Although menopause topics are moving more into the conversation in recent years, there still remains many different subsets within the health issue to cover more broadly, she said, such as occurrences at work or “what happens when women go try to find care.”
For one, Fadal points to a shortage of estrogen patches used to treat menopause symptoms, which was acknowledged by the FDA earlier this month. The agency explained that national supply of the FDA-approved patches nearly doubled in the last year along with a spike in demand, but it is currently offering its assistance to estrogen patch makers to ramp up production to help ensure that supply can keep up.
With additional hormonal treatment options continuously evolving the menopause treatment landscape, self-advocacy for women in the healthcare setting becomes all the more important. Fadal emphasizes the power in women feeling comfortable “being partners with their doctor,” something she acknowledges may be “new to a lot of us.”
She delves further into the topic in her New York Times best-selling book, “How To Menopause," which offers advice on navigating a healthcare system that wasn't traditionally built around women.
“I think it is really critical that you have a doctor that’s listening to you and that can guide you and point you in a couple of different directions for the space of perimenopause and menopause,” she explained.
However, with increasing access to digital health tools such as telehealth and other resources, she hopes that the younger generation “really embraces that” as they move into midlife, Fadal said.
“There was a time where I didn’t mention menopause on television, and we didn’t really talk about it,” she said. "Now, the headlines are everywhere, so I feel encouraged about that."
Having a surplus of easily accessible information could also be a bit of a double-edged sword, as misinformation is often just as easy to come across. To combat this for those with midlife health concerns, Fadel takes it upon herself to scout doctors that can relay “science-backed information” on her podcast, “The Tamsen Show.”
“Anything that is too good to be true is not,” she warns, referring to shady menopausal advice that falsely touts “one pill and your menopause is going to go away.”
The twice-weekly podcast offers a space to “take charge of your health, reclaim your life and step into a version of yourself that feels like the best is yet to come,” she explains in the podcast’s descriptor. Episodes cover a diverse range of health and wellness-focused topics, such as tips for dealing with migraines, anxiety, weight loss in perimenopause and menopause and other relevant topics.
The work in building up menopause awareness and breaking down education barriers is still an ongoing fight, but Fadal is eager to continue getting the message across and helping women harness control of their health throughout the menopause transition.
“There are so many conversations that are necessary. But I feel very encouraged from where we were six years ago to today,” she said.