Region Dalarna’s
digital menopause clinic
From invisible symptoms to a cohesive care chain
Even though menopause affects most women, many find it very difficult to get the right support and help within healthcare. A lack of understanding and knowledge about symptoms, long waiting times, and a feeling of not being taken seriously are recurring testimonies from women in the media and in online forums.
In Region Dalarna, they wanted to do something about this – which has become a lifeline for many women. Since 2025, the region has offered a county-wide digital menopause clinic for menopause-related symptoms. After just one year, the clinic shows high demand, high patient ratings, and a need that has quickly exceeded expectations.
For many women, the clinic has become a new and valued pathway into care – and an example of how digital care models can make specialised expertise more accessible, regardless of where the patient lives.
“We see the woman”
The menopause clinic is based in Avesta but sees women from across Dalarna. Appointments take place digitally via 1177 Direkt and are led by midwives with specialist knowledge of and interest in menopause symptoms. Doctors are connected to the clinic several times a week when a medical assessment or additional interventions are needed.
For Carola Ohlsson, coordinator of the menopause clinic, the clinic’s mission is very much about listening.
“We listen to the woman about her problems and symptoms. And we see the woman.”
That is an important way of putting it. For many women, menopause is not about a single symptom, but about a combined impact on sleep, mood, energy, relationships, ability to work, and quality of life. When care only treats symptoms separately, the underlying cause risks being missed.
Carola Ohlsson describes how women sometimes receive help for sleep problems, pain, or low mood – but not for their menopause symptoms as a whole.
“In that case, they’re not being treated for menopause symptoms, but for the symptoms themselves. If the symptom is that you can’t sleep: ‘take a sleeping pill.’ If the symptom is that you’re in pain all over: ‘take a painkiller.’ But in reality, you’ve actually entered menopause.”
A digital clinic that lowers the threshold
The clinic being digital was a natural choice, as its remit covers all of Dalarna. Patients can seek care digitally, and healthcare staff – for example in primary care – can refer directly to the menopause clinic.
This means women can access advice, assessment, and in some cases medical treatment without first having to navigate between different clinics and wait for a physical appointment.
For patients in rural areas or in places where access to specialised expertise is limited, this is particularly important. The digital model makes it possible to offer more equitable care across the entire region, with the same expertise and ways of working regardless of where someone lives.
Since the clinic opened around a year and a half ago, approximately 2,000 appointments have taken place. Demand continues to grow at a pace the clinic struggles to keep up with.
“There is help available, but it can take a little time. I don’t think many people are disappointed as such – the only thing they’re unhappy about is that they can’t be seen sooner. But we’re doing everything we can,” says Carola Ohlsson.
The right expertise at the right step
A key part of the clinic’s approach is that midwives and doctors can collaborate within a clear digital care chain. Midwives meet the patient, provide advice, and carry out follow-ups. When needed, doctors are brought in for medical assessment, testing, or treatment.
This creates a structure in which the patient receives help from the right expertise at the right step, while primary care resources are used more efficiently.
The digital way of working can also relieve pressure on physical clinics. When women with menopause symptoms can receive support through a specialised digital clinic, time is freed up in primary care, while patients receive more cohesive and knowledge-based care.
An area where healthcare needs to improve
The need for stronger menopause care is not only visible in patient demand. In its national guidelines, the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) has highlighted a lack of knowledge about menopause within primary care, and noted that women with menopause symptoms are not always treated in the way they should be.
This is something Carola Ohlsson recognises from the women she meets.
“I spoke with a woman just today who told me she was so disappointed with how a doctor had treated her that she chose to switch primary care centre. That is the most important takeaway from Socialstyrelsen’s guidelines: improving how patients are treated and strengthening expertise.”
The digital clinic is more than a way to increase accessibility. It also represents an opportunity to pool expertise, build up experience, and create more consistent ways of working across the entire region.
Follow-up, continuity, and quality of life
To manage high demand, the clinic begins with a digital group information session and then, where needed, an individual digital appointment at the menopause clinic. During the appointment, which lasts approximately one hour, the woman has the opportunity to describe her symptoms, her situation, and how those symptoms affect everyday life. Sometimes medical treatment is needed; sometimes lifestyle advice and support. The clinic also carries out follow-ups when initiating MHT (menopausal hormone therapy) after three months of treatment, and after one year a final risk–benefit evaluation is conducted.
That follow-up is important. Menopause symptoms can change over time, and treatment often needs to be adjusted to the individual’s needs. Through digital follow-ups, women can receive continued support without having to start over in the care chain.
This creates better conditions for continuity, reassurance, and individually tailored care.
“It usually turns out really well,” says Carola Ohlsson.
A model for more patient groups?
Region Dalarna’s menopause clinic shows how digital care can be used to build more accessible and cohesive care structures for patient groups who might otherwise fall through the cracks.
The initiative is not intended to replace physical care where it is needed. Instead, it is about using digital ways of working where they do the most good: lowering barriers to seeking care, pooling expertise, relieving pressure on primary care, and giving patients a faster path to the right support.
For women with menopause symptoms, that can be the difference between continuing to seek help for individual symptoms and actually being seen as a whole person.
Perhaps that is exactly where the real potential of digitalisation lies: not in creating yet another entry point to care or yet another system, but in making care more accessible, equitable, and adapted to patients’ actual needs and circumstances.
