Portugal's Government Lets the June Deadline for a National Menopause Strategy Pass, and Three Groups Find It Missing From the 2027 Budget Too

Portugal's government has let a legal deadline pass without presenting the national menopause strategy that parliament wrote into this year's budget. The 2026 State Budget law gave it until the end of June. Expresso reported the missed deadline on 18 October, World Menopause Day, when three civil society groups published a letter saying the government had not delivered.

What the law promised

Article 185 of Lei n.º 73-A/2025, the 2026 State Budget (Orçamento do Estado), says that "in the first half of 2026" the government presents a national strategy for rights in menopause (estratégia nacional para os direitos na menopausa). The strategy is meant to cover sexual and reproductive health services in health centres and the prevention of sexually transmitted infections, and to follow four guidelines:

• promoting overall wellbeing and a healthy sexual life, whether or not a person is still of childbearing age;
• offering consultations and information on pre and post-menopause symptoms, and on the drug and non-drug treatments that suit each person's symptoms and risk profile;
• running menopause training sessions for the general public in the care units of every health centre, alongside sexual health services;
• making the state co-payment (comparticipação) on menopause medicines the same across the board.

It was not the first promise. The 2025 budget, Lei n.º 45-A/2024, already said in Article 215 that sexual and reproductive health services in health centres, beyond family planning and infection prevention, "provide" menopause consultations for people in perimenopause. It created a special co-payment regime for vaginal and vulvar moisturisers and other evidence-based treatments for menopause symptoms, as long as an SNS doctor prescribes them, and told the government to standardise co-payments on menopause drugs. Article 216 asked the Ministry of Health for an 18-month study of the impact of menopause and andropause, including at work.

In searches of government, Directorate-General of Health (Direção-Geral da Saúde, DGS) and gazette sources, The Portugal Brief found no published strategy and no order setting up a working group to draft one as of 18 October. Lusa's report carried no response from the government, and we found no new date.

What the organisations want

The letter came from the Family Planning Association (Associação para o Planeamento da Família), A Coletiva and EsqLab, and drew on a meeting held on 10 October, according to the Lusa news agency. The groups say the mid-2026 deadline went by without action and that the strategy is also missing from the 2027 budget proposal now before parliament.

They want specialised menopause consultations in the SNS (the national health service), training for health professionals and a dedicated response on the SNS 24 helpline. They also ask for equal access to hormonal and non-hormonal therapies, with state co-payment. At work, they propose flexible hours, breaks and remote working without loss of pay, and want menopause covered by occupational health and collective agreements. They also ask the labour inspectorate (Autoridade para as Condições do Trabalho) and the workplace equality commission (Comissão para a Igualdade no Trabalho e no Emprego) to watch for discrimination. Public campaigns and more research complete the list.

Above all, they want the approved measures funded, with deadlines and clear responsibility.

What comes next

The 2027 budget debate gives MPs the next chance to set a firmer deadline or attach funding. For background, see what the 2027 budget changes for households. Until a strategy appears, the 2025 law places menopause consultations within the sexual and reproductive health services of local health centres, so that is where to ask. Not every SNS patient yet has a family doctor; we reported recently on when that could change.