of US women aged 45 to 64 received any menopause treatment in 2021 (2.1 million of 42 million). Among women actually in menopause, 20 to 25%.

The strongest care-gap number available, and the one to reach for instead of the unsourced "85% present, 10% treated" line. Nationally representative federal survey data, not a vendor poll. Breaks down as 6.3% of non-Hispanic white women, 2.7% Hispanic, 2.5% non-Hispanic Black.

of medical residents felt adequately prepared to manage menopause (12 of 177). In the same survey, 20.3% received no menopause lectures at all.

The single most-cited number in this space. It's real, it's exact, and it rests on 177 respondents at a 26% response rate across 20 programs. Cite it with the sample size showing.

of US OB/GYN residency programs have any menopause curriculum. Of those that do, 71% offer two lectures a year or fewer.

Best response rate in the field: 99 of 145 program directors, a near-census. The second clause is the real story and almost nobody uses it. Retire the old "1 in 5": it's from 2013, and it measured residents reporting, not programs surveyed.

median duration of frequent hot flashes and night sweats. For women whose symptoms start before their final period, more than 11.8 years. For African American women, 10.1 years.

Prospective, 17 years, multiethnic, 3,302 women. The strongest design in menopause research, and it overturned the old "six months to two years" guidance completely. Note the "more than" on 11.8: the median wasn't reached, so the true figure for early-onset women is unknown and higher.

additional invasive breast cancers per year in the WHI estrogen-plus-progestin arm. That's the "26% increase." The paper itself says it "almost reached nominal statistical significance," and under the adjusted confidence interval (0.83 to 1.92) it isn't significant at all. Total mortality: no increase (HR 0.98).

The relative-versus-absolute gap isn't a retrospective reframing by HRT advocates. It's in the original 2002 text, in the authors' own words. That's what makes it citable rather than arguable.

excess deaths over ten years among hysterectomized US women aged 50 to 59 who avoided estrogen after WHI.

A modeled extrapolation, not a body count, and the fivefold spread is the sensitivity analysis. Applies only to hysterectomized women 50-59 in the estrogen-alone arm. It is not a claim about estrogen plus progestin, or about all women. Say "a modeling study estimated" and it holds up.

in lost US work time per year from menopause symptoms. 13.4% of employed women reported an adverse work outcome; 10.8% missed work, a median of 3 days.

Peer-reviewed and in the abstract. The companion "$26.6 billion including medical costs" appears only in Mayo's press release, not in the paper, and the paper is paywalled. If you use $26.6B, attribute it to the press office.

of UK women left a job, reduced their hours, and declined to apply for a promotion because of menopause symptoms.

n=4,014, the largest and cleanest workplace dataset. UK, so don't launder it into a US claim. CIPD's often-quoted 6%-left and 17%-considered figures are conditioned on "a lack of support," not symptoms, so the two aren't interchangeable.

US hormone therapy prescriptions filled per year, 1995 to 1999, which is about 15 million women. Prempro fell 66% in the year after WHI.

Use this when you want the scale of the collapse without the percentage-denominator trap. Two corrections: it's 90 million, not the 91 million often quoted, and 90 million is prescriptions, not women.

HRT items dispensed annually in England, 2015/16 to 2024/25. A 370% rise over a decade, and up 11% in the last year alone.

The rebound is real and officially documented in the UK. In the US it shows up only in EHR and claims data, never yet in nationally representative population data, so don't claim a confirmed US rebound.

older women die within a year of a hip fracture. Roughly 20 to 25% crude one-year mortality.

Of the six different hip-fracture mortality numbers in the corpus, this is the best-supported one. The higher figures (30%) are men's or all-comers numbers applied to women. Men run 25 to 37%.

women over 50 will break a bone because of osteoporosis. About 1 in 7 will fracture a hip specifically.

Survives scrutiny intact. Precision point: it's remaining lifetime risk from age 50, not from birth. And keep hip separate from any-site, which is where the common "1 in 3 will have a hip fracture" error comes from.

of Americans 65+ with Alzheimer's are women (4.5 million of 7.4 million). The Alzheimer's Association's own phrasing is "almost two-thirds."

"Two-thirds of patients are women" is true and citable. "70%" is not. See the Alzheimer's section below, because the interesting part is what this number does and doesn't mean.