New research collaboration aims to offer evidence-based wellness solutions for women during menopause

Imagine there’s a medical condition out there that impacts every part of a body — organs, tissue, brain, gut, bones. Symptoms from this condition could include things like sleep problems, brain fog, headaches, dizziness, digestive issues, bone loss, or depression and anxiety. 

It’s menopause. One of the most under-studied areas in health care, which is a significant limitation for females to receive effective treatment. And there has been almost no focus on “wellness” during menopause — pre, peri (during) — or post. 

For more than 10 million Canadian women, pre-, peri- and post-menopakinesiuse causes wide-ranging symptoms beyond stereotypical hot flashes, things that impact their quality of life for decades. A new research project at the University of Calgary, MOMENTUM, aims to tackle menopause head-on and give women the tools and resources they need to live a better life and effectively advocate for their own health. 

“It’s about so much more than our ovaries shutting down or the end of a period. The hormonal changes in menopause impact everything, from cardiovascular health, bones, and brains, to our social and emotional well-being. And it hasn’t been holistically addressed with a focus on how women can live well,” says Dr. Nicole Culos-Reed, PhD, one of MOMENTUM’s principal investigators and a professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and in the Department of Oncology at the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM). 

The project is getting its initial support from the Joan Snyder Fund for Excellence in Kinesiology Research, which is aimed at accelerating research to help people live healthy and active lives, with a specific focus on women and girls. 

“There’s no standard of care. I started talking to my colleagues to see if they would be interested in developing a cohort study to follow women over time and gather the evidence needed to better inform wellness resources, interventions, and care for all women. We are so fortunate to have the Joan Snyder fund get us started,” says Culos-Reed. She is also a member of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, the Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute, and the O’Brien Institute for Public Health at the CSM.

Better care for all women

The MOMENTUM team is collaborative, with 11 core team members from the Faculty of Kinesiology. Each team member brings a unique perspective within the project, from bone health, microbiome and gut, injury and concussion, exercise physiology, metabolic health, dance, reproductive history and brain aging, psychology, and the intersections of cancer and menopause. 

They have developed a cohort study with a broad range of assessments, aiming to build a database of participants in the 40–60-year age range who will be re-tested annually. Women’s data will be provided to them in summary form from their assessments and can be used to advocate for their health and wellness during their menopause experiences. 

Rhonda Yacey is a member of MOMENTUM’s community advisory board. She shares that her mother went through menopause in her early 40s, a time when many women are told they are too young to be “in menopause.” 

“As women, our bodies are not studied enough, and we often mask our pain and what we may be feeling at the time. I think a lot of times, we blow things off as it’s just ‘that time of month,’ but it could be a symptom of a larger thing,” she says. 

“I found things out through this project related to my own severe pain that I wish I could have known in my 20s — maybe I could have done different things that would have helped me now.”

The future of MOMENTUM

Future stages of the project will get into community spaces to reach women who might otherwise be left out of the study due to time restrictions or being unable to access the testing at UCalgary.

“We are going to bring the study where women are in the community, building partnerships to hold testing at different times of the day, to help women in equity-deserving groups be part of the MOMENTUM cohort,” Culos-Reed says. Translating materials into multiple languages and meeting with Indigenous communities to co-create pathways is also part of the long-term vision. 

The project aims to move their work quickly into practice, developing resources that are evidence-based that support meaningful wellness for women. Culos-Reed is hopeful the evidence could also inform health-care provider education, ensuring that women have access to “best evidence” to make their informed health and wellness decisions during menopause. 

“How impactful would it be if our evidence could start to inform what health-care providers are taught?” says Culos-Reed. “We will have participants completing these comprehensive assessments across the menopause journey on physical activity levels, brain health, bone health, relationship to gut microbiome, emotional and social well-being — all data that can truly change what we know about wellness during menopause. Our team’s hope is that women’s health becomes a research pillar here at the University of Calgary.” 

In her role on the advisory board, Yacey hopes to highlight and empower more women to advocate for themselves. “There is lack of understanding about the complexity of the female body. We are all lumped together but we should be viewed differently,” Yacey says. “We need to dig in further.”

Learn more

Currently we are only recruiting participants in Alberta ages 40-60, learn more and sign up for participation in the cohort study. 

Potential research collaborators and community partners are invited to contact the MOMENTUM network by emailing the team at momentum@ucalgary.ca or visit here.

Core team collaborators, all from the Faculty of Kinesiology

• Dr. S. Nicole Culos-Reed, PhD
• Dr. Meghan McDonough, PhD
• Dr. Raylene Reimer, PhD, RD 
• Dr. Patricia K. Doyle-Baker, Dr. PH/PhD 
• Dr. Cari Din, PhD
• Dr. Leigh Gabel, PhD 
• Dr. Cindy K. Barha, PhD
• Dr. Sarah Kenny, PhD
• Dr. Brittany Edgett, PhD
• Dr. Kathryn Schneider, PhD
• Dr. Laura St. John, PhD