Manulife, Sun Life and iA are building menopause care into group plans, while BC now funds hormone therapy in full
Canadian benefits carriers are taking different paths to menopause care, and GreenShield is now offering its clinician-led program directly to Canadians nationwide after its research found nearly one in four women say workplace menopause supports are not culturally appropriate.
The same research found nearly 40% of Canadian women do not know where to seek menopause care. Among racialized respondents, 45% said they did not know where to get help for perimenopause or menopause symptoms, compared with 40% of women overall.
Only one-third of racialized women had discussed their symptoms with a health professional, compared with roughly half of women overall.
Different doors to the same care
Manulife reported in September that hormone replacement therapy claims among women aged 45 to 54 rose 228% over five years. It now gives more than 1.4 million group benefits members access to Maven’s menopause program at no cost.
Sun Life and Dialogue have built menopause care into Lumino Health Virtual Care for plan members and dependents who already have access. A Sun Life survey found only 37% of working women felt their employer provided adequate support.
iA Financial Group has partnered with Science & Humans on seven programs, including perimenopause, menopause and andropause. Myriam Auclair, product leader of group insurance, described the model as a departure from the employer-funded, per-employee-per-month structure common in virtual care.
GreenShield Health’s menopause support program is now available nationwide through GreenShield+, regardless of whether Canadians have an existing relationship with GreenShield.
GreenShield+ is the company’s integrated health care and insurance ecosystem, combining benefits coverage with pharmacy, mental health, telemedicine, care navigation and health coaching services.
GreenShield Health, which describes itself as one of Canada’s largest and fastest-growing providers of integrated health services, delivers the program, pairing clinical assessment and guidance with health coaching and mental health support tailored to individual needs.
Shortfalls inside the workplace
GreenShield, Canada’s only national non-profit health care and insurance organization, reported in March that only 13% of women said their employer provided adequate hormonal health or menopause benefits. The figure was 15% in education and childcare and 24% in health care, while 64% said symptoms affected their job performance and 54% said seeking care had disrupted their work.
GreenShield said gaps in access to menopause care can leave women spending months or years trying to connect symptoms that may seem unrelated, searching for credible information and moving through a fragmented health care system without a clear path forward. The effects can extend into their health, relationships, confidence, careers and daily lives.
The company cites menopause-related symptoms as associated with 540,000 lost workdays and $3.5 billion in annual productivity loss in Canada.
“Menopause support should not depend on a woman’s ability to navigate a complex system, find culturally appropriate care, or pay out of pocket for services. Yet our research shows too many women continue to face those barriers,” said Mandy Mail, executive vice-president, GreenShield Cares.
Harriet Ekperigin, vice-president, clinical services growth at GreenShield Health, said menopause symptoms “can be complex and interconnected, and too often, women are left playing detective with their own bodies, trying to understand symptoms that may initially seem unrelated and searching for credible answers on their own.”
Care for women with no coverage
GreenShield is also launching a menopause pilot under its Women’s Health Signature Initiative for women from equity-seeking communities who lack private or public coverage, with the goal of helping remove financial barriers to care.
Eligible participants will receive 12 months of free, clinician-led personalized menopause care through GreenShield Health, plus three free hours of health coaching and three free hours of mental health counselling.
The pilot launches in November with Black Mental Health Canada, the Black Women’s Institute for Health and the Windsor-Essex Community Health Centre.
GreenShield will use insights from it to inform future extension to additional underserved communities in 2027.
Mail said combining GreenShield Cares’ social impact investments with GreenShield Health’s clinical capabilities is “helping create more equitable access to personalized menopause care so more women can get the support they need through this important stage of life.”
Since 2021, the initiative has connected nearly 200,000 women from equity-deserving communities with free, culturally relevant mental health services.
Public plans and new rules
British Columbia has followed Manitoba in offering fully publicly funded menopausal hormone therapy. BC Women’s Hospital has also opened a complex menopause clinic with financial support from Pacific Blue Cross.
Rhode Island became the first US state to require reasonable workplace accommodations for menopause, with the law taking effect June 24, CTV News reported, while Canada has no equivalent legislation.
A 2025 Angus Reid poll for Astellas Pharma Canada found 85% of women over 45 want employers to take menopause seriously.
