Australian healthcare professionals managing premenopausal women at high genetic risk for ovarian cancer aren’t confident about handling the early menopause resulting from a risk-reducing procedure, a survey reveals.

Obstetrician and gynaecologist Professor Martha Hickey, of the University of Melbourne and the Royal Women’s Hospital, and colleagues surveyed 47 (out of 118 invited) public-sector healthcare professionals across 10 disciplines and specialties about their management of risk-reducing bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy.

Most respondents were genetic counselors (47%), nurses (19%) or medical oncologists (11%), the authors reported in Menopause.

Seventy-seven per cent of participants said that providing advice about the procedure was part of their professional responsibility.