The year in women's health

World Alzheimer's Month

Two-thirds of Alzheimer's diagnoses are in women. Perimenopausal brain fog is a different thing, and knowing the difference matters.

World Alzheimer's Day is 21 September..

Perimenopause Awareness Month

Our biggest month. Perimenopause is the thing most people are living in and least able to name.

Sickle Cell Awareness Month

Chronic pain conditions that mostly affect Black communities stay underfunded and undertreated, and midlife adds another layer.

Sexual Health Awareness Month

Desire, comfort, dryness, and pain all change through the menopause transition — and all of it has real, evidence-based options. Nothing about this is too embarrassing for a good appointment.

Suicide Prevention Month

Menopause is a window of elevated risk for depression and suicidal thinking, and it is under-recognized. If things feel dark, that is treatable and worth saying out loud. In Canada, call or text 9-8-8 any time.

Bladder Pain and Interstitial Cystitis Awareness Month

Recurrent urgency and burning in midlife often gets treated as infection after infection. Sometimes it is genitourinary syndrome of menopause instead.

PCOS Awareness Month

PCOS into perimenopause is genuinely under-covered and we already have the evidence page.

Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month

Pairs with the menopause-after-cancer pathway and the interactions checker.

Hispanic Heritage Month

Latina women report longer, more intense hot flushes in the long-running SWAN cohort, and are among the least likely to be offered treatment.

World Physiotherapy Day

Pelvic floor physiotherapy is first-line care for leaking and prolapse in most guidelines, and still gets treated as a last resort.

World Suicide Prevention Day

Handle carefully. Midlife suicide risk in women is real and under-discussed. Crisis resources must lead.

World Menopause and Cancer Awareness Day

Started by Menopause and Cancer, this day calls for menopause support before cancer treatment, through long-term care, and whenever specialist help is needed.

Run by Menopause and Cancer

World Perimenopause Day

The peak day of Perimenopause Awareness Month. Nila hosts a session.

Bi Visibility Day

Bi women report worse healthcare experiences than either straight or lesbian women. Midlife care is not exempt.

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Medical mistrust among Indigenous women is earned. Care that ignores that history keeps earning it.

Also known as Orange Shirt Day..

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Enormous, crowded month. Our distinctive angle is hormone-positive breast cancer and menopause symptoms after treatment.

Menopause Awareness Month

UK observance. Strong month for UK partners and clinics.

Black History Month (UK)

The UK observes Black History Month in October, not February. Do not schedule the same content twice by accident.

ADHD Awareness Month

Estrogen modulates dopamine, so ADHD traits often sharpen in perimenopause — and many women first piece together their own ADHD while seeking help for a child. Worth a proper conversation, not a brush-off.

Latin American Heritage Month

Canada's October counterpart to Hispanic Heritage Month in the US, and the same reminder about who the hot flush research included.

Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Abuse does not end at midlife, and financial dependence plus health changes can make this stage especially isolating. Support is confidential and available — you deserve care that believes you.

Health Literacy Month

Most menopause confusion is not a knowledge problem, it is a plain-language problem. This is the whole reason Nila exists.

Islamic History Month

Modesty, fasting and chaperone needs all shape how menopause care gets asked for and received. Worth designing around rather than apologizing for.

Canadian Cancer Society CIBC Run for the Cure

Canada's largest single-day breast cancer fundraiser, now in its 35th year, with runs and walks in communities across the country. A natural anchor for content about menopause after breast cancer treatment, and about the symptoms that follow chemotherapy, endocrine therapy or surgery.

Held on the first Sunday of October. Confirm the exact date each year; 2026 is Sunday, October 4..

Run by Canadian Cancer Society

World Mental Health Day

WHO day, sits neatly inside menopause month.

World Arthritis Day

A good day to separate inflammatory arthritis from the joint aches that show up with falling estrogen.

Indigenous Peoples' Day

Marked instead of Columbus Day in a growing number of states, and a prompt to check who our content is actually serving.

Second Monday in October; confirm the exact date each year..

Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day

Pink October rarely makes room for people living with secondary breast cancer, or for the menopause that treatment puts them into.

World Menopause Day

The anchor day of the whole year. Nila hosts a session.

Run by International Menopause Society

World Osteoporosis Day

Bone loss accelerates sharply around the final period. Pairs with strength training content.

Run by International Osteoporosis Foundation

Intersex Awareness Day

Hormone care for intersex people in midlife is almost entirely unwritten. We would rather say that than pretend otherwise.

World Stroke Day

Route of hormone therapy matters here. Good factual myth-correction moment.

Bladder Health Month

Second pelvic anchor of the year. Good clinic-partner moment.

Native American Heritage Month

November's counterpart to Canada's June, with the same gaps in menopause research and access.

Osteoporosis Month

Women lose a meaningful share of bone density in the years around menopause. Most find out after a fracture.

National Family Caregivers Month

The sandwich years and perimenopause land on the same women at the same time.

Diabetes Awareness Month

Insulin resistance creeps up through perimenopause, which is part of why the same way of eating stops working.

World Diabetes Day is 14 November..

World Diabetes Day

Insulin resistance rises through the transition. Ties to the low-insulinemic diet evidence.

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Sombre day. Observe quietly or not at all — never as a marketing moment.

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

Opens the 16 Days. Aligns with the trauma-informed material and the WIN partnership.

Start of the 16 Days of Activism.

December — plan, do not push

Deliberately quiet. Use it to lock next year's calendar, confirm speakers for Q1 and refresh evergreen pages.

International Day of Persons with Disabilities

Chronic conditions, neurodivergence, and disability shape how menopause is lived and how care is accessed. Accessible health information is a disability issue.

Run by United Nations

Cervical Health Awareness Month

North American counterpart to the UK prevention week, running the whole of January.

Cervical Cancer Prevention Week

A week on screening, HPV and why so many people put off the appointment.

Third or fourth week of January.

Run by Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust

Heart Month

Cardiovascular risk changes after the menopause transition, and it is under-discussed. Strong month for the cardiometabolic material.

Canadian Heart Month and US American Heart Month both run in February.

Black History Month (Canada and US)

Anchor for the evidence-gap work on Black women and midlife. Pair with paid Black contributors, not a repost.

World Cancer Day

Global day. Our angle is menopause after cancer treatment, which almost nobody covers.

Run by UICC

Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Eating disorders do not stop at 40, and perimenopause can reopen a door you thought was shut. Weight talk lands differently when your body is changing without permission.

Last week of February; confirm exact dates each year..

Rare Disease Day

Rare conditions get diagnosed late for the same reason midlife symptoms do: nobody is looking. A good day to talk about how long women wait for an answer.

Moves to 29 February in leap years..

Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Screening ages dropped to 45 in several places and most people missed the memo. Midlife is when the reminder letters start.

Endometriosis Awareness Month

March. Big, well-organized community. Our angle is endometriosis into perimenopause, which the main campaigns skip.

Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

UK observance in March. Ties to surgical menopause after oophorectomy.

Women's History Month

Month-long frame for the research-gap story: how little of medicine was built on women's bodies.

Nutrition Month

Canada's dietitian-led month. A useful hook for the food questions that actually come up in midlife: protein, fibre, bone, blood sugar.

International Women's Day

The single busiest day of the year for this space. Plan something distinctive or sit it out deliberately.

Run by the organizers

World Sleep Day

Sleep is the top-reported symptom. Easy, high-engagement moment.

Friday before the March equinox — confirm the date each year.

Run by World Sleep Society

Neurodiversity Celebration Week

ADHD and autistic women are frequently diagnosed in midlife, when hormonal change makes long-masking strategies stop working. A week to challenge stereotypes about what neurodivergence looks like.

Run by the organizers

Brain Awareness Week

Brain fog is the symptom women most often mistake for early dementia. A chance to say what estrogen actually does in the brain.

Third week of March; confirm exact dates each year..

Transgender Day of Visibility

Quietly affirming, not flag-planting. Point to the hubs that already exist.

Sexual Assault Awareness Month

Pelvic exams, internal ultrasounds and vaginal estrogen all ask something of a body that may have reasons to say no. Trauma-informed care is not a nicety here.

Autism Acceptance Month

Acceptance over awareness: autistic adults need healthcare that works with, not against, how they process sensory input and communicate — including in menopause appointments.

Alcohol Awareness Month

Wine gets sold to tired women as a coping tool right when sleep, hot flushes and breast risk all get more sensitive to it.

National Minority Health Month

A month about the gap, not the deficit. Black, Indigenous and racialized women reach menopause earlier and get treated later.

IBS Awareness Month

Gut symptoms shift in perimenopause and are routinely misattributed.

Stress Awareness Month

Good fit for the cortisol explainer and the nervous-system practices.

World Health Day

WHO day. Usable for the policy and access angle rather than symptoms.

Run by WHO

Black Maternal Health Week

Founded by the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, this week names a gap that does not end at delivery: the same disparities in being heard and treated follow Black women into midlife and menopause care.

Run by Black Mamas Matter Alliance

Lesbian Visibility Week

Menopause information assumes a husband and a fertility story. Plenty of people arrive with neither.

Mental Health Awareness Month

US month-long observance covering the same ground.

Pelvic Pain Awareness Month

Anchor month for the pelvic health material and the 12-week program.

Run by International Pelvic Pain Society

Asian Heritage Month (Canada) and AANHPI Heritage Month (US)

Symptom reporting varies a lot across Asian populations, and most menopause research was not built to notice. Worth naming rather than averaging away.

Lupus Awareness Month

Autoimmune flares and perimenopause share a symptom list: fatigue, joint pain, brain fog. Getting the attribution right changes the treatment.

Arthritis Awareness Month

Joint pain arrives for so many women within a year of their last period that it has its own name in the literature.

Mental Health Week

CMHA week. Hormones and mental health is our differentiated take.

First full week of May in Canada.

Run by CMHA

Red Dress Day (MMIWG2S)

The National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People. A day of remembrance and a call for safety, justice, and care systems that protect Indigenous women across the whole lifespan.

World Ovarian Cancer Day

Bloating, fullness, needing to pee more. The symptoms get filed under menopause until they are not.

Fibromyalgia Awareness Day

Widespread pain, fatigue, and brain fog that often overlap with — and get tangled up in — menopause symptoms. Sharing May 12 with ME/CFS awareness, this day pushes for better recognition of invisible illness.

Mental Health Awareness Week

UK equivalent, usually a different week from the Canadian one. Same content, different timing.

Mid-May in the UK — confirm the date each year.

Run by Mental Health Foundation

World Thyroid Day

Thyroid symptoms and perimenopause symptoms overlap almost completely. High-value explainer moment.

Menstrual Health Day

Mostly aimed at younger people. Our angle: what a changing cycle in your forties actually means.

World No Tobacco Day

Smoking brings menopause forward by a year or two and narrows your hormone therapy options. Both are worth knowing before someone decides for you.

National Indigenous History Month (Canada)

A month to learn from Indigenous knowledge keepers — including long traditions of community-based care for elders through life transitions that Western menopause medicine is only beginning to study.

PTSD Awareness Month

Trauma history can shape how menopause is experienced — sleep, hypervigilance, and how safe a medical appointment feels. Care that understands trauma is not a bonus; it changes outcomes.

Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month

Brain fog is one of the most frightening symptoms. Strong month for the cognitive pathway and for calming bad headlines.

Pelvic Organ Prolapse Awareness Month

Prolapse affects roughly half of women over 50 to some degree, yet most people have never heard the word until diagnosis. A feeling of heaviness, bulge, or dragging is worth an assessment — pessaries and pelvic floor physio come long before surgery.

Migraine Awareness Month

Migraine is hormone-sensitive: many people notice patterns shift in perimenopause, then ease after menopause. Tracking attacks against cycle and symptoms can change the treatment conversation.

Pride Month

Only worth doing if it is substantive. Link the hubs, do not rainbow the logo.

Carers Week

A lot of women hit perimenopause while caring for a parent and a teenager at once, and put themselves last on the list.

Second week of June; confirm exact dates each year..

Loneliness Awareness Week

Midlife thins out friendships quietly. Low mood in perimenopause is rarely only hormonal.

Confirm exact dates each year..

World Continence Week

Bladder symptoms are hugely common after menopause and rarely raised. Good partner moment with pelvic clinics.

Third week of June — confirm the date each year.

Run by International Continence Society

Juneteenth

A day about freedom and unfinished business, including who still gets believed in a clinic room.

National Indigenous Peoples Day (Canada)

Celebrating the cultures and contributions of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples — on the summer solstice, a day many Indigenous communities have long marked.

PTSD Awareness Day

PTSD is more common in women and often intertwines with midlife sleep and mood changes. Naming it is the first step toward care that actually fits.

Fibroid Awareness Month

Fibroids disproportionately affect Black women and drive heavy bleeding in perimenopause.

Minority Mental Health Awareness Month

Named for Bebe Moore Campbell, this month centres the mental health of racialized communities — including the midlife mood changes that are more likely to be misread or missed in women of colour.

South Asian Heritage Month

South Asian women reach menopause earlier on average and are more likely to be told it is stress. Both deserve saying out loud.

Non-Binary Awareness Week

Ovaries do not check your pronouns. Care should be able to hold both facts at once.

The week containing 14 July; confirm exact dates each year..

Emancipation Day

Canada's day marking the abolition of slavery, and a reminder that health inequity here has a history rather than an accident.

Women's Equality Day

Quieter month. Usable for the workplace and economic-cost material.