When Dr. Catherine Hansen’s husband went on a business trip in April, he brought her a heck of a souvenir. Astronaut Jeremy Hansen became the first Canadian to fly to the moon on the Artemis II mission, and he took charms for his wife and their three kids to the moon and back, with love.
It wasn’t the family’s only big launch this year. Last week, the whole clan converged on Ottawa. Jeremy arrived at the capital with the Artemis II crew to celebrate their historic mission. Catherine, an OB-GYN who has specialized in menopause health for the past 30 years, was already in Canada to launch the virtual menopause care company Effica Health in Ontario and Alberta.
The Hansens are both from Ontario — Catherine is from Hamilton, Jeremy is from just north of London — but they’ve been based in Houston for nearly 20 years, since Jeremy was recruited by NASA.
The day the pair met, he told her he wanted to be an astronaut. They were in Moosejaw, Sask., at Catherine’s brother’s Canadian Armed Forces pilot graduation. “Jeremy was one class behind in becoming a CF-18 pilot and was showing my family around the base,” she said.
So it was a full-circle moment to watch him join Artemis II as a mission specialist. “It was beautiful to see Jeremy live out his dream,” Catherine told the Star via phone from Toronto, en route to Ottawa. She was riveted, watching with their 21-year-old son and 20-year-old twin daughters, who are studying in Nanaimo, Montreal and Kingston, respectively.
They were so focused on the launch that they didn’t realize until halfway through that the world was captivated, too. “There was something about the realness of the crew and their genuine nature that appealed to people,” Catherine said. The mission also came at the perfect time, bolstering a sense of shared humanity at a moment of fractured international relations back here on Earth.
In her own work, Catherine is drawn to the field of menopause care by a desire to support the 10 million Canadians she said are transitioning through perimenopause and menopause.
“The Canadian health care system is really lacking in access for mid-life women’s care,” she said. “Women are falling through the cracks or getting misinformation.” Cut to the flood of questionable advice and products fed to anyone over 40 on social media. “Instagram is predatory,” she said.
On average, menopause occurs at age 51, but perimenopause can start in the late 30s or early 40s. Catherine said that three-quarters of those in these stages experience symptoms such as irregular periods, hot flashes, sleep disruptions and mood changes. Once periods have ceased for a year, a woman is considered post-menopausal, yet symptoms can continue.
“It is a confusing and very isolating experience going through menopause,” said Catherine, who joined Effica Health, as chief medical adviser. Intended as a complement to public health care, its $399 one-time fee includes prescriptions, referrals and group therapy sessions. It’s expected to roll out soon in more provinces.
Catherine said the platform offers an opportunity to really talk to a medical professional and extended team. The initial consultation, which doesn’t require a referral, is an hour long.
For many women, getting a menopause-informed health care provider to listen to all of their concerns — from brain fog to low libido, heart palpitations to tinnitus, joint pain to hormone fluctuations, to name but a few — for an hour sounds like a distant dream.
“People don’t feel heard,” Catherine said. “I’ve been doing this a long time. The majority of the time when you speak to women in these sessions you see tears and frustration, and gratitude at being heard. There is a lot of gaslighting of women in this area.”
After answering my questions about her work, Catherine rushed off to watch Jeremy and his American crewmates be honoured in Ottawa. Prime Minister Mark Carney presented them with commemorative silver coins, and gave Jeremy the flag that was flying on the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill the day the capsule splashed back down to Earth. In return, Jeremy gave Carney a patch of a Canadian flag that made the journey to the moon.
Now that the historic mission is over, the Hansen family is celebrating in especially Canadian way — by inviting some of Jeremy’s Artemis II crewmates to their lakeside getaway near Barrie, to welcome the start of Ontario cottage season.
