GreenShield has made its clinician-led menopause support program available to any Canadian through its GreenShield+ platform, regardless of whether they have coverage with the non-profit insurer. It is also launching a pilot offering a year of free menopause care to uninsured women from equity-seeking communities.
The program is delivered by GreenShield Health, the organization’s health services arm. It combines clinical assessment and symptom management with health coaching and mental health support.
The pilot, part of GreenShield’s Women’s Health Signature Initiative, begins in November. It will offer eligible women who have no private or public coverage 12 months of free, clinician-led menopause care, along with three hours each of health coaching and mental health counselling.
GreenShield is running the pilot with Black Mental Health Canada, the Black Women’s Institute for Health and the Windsor-Essex Community Health Centre. It said lessons from the pilot will inform expansion to other underserved communities in 2027.
“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,” said Mandy Mail, executive vice president of GreenShield Cares.
The launch draws on a survey Ipsos conducted for GreenShield earlier this year among 1,000 Canadian women aged 35 to 60. Nearly 40% said they didn’t know where to seek menopause care. Only 13% said their employer provided adequate hormonal health or menopause benefits.
GreenShield’s latest release breaks the findings down further. Among racialized respondents, 45% said they did not know where to seek help, and only about a third had discussed their symptoms with a health professional, compared with roughly half of women overall. Nearly one in four respondents said the menopause supports available through their workplace were not culturally appropriate.
The cost to employers is significant. IB reported in August that GreenShield is funding the Can-RISE national menopause study, and that menopause has been linked to $3.5 billion in productivity loss.
Opening the program to non-members is the most notable part of the announcement for the benefits market. GreenShield+ combines coverage and health services in one platform, and making the menopause program available to anyone turns GreenShield Health into a direct provider competing for consumers as well as plan sponsors.
For benefits advisors and plan sponsors, that cuts both ways. Employees whose plans lack menopause support now have a paid route to care outside their workplace plan. But the 13% figure suggests most employer plans still don’t meet the need. Sponsors that want to keep experienced women in the workforce will have to decide whether to build menopause care into their plans or leave employees to buy it themselves.
GreenShield has not published the price of the program for non-members.
