BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM
Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton set up a series of financial wellness conversations with women around the state. She expected to hear about rent, wages, and the cost of groceries. What she kept hearing about was menopause: what it was doing to their work, their money, their days. The bill that followed came directly from those conversations.
At the end of May, the Illinois legislature unanimously passed a law letting licensed healthcare professionals take specialized training in perimenopause and menopause care as part of their required implicit bias awareness training. No new hours required. No new mandate. Menopause education is made available inside a requirement that already exists. Illinois is the first state to try this.
Why the gap is so wide
The scale of the problem is hard to square. Seventy percent of women who seek medical care for menopause symptoms don’t receive treatment. Menopause-related productivity losses cost over $150 billion globally. Black and Latina women are more likely to experience severe symptoms and less likely to receive hormone therapy from a provider. When Stratton’s team looked at Illinois specifically, a state of nearly 13 million people, they counted fewer than 200 physicians certified as menopause health professionals.
“When I think about a state of almost 13 million people and half of the state being women — 200 people being certified just wasn’t enough,” Stratton said.
How the bill works
Beginning January 1, 2027, licensed healthcare professionals in Illinois can count specialized menopause and perimenopause training toward their required implicit bias awareness hours. No new continuing medical education requirement. Menopause training becomes an option within hours that providers are already doing.
The design was intentional. Stratton’s team wanted something that would work for providers, not just create friction.
“Having all physicians being able to get this — you never know who you’ll have that conversation with. It could be your primary care physician, but it could be another physician that you’re seeing and you’re talking about your symptoms… and it could lead more physicians to say, ‘Hey, have you checked out to see whether this might be perimenopause or menopause?’” Stratton said.
Pauline Maki, PhD, director of the Center on Health, Awareness and Research on Menopause at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, helped write the legislation and is now designing the CME course. It will cover hormone therapy basics, FDA-approved non-hormonal options, and how to address the needs of patients across different backgrounds.
“My inbox is blowing up with people asking me to consult with them on their legislation,” Maki said.
Where this is heading
Ten states and Washington, D.C., have now passed some kind of menopause law. Sixty pieces of related legislation were introduced in state legislatures in 2026 alone. Rhode Island was first, passing workplace accommodations in June 2025. Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia have all passed insurance coverage laws. Michigan looks likely to follow Illinois’ approach, with movement also building in California and Massachusetts.
Stratton is 60. She went through perimenopause without a diagnosis. That meant years of broken sleep and struggling with symptoms that were never named. She’s expected to win an open U.S. Senate seat in November and has said she plans to take this work federal.
“It’s not treated as a public health issue, it’s treated as a personal issue,” she said. “We need to change that.”
Every woman who lives long enough goes through menopause. The question Stratton keeps asking is why that’s never been enough.
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