New research sheds light on multiple sclerosis and menopause
Researchers presented findings at ECTRIMS Congress 2025

Imogen Collier at the 2025 ECTRIMS conference in Barcelona, Spain. (By Kellie Benn)
Going through menopause with multiple sclerosis (MS) can be challenging, as the changes that come with this stage of life may interact or occur in tandem with existing MS symptoms.
A team of researchers recently studied how menopause affects women living with MS, with their findings presented last month at the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) Congress 2025 in Barcelona, Spain.
“We were looking at what the impact of menopause is for people with MS from the patient perspective, and that hasn’t really been done before,” says lead study author Imogen Collier, a doctoral student in the Center for Preventive Neurology at Queen Mary University of London, in the U.K.
Study findings on menopause symptoms and MS
Collier was inspired to pursue the study after noticing that the issue of MS and menopause was underresearched. She had a more personal reason to investigate the topic as well, stating, “I’m someone who’s had issues with feeling dismissed by doctors around women’s health issues. And I think that’s a really, really common experience for lots and lots of women.”
Previous research on MS and menopause has also had a more clinical focus, Collier said.
“What we wanted to do instead was take the patient perspective and look at a broader range of possible ways that menopause might impact MS,” she added.
Collier and her research team examined how women with MS perceived the impact of menopause on their health and well-being. They asked more than 3,100 women with the condition to answer questions about menopause while looking at their demographic and MS-related data. The mean age of the study participants was about 56 years.
About 75% of participants said they had experienced menopause symptoms at some point in their lives. The most commonly reported symptoms included:
- hot flashes
- night sweats
- sleep problems
- issues with thinking, memory, or concentration
- low mood or depression
Just under 30% of participants said they felt that menopause had impacted their MS symptoms. The symptoms that were most commonly affected by menopause included:
- fatigue
- cognitive issues
- bladder problems
- weakness
- muscle pain
Participants were also asked if they had ever tried specific approaches to treat menopause symptoms. What they reported most frequently included:
- hormone replacement therapy
- exercise
- diet
- mindfulness
- herbal treatments
Challenges in managing menopause with MS
Women with MS face unique challenges when managing menopause, in large part because some menopause symptoms overlap with MS symptoms.
“I think a lot of people find it really, really frustrating not being able to tell what is what,” Collier says.
This overlap can be further complicated by timing, as menopause often occurs around the same age when MS may transition from relapsing-remitting disease to a secondary progressive form. This may, in turn, complicate treatment as doctors may not always be able to tell what exactly is causing specific symptoms.
Collier would like to one day create a resource that would help doctors and people with MS navigate conversations about menopause. She has heard from some patients that they hesitate to bring up menopause to their neurologists because they worry that their doctors may not be interested in discussing it.
Practical obstacles, such as short doctor appointments, can also make these conversations difficult. Patients may only have enough time to discuss some concerns — the ones that are most pressing to them — but not others.
“Menopause is at the bottom of the list and doesn’t get asked about,” Collier says.
Looking ahead, Collier is hoping to publish her research and share the results with clinicians as well as members of patient advisory groups, community groups, and support groups that she has worked with before.
“Presenting the results back to the members of the groups will be really rewarding,” she says.