How do we make menopause a more inclusive experience?
October 18th 2022 is World Menopause Day and Noon marked the occasion with a special discussion hosted by Noon founder Eleanor Mills and featuring a panel of fabulously formidable, interesting women.
To watch the debate click here and to sign our Parliamentary Petition for menopause to be made a QOF, so that ALL women are called to talk to their GP about it when they are 45 which would mean EVERYONE got the medical advice they need (not just those who can afford to pay) and that doctors are fully trained in menopause (currently most are not) click on the Parliamentary Petition link above. This petition is backed by all our panellists and the Menopause Charity and Henpicked.
Over the past couple of years the conversation about the menopause has exploded with a raft of celebrities talking about how it has been for them and some high profile projects such as Davina McCall’s documentary series on Channel 4. This has had a huge effect on the ground – the number of prescriptions for HRT has increased by 30 per cent according to the latest figures from the NHS. But there are huge disparities around access to care. Women in the most deprived areas of the UK are half as likely to be prescribed HRT and when they are they are often being given older varieties which have more side effects. When it comes to other minority communities many women still think that menopause is a posh white woman’s issue. The next frontier in the menopause debate has to be widening access to information and treatment – so today we have assembled a stellar panel of women to discuss how to do exactly that. Is technology a solution? What policies that government could introduce might help? What do women from different communities need on the ground? How do we spread the word so it gets heard where it most needs to?
Click on the video below to watch the event
Making Menopause More Inclusive
View AllIf you are fired up by watching this and would like to sign the Noon petition, backed by everyone on the panel, to make menopause a QOF then click here
Meet our fantastic panel
Eleanor Mills
Panel chair and Noon founder, award winning editor, writer and broadcaster Eleanor spent 23 years at The Sunday Times, as Editorial Director, Editor of the Sunday Times Magazine and columnist and interviewer. She was Chair of Women in Journalism, is a trustee of the Society of Editors, a board member of Reporters Sans Frontiers and a passionate advocate of Queenagers.
Carolyn Harris MP
Carolyn has lived and worked in her Swansea East constituency all her life. Determined to widen the conversation around menopause and address the issues through parliamentary policy she introduced a Private Member’s Bill into Parliament last year. As a result, the parliamentary Menopause Task Force was formed with her as co-chair. Its aim is to transform menopause support and services for women across the UK.
Anita Powell
Community activist and menopause campaigner, Anita is the founder of Menopause Alliance which offers peer support, activism and educational events to women in Bedford, and the co-founder of Black Women in Menopause, an online support group. She regularly organises and runs support events for women from diverse multicultural and social backgrounds.
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
The first regular columnist of colour and the first female Muslim on a national newspaper in the UK, Yasmin is an award-winning journalist and author, a respected advisor and consultant on race and gender equality, and a sought-after radio and television broadcaster, pundit and commentator. She has written for Noon about the experience of menopause in diverse ethnic communities.
Kate Muir
Founder of The Menopause Charity, novelist and former Chief Film Critic of the Times, Kate is the author of Everything You Need to Know About the Menopause (but were too afraid to ask) and the producer of Davina McCall’s two groundbreaking menopause documentaries for Channel 4 (there’s another one on the way)
Andrea Berchowitz
After 10 years with McKinsey and Company, then working for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation leading their work in the Middle East, Andrea left in 2019 to co-found Vira Health, a company focusing on women’s health support. Their first product is an app called Stella which helps women to manage the symptoms of menopause. Andrea’s 2021 TED Talk on the links between menopause and gender inequity in the workplace has had over 1.6 million views.
Click here to listen to Andrea’s TED Talk
Jennifer Howze
Award-winning journalist and blogger, Jennifer is Editorial Director at Netmums. She co-founded BritMums, the UK’s largest parent influencer network and whilst she was the online lifestyle editor at The Times, founded the paper’s Alpha Mummy blog. She’s a frequent contributor on Sky TV, Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and BBC tv and radio.
Tina Backhouse
With over 25 years’ experience in global senior leadership roles the pharmaceutical industry, Tina is the General Manager of UK Women’s Health at Theramex, sponsors of the event and a leading global pharmaceutical company dedicated to women and their health. Tina’s focus is how to get more HRT into the hands of the patients who need it.
We’d love to know what you think too, so please send any questions to hello@inherspace.co.uk and Eleanor will be sure to ask the panellists
We’re grateful to Theramex for sponsoring the event.
