Menopause symptom prescribing varied by race and clinician specialty

Researchers reviewed outpatient encounters from 2016 to 2023 involving women aged 40–55 years seen in family medicine, internal medicine, endocrinology or obstetrics and gynecology. The retrospective cohort included 5,491 women with an encounter coded for menopause-related symptoms. The team used logistic regression to assess associations between patient and clinician characteristics and receipt of prescription treatment.

Compared with White women, Black women had lower odds of receiving any prescription treatment (OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.67–0.95) and systemic estrogen (OR 0.64, 95% CI 0.47–0.87), but higher odds of receiving an SSRI (OR 1.49, 95% CI 1.04–2.14). Compared with patients seen in obstetrics and gynecology, those seen in internal medicine or endocrinology had lower odds of receiving any prescription treatment. The authors also report lower prescribing in family medicine, although the supplied abstract gives an internally inconsistent confidence interval for that estimate.

The findings identify differences in prescribing within a single academic health system, but do not establish why they occurred or whether prescriptions were clinically indicated. The retrospective design and use of diagnosis codes limit interpretation, and results may not generalize to other settings.