This certification program trains health care workers to identify, treat symptoms of perimenopause

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Laura Okafor, founder of Perry Academy

Credit: Contributed by Perry Academy

Many health care providers have knowledge gaps when it comes to perimenopause, which is leaving many women with siloed care, said Laura Okafor, founder of Perry Academy

The online educational platform is designed for health care workers across specialties such as gynecology, mental health, nutrition and exercise fitness to recognize symptoms and offer treatments for women between their early 30s and 50s, who may be experiencing perimenopause.

That's the difficult-to-pinpoint time in life before the reproductive system stops producing eggs and a person cannot become pregnant. The natural lowering of estrogen and progesterone hormones in the body can cause hot flashes, night sweats and mental health concerns.

Perry Academy originally started as a patient platform for women experiencing these and other symptoms, offering "peer support in a safe space with evidence-based content," Okafor said.

"And we started that six years ago when, really, the perimenopause conversation was completely underserved and there was no support whatsoever," she said.

The group has grown to around 70,000 women, mainly based in the United States, who said that finding the right health care practitioner or support system is the biggest pain point in their perimenopause journey, Okafor said.

The Perimenopause Certficate allows 11.75 continued medical education (CME) credits for professionals including dieticians, pelvic floor specialists, and psychologists.

The program was structured from the insight of more than 500,000 women's lived experience and developed with OBGYNs, cardiologists, psychiatrists, pelvic floor specialists and sleep psychologists who trained on 12 different modules across the health care spectrum.

"Almost like a Netflix library for women's health education, latest research, latest evidence to equip the healthcare system," Okafor said of the Perry Academt platform. "Not only the medical part, but also the allied part to be a true support system for women in perimenopause."

Okafor said the biggest knowledge gaps to address involve hormone therapy and antidepressant medication.

"There are, just a lot of, still, question marks and confusion around prescribing," Okafor said. "So, that would be No. 1. "The second one would be around mental and emotional health, which is still one of the most misunderstood chapters in perimenopause."