What is the Medicare menopause health assessment and how do I get one?

Since 1 July 2025, a dedicated menopause health assessment has been covered under Medicare for eligible women. You access it through your GP — ask specifically for a menopause health assessment at your next appointment. The assessment covers symptoms, history, cardiovascular risk, bone health, and treatment options including menopausal hormone therapy (MHT). Nearly 105,000 Australian women have had one since the item became available.

Is menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) safe?

For healthy women aged 45–60 without specific contraindications, current evidence from RANZCOG, the Australasian Menopause Society, and international guidelines supports MHT as an effective and generally appropriate option for managing moderate-to-severe menopausal symptoms. Modern MHT formulations have been substantially updated since the 2002 Women's Health Initiative study that generated widespread concern. The risk-benefit discussion is specific to your history, contraindications, and preferences — it belongs with your GP.

Australia's first national menopause campaign launches today

What launched today

Australia’s first national Menopause and Perimenopause Campaign has gone live this week, backed by the federal government’s $792.9 million women’s health package. The campaign runs through December 2026, spanning television, cinema, digital video, social media, out-of-home advertising, and regional press. A new dedicated health website is launching alongside the campaign, offering well-sourced information on symptoms, treatment options, and how to access support.

This is the first time the Australian Government has mounted a national communications effort specifically directed at menopause and perimenopause — conditions that affect around half the population, often for a decade or more, and that have historically been under-addressed in both public health messaging and clinical practice.

The context matters. A Senate Inquiry into Menopause and Perimenopause found that many women entered this stage of life without adequate information about their symptoms, available treatments, or where to find support. Many healthcare professionals were identified as having significant knowledge gaps in the management of perimenopause and menopause — leading to inconsistencies in diagnosis and treatment, particularly around menopausal hormone therapy (MHT).

If you have spent any time trying to get a straight answer about perimenopause from a GP who seemed uncertain, or who defaulted to the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative study as though it settled the question: the Senate Inquiry named your experience. The system has known it has a problem here. The campaign is part of how it is starting to respond.

The both-and

Two things are true about this moment, and it is worth holding both.

The first: the campaign is meaningful. Australia’s first national clinical guidelines for perimenopause and menopause were in active development as of October 2025 — the tender process opened on World Menopause Day. The Australasian Menopause Society and RANZCOG have produced clinical guidance, but a unified, nationally endorsed set of guidelines has not previously existed. The campaign is running in parallel with the guideline development process, and that alignment is significant. Since 1 July 2025, menopause health assessments have been Medicare-rebatable through general practice — nearly 105,000 women have now accessed one. That figure represents a structural change in what general practice is funded to offer, not just rhetoric about women’s health mattering.

The second: awareness campaigns are not the same as clinical capacity. Knowing that perimenopause exists and that there is a Medicare item number for it does not guarantee an appointment with a clinician who has kept pace with the MHT evidence. A 2026 study in the ANZ Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology tracking government-subsidised MHT dispensing from 2014 to 2023 documents how prescribing has shifted over that decade — but also how far there is still to go in reaching women who would benefit. The campaign creates demand. Whether the system meets it consistently is the next question.

Awareness campaigns reduce the activation energy for a conversation. They say: this is a legitimate medical issue, here is a door, go knock. The quality of what is on the other side of that door is still variable. But the door is more clearly marked than it has ever been.

2 cents

If you are in your 40s or early 50s and have been wondering whether what you are experiencing — the sleep disruption, the mood shifts, the brain fog, the irregular cycles, the temperature instability — might be perimenopause, the answer is: it might be. You do not need to wait for hot flushes to have that conversation. Perimenopause can precede the final menstrual period by several years. The diagnostic framework has historically been cycle-first — looking for irregular periods as the gateway marker — when many women’s most disabling symptoms are neurological and psychological, presenting earlier.

The practical move is to ask your GP specifically for a menopause health assessment. Use that phrase. It has a Medicare item number. It creates a billing and documentation trail that signals to your GP this is a dedicated clinical review, not an afterthought at the end of a general appointment. Bring a symptom log if you can — even a rough one on your phone, two weeks of notes. The more specific you can be, the more the clinician can work with.

The campaign is real. The infrastructure behind it is real. The conversation is more legitimate than it has ever been. Use that.

Verdict

Verdict: yes — worth knowing about.

This is a structural shift in how Australia funds and communicates perimenopause and menopause care. The campaign, the Medicare item number, and the national clinical guidelines in development represent genuine institutional acknowledgement of a long-standing gap. The door is more open than it has been. Walking through it still requires the right conversation with the right clinician — but the campaign removes some of the legitimacy barrier that has kept many women from trying.