Portugal has been writing menopause into its state budgets. The 2025 budget included consultations in health centres, standardised reimbursement across prescribed menopause medicines, and a national study on the impact of menopause on health and work. The 2026 budget requires the government to present a National Strategy for Menopause Rights.
Turning that into something women actually experience is the harder part.
In this episode, Prof Andrea Rumler speaks with Cristina Mesquita de Oliveira, founder and president of VIDAs, the Portuguese Menopause Association. They discuss how VIDAs began in 2021 with no funding and grew into a community of more than 50,000 members, how the organisation took menopause from private experience to the political agenda, why recognition in law has not yet reached women’s daily lives, and what a European approach could look like.
Menopause and Work Conversations is a series from the EMAS Menopause in the Workplace Working Group, spotlighting the people working on menopause and working life across research, policy and practice.
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