What are the Real Housewives of Rhode Island doing at the State House?

Ma, you know I love these ladies, and now they're helping advocate for menopause legislation and treatment!

...cast members Liz McGraw and Dolores Catania [albeit, a visiting RHONJ] visited the Rhode Island State House to talk to state Senator Lori Urso and Representative Karen Alzate about menopause legislation.

Urso, a Pawtucket Democrat, championed a bill that became law last year, making Rhode Island the first state to explicitly protect women experiencing menopause in the workplace under a fair employment statute, according to the Menopause Education Center.

Urso, 61, works as president and CEO of the Old Slater Mill Association, but she said she almost lost that job because of menopause symptoms.

For three years, she struggled to sleep, waking up with night sweats while dealing with heart palpitations, brain fog, and panic attacks, she said. Doctors did not immediately connect the symptoms to menopause, and she ended up submitting her resignation in 2020, she said.

But then the pandemic hit, allowing her to work alone, and she returned to the job, Urso said. Once she received menopausal hormone therapy, she felt much better, and she began to realize that this is an issue that affects working women across the globe.

-- ‘Real Housewives of Rhode Island’ spotlight menopause bill in R.I., Boston Globe 6/11/26

Dolores and Liz talk more about their menopause journey in this NewBeauty Magazine interview from May 15, 2026:

5:57: I was told I had a thyroid issue. I dealt with hot flashes, weight gain, mood swings, everything you can imagine. And I went from doctor to doctor and thousands and thousands of dollars with no help. And then just started to learn and realized only in my 50s that all this time I was going through menopause. And thank God now we have a voice for the women coming behind us because no one had a voice for us.

Why is this such a mystery to women AND the medical establishment? Because years of established best treatment for menopause symptom were dismissed in the 2002 Women's Health Initiative press conference about Menopause Hormone Therapy (MHT). Dr. Jen Gunter covers the problems with that announcement extensively in her book The Menopause Manifesto, as well as in her substack, The Vajenda. Short version: the WHI's study participants were on average 63 years old, well past the average age of 50 when menopause often starts for women. The small increased cancer risk the WHI found with MHT resulted in a firestorm of fear and lawyers coming for treating physicians, making everyone afraid to even mention menopause treatment. And that left women in the dark, suffering with symptoms, and at increased risk of heart disease and osteoperosis as a result of untreated lower estrogen levels. A shameful abandonment of education, research, and treatment for women. If you're suffering from any mental, mood, or physical symptoms of menopause, be like Delores and Liz: arm yourself with information and advocate for yourself at your doctor's office. And if they try to shrug you off with 'you're aging' or the classic 'it's all in your head', find your nearest Menopause Society certified doctor for informed, needed, and deserved care.