US family medicine residency survey identifies gaps in menopause education

A national cross-sectional survey published in Menopause assessed menopause education in US family medicine residency programs, including curriculum structure, teaching content, clinical training, and program directors’ views on improvement. The questions were embedded in the Council of Academic Family Medicine Educational Research Alliance omnibus survey. Of 313 directors responding to the overall survey, representing a 44.7% response rate, 279 completed the menopause-specific questions.

Among respondents, 94% reported either a dedicated menopause curriculum or menopause education integrated into a broader women’s health curriculum. Overall, 56% agreed that menopause education needed improvement. Directors with an established formal curriculum were less likely to report this need than those without one (46% versus 61%; P=0.02). Interest in a standardized national curriculum was similarly high across groups, although exact proportions were not provided.

The authors described limited didactic volume, variable content coverage, heavy reliance on continuity clinic exposure, and little formal assessment. They proposed scalable, on-demand modules with competency assessment as a potential approach to strengthening training; the survey did not test this intervention. Director-reported data and incomplete participation limit conclusions about national training quality, and the study does not establish residents’ clinical competence or patient outcomes.