Menopause Symposium
- paperbarkwp

- Aug 13, 2025
- 20 min read
Updated: Aug 20, 2025
Undalup Room – City of Busselton

If ever the Paperbark Wellness Project needed any validation for what we do, then our very first Menopause Symposium on 23 June 2024 was it.
What a wonderful day it was, and everyone went home knowing exponentially more than they thought possible about women’s hormonal health.
It was a day filled with learning from our wonderful presenters, fun exercises, plenty of sharing and reinforcement of the importance of taking a holistic approach. There were also lots of laughs and heartfelt connection with other women on the same road... and plenty of yummy food.
There is still much ground to cover in our communities in exploring a woman’s hormonal journey through to menopause and beyond, but this was a fine start.
The PWP would love to thank all those who came along and participated with curiosity, an open mind and a willing heart. Your feedback was wonderful and very affirming for us.
We loved hearing what the day meant for you – so many stories of feeling like you'd been in the wilderness with your health journey but, by the end of the day, realising that you were NOT going mad, you were just neck deep in a perimenopausal or postmenopausal soup and were now armed with the power of knowledge.
A huge thanks to our 7 fabulous presenters who all volunteered their time for the event: naturopaths Tara Nelson and Helen Shaylor, GP Dr Sarah Moore, pelvic health physiotherapists Amee Rice and Issy Downie, psychologist Rosemary Crake and counsellor Genevieve Morrissey.

Back row (left-right): Amee Rice, Sarah Moore, Genevieve Morrissey and Helen Shaylor. Front row (left-right): Issy Downie, Tara Nelson and Rosemary Crake.
Also due is a big thankyou to the hardworking volunteers, who gave their time so willingly. You people are the bedrock of the PWP and the reason why we can run events like this. Heartfelt thanks and a big hug to Jo, Mary, Jeff, Karen, Kerry, Tara, Delia and David.

L to R: Jo, Mary, Jeff, Karen, Genevieve, Kerry, Tara and Delia
There was a lot to take in, with a ton of wonderful information shared by the presenters. So, this blog recaps some of that information and fleshes it out with other resources.
Contents (quick links)
The terms 'menopause', 'perimenopause' and 'postmenopause'
For ease of readability, the term ‘woman’ has been used in this blog. It should be understood to include anyone with female hormones.
Menopause occurs when a woman has her final menstrual period. In the majority of cases, this happens naturally between the ages of 45 and 55, with the average age of onset at around 51 years of age. Menopause is considered early when it occurs between 40 and 45, and premature menopause may take place before the age of 40 for natural reasons or as a result of medical intervention.
If you are someone who has gone through premature menopause (under 40), for whatever reason, it is really important that you are connected to healthcare practitioners who are across the latest research and treatment protocols as there are increased risk factors associated with the loss of oestrogen and other important hormones. We recommend watching this video on early and premature menopause by Dr Louise Newson, a UK GP and renowned menopause specialist.
The removal of both ovaries (bilateral oophorectomy) before a woman has gone through her natural menopause is called surgical menopause. In this case, menopause occurs abruptly, on the day of the surgery, and requires pre- and post-operative guidance and immediate specialised hormone replacement therapy. We recommend that you watch Dr Louise Newson’s video on How Surgical Menopause Affects Hormones or read her article on Surgical Menopause.
Perimenopause is the transitional phase that precedes menopause. It is characterised by hormonal fluctuation, anovulatory cycles, the onset of cycle irregularity, changes in flow and often other symptoms.
Once you have experienced menopause you enter postmenopause, and you stay here for the rest of your life. It is not just another phase you pass through.
Given that the average age for menopause is currently 51 and women’s life expectancy has increased to 88-90 years, this means that women on average spend 40% of their lives being postmenopausal. So, it has never been more important to take menstrual and hormonal health education seriously and to start it early, sharing knowledge widely across all ages.
Symptoms and other health concerns
Some women experience menopausal symptoms for up to 10 years before their final period.
In terms of reported symptoms, there is a continuum from no symptoms at all (20% of women) all the way to a living nightmare (20%), with most women (80%) experiencing some symptoms during perimenopause.
Symptoms may include (and this is not an exhaustive list!):
Hot flushes & night sweats | Urinary issues | Mood swings |
Vaginal dryness | Loss of libido | Disturbed sleep |
Memory issues | Brain fog | Bodily aches & pains |
Anxiety & depression | Irregular & heavy periods | Hair loss & scalp thinning |
Fatigue | Dizziness | Bloating |
Weight gain | Palpitations | Itchy skin & skin changes |
Headaches | Tinnitus | Cystitis |
Digestive problems | Brittle nails | Sore breasts |
Dry mouth | Aching muscles | Panic attacks |
For a lot of women, many of the symptoms they have experienced during perimenopause don’t stop as soon as they reach menopause. The symptoms they may have during postmenopause are, in the main, very similar to their perimenopausal symptoms, though they are generally less intense and usually fade over a few years.
However, there are 4 areas of health that women need to pay close attention to because the decline in oestrogen leaves them more vulnerable in these areas:
Heart health – Oestrogen helps protect women against heart disease. As oestrogen levels drop due to menopause, the level of fat in a woman’s blood can increase. These changes raise a woman’s risk of developing heart and other circulatory system disorders such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, stroke and heart disease.
Bone health – Research indicates that up to 20% of bone loss can happen in the first 10 years of postmenopause and approximately 1 woman in 10 over the age of 60 worldwide is affected by osteoporosis.
Pelvic health – As oestrogen declines, many women (more than 50%) experience pelvic issues, especially genitourinary symptoms, as oestrogen plays a key role in supporting the tissues and structures in the pelvic area.
Brain health – It is vital that we understand just how important good brain health is before we get to menopause as research is showing us now that it is much harder to influence change once the levels of oestrogen and testosterone start to drop.
Menopausal Hormone Therapy
Our GP, Dr Sarah Moore, explained that the reduction in the production of oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone associated with perimenopause and menopause is connected to an increased risk of a number of health conditions, including insulin resistance & diabetes, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, urinary incontinence, arthritis, dementia, anxiety, depression and thyroid disease. Although many women will not develop these conditions, they are more prevalent during perimenopause and postmenopause due to the loss of the protective effects of oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone.
Sarah suggested that perimenopause and early postmenopause are important times to seek a thorough health check so you can be proactive with identifying and managing any chronic disease early.
There is so much information about MHT (or HRT, as it is also called) that it can be hard to get your head around it all, and that information is being updated all the time due to the amount of research it is now attracting.
A study, the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), released in 2002 reported an increase in side effects from MHT, causing its use to drop drastically around the world. This study has now been debunked, and MHT has steadily regained its place as a first-line treatment protocol for women in perimenopause and at menopause, with newer studies showing that MHT also has a beneficial effect in younger women and in postmenopausal women.
Sarah drew our attention to a large 2024 study that reported that MHT can be helpful for reducing the risk of developing a number of chronic diseases even when therapy has begun well after menopause. This study is also discussed by healthcare journalist Marcia Frellick in her article in Medscape entitled Hormone Therapy After 65 Good Option for Most Women. In this, she quotes Dr Lisa C. Larkin, President of The Menopause Society in the USA: “For the last 25 years we have completely neglected education of clinicians about menopause and the data on hormone therapy… As a result, most of the clinicians practicing do not understand the data and remain very negative about hormones even in younger women. The decades of lack of education of clinicians about menopause is one of the major reasons far too many young, healthy, 50-year-old women with symptoms are not getting the care they need [hormone therapy] at menopause.”
Sarah also pointed out that in recent years more research has revealed that testosterone MHT offers promising benefits for women. This important hormone is made by the ovaries (as well as the brain, adrenal glands and body fat), but production of this hormone, like oestrogen, declines sharply around the time of perimenopause and menopause and stays low thereafter. This fall in testosterone can lead to a lack of energy, brain fog and reduced libido.
Oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone are also important for maintaining the healthy function of many organs and systems in the body, not just a woman’s menstrual health. We recommend you look at Understanding the long-term benefits and risks of HRT. This PDF from Dr Louise Newson charts the role of MHT in the outcomes for dementia, osteoporosis, diabetes, chronic heart disease, all-cause mortality, breast cancer, venous thrombo-embolism (VTE) and stroke in a visually striking manner.
Other useful resources:
The importance of testosterone for women | Dr Louise Newson (article)
All about progesterone | Dr Louise Newson (video)
How vaginal hormones can transform lives | Dr Louise Newson with urologist and sexual health doctor Dr Rachel Rubin (podcast)
A Safer Type Of Hormone Therapy | Lara Briden (blog)
Risks and Benefits of MHT | Australasian Menopause Society (information sheet)
Estrogen Matters | Avrum Bluming, MD, and Carol Tavris, PhD (book)
The New Menopause | Dr Mary Claire Haver (book)
Brain health
Lisa Mosconi, neuroscientist and director of the Women’s Brain Initiative at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, says that it’s not so much that male and female brains are built differently, but more that they age differently.
Women’s brains, it seems, have a much harder road to travel down. For example, if you look at Alzheimer’s disease, women account for 2 out of every 3 people diagnosed. If we take depression, again women are twice as likely as men to experience major depression. On top of that, they are three times more likely to be diagnosed with autoimmune disorders that attack the brain, such as multiple sclerosis. They are also four times more likely to have migraines and are more likely to die from strokes.
Why is this? According to Mosconi, the main factor is hormones.
Recent research by Mosconi has thrown up a surprise finding: the menopause transition period is marked by a progressively higher density of oestrogen receptors in brain cells in the same regions of the brain that are responsible for such issues as brain fog, depression and anxiety.
Lisa Mosconi discusses this exciting new research outcome in the following interview with Dr Mary Claire Haver: Interview with Dr. Lisa Mosconi: New Research on the Menopausal Brain.
Mosconi and the team from Weill Cornell Medicine are now conducting further research into how effective certain therapies such as MHT are on the brain.
Lifestyle
Lifestyle also affects long-term wellbeing. Adjusting your lifestyle choices during perimenopause and at menopause, and particularly having a good look at how you manage your stress levels, can greatly enhance any other form of treatment you employ and set you on the road to better health outcomes as you settle into life after menopause.
Bone density, pelvic health & exercise
It cannot be overstated just how important it is to reach menopause with good bone density, as our pelvic floor physiotherapists, Amee Rice and Issy Downer, were keen to stress. Menopause significantly speeds up bone loss and increases the risk of osteoporosis. We reach our peak bone mass in our early 20s, and it is then usually stable until our early 40s. It’s then that we start to lose a little bone density, but this loss accelerates in the first 10 years after menopause.
Research indicates that up to 20% of bone loss can happen during this stage and approximately 1 woman in 10 over the age of 60 worldwide is affected by osteoporosis.
“Now this doesn’t necessarily correlate with their fracture risk, but it’s important to know that 25% of women who have a major hip fracture after the age of 50 will die in the following 12 months... scary!” (Australian Telehealth menopause clinic WellFemme).
Being a woman is a decided disadvantage when it comes to osteoporosis as menopause is one of the most common causes of it. As hormones change to accommodate normal menopausal changes, oestrogen levels start to see-saw and then drop. Since oestrogen helps prevent bones from getting weaker by slowing the natural breakdown of bone, its depletion during menopause significantly speeds up bone loss.
If you are taking any medication, it is important to know about its effect on your bone density so that you can counterbalance this with proactive bone health measures.
Medications that can have an adverse effect on bone density include corticosteroids, antidepressants and proton-pump inhibitors, which are used for the treatment of gastro-oesophageal reflux, heartburn and peptic ulcers. Further information on these and other medicines can be found in an article in TopDoctors United Kingdom.
So, what can you do?
Get plenty of vitamin D (diet, sun and supplements) as it plays a major role in supporting the growth and maintenance of the skeleton and regulating calcium levels in the blood.
Have a balanced diet with enough protein and foods that provide essential nutrients, especially calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese and vitamin K.
Get moving. Women in their 40s and older are by far the highest demographic to exercise inconsistently. Many don’t exercise at all. Regular and suitable exercise strengthens bones and muscles. It also improves flexibility and balance, which reduce your risk of falls and fractures. Doing a variety of different exercises is best, including weight-bearing and resistance exercises as these are great for the preservation of bone and muscle mass. Learning to lift heavy weights is seen as particularly beneficial and not just for bone health; your muscles, brain and weight will also benefit. High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is good for cardiovascular health. Amee and Issy also stressed that we need to learn how to jump again as it is brilliant for our bones – not great leaps necessarily, but small jumps that work our bones, like skipping.
Practise those pelvic floor exercises that we had fun learning with Amee and Issy to strengthen those pelvic muscles that can weaken as our levels of oestrogen drop.
Know what medications decrease bone density, and if you are taking them have a conversation with your healthcare practitioner about the risks and what you can do to enhance your management of both the risk and the benefit of taking the medication.
Talk to your healthcare practitioner about MHT if you are not on it and you are postmenopausal. Taking MHT is an established approach for reducing the risk for osteoporosis. “Whilst alternatives are available for the treatment of osteoporosis in elderly women, estrogen still remains the best and safest option for prevention, particularly in younger (aged less than 60 years) and/or symptomatic women” (article entitled Prevention and treatment of osteoporosis in women in the United States National Library of Medicine).
If you smoke and/or drink alcohol, seriously reconsider this as both are known to noticeably decrease bone density (more on alcohol below). Unfortunately, coffee, tea and all caffeinated drinks are also implicated in the depletion of bone mass as their consumption increases the kidneys’ clearance of calcium, sodium and creatinine in urine. So, it pays to be mindful about balancing your intake of caffeine with that of the important minerals lost through your kidneys.
Other useful resources:
Exercises for osteoporosis | Healthy Bones Australia (article)
Female-Specific Exercise & Nutrition for Health, Performance & Longevity with Dr Stacy Sims | Andrew Huberman (podcast)
The best fitness routines for each stage of menopause with Dr Stacy Sims | ZOE Science & Nutrition (podcast)
Alcohol
One of the facts about perimenopause that many women find hard to hear is that alcohol and perimenopause do not go well together at all. It’s complex, but basically alcohol is processed in your liver, where it competes for space with hormones like oestrogen that are metabolised there. It throws a large number of other essential chemical-metabolising processes out of whack too. It is also worth remembering that alcohol has a very high sugar component.
Alcohol can have a staggering impact on the health of women. Looking at breast cancer alone, drinking three to six alcoholic drinks a week increases the risk of breast cancer by 15% compared to women who don’t drink at all. Women who drink two glasses of wine daily have a 50% increase in their risk of breast cancer.
Lara Briden, naturopathic doctor and author of the Hormone Repair Manual, discovered on her own perimenopause journey that her body simply couldn’t handle alcohol, even in the smallest amounts. She, like so many women, found that many of her more troublesome symptoms were reduced greatly or went away if she stopped drinking. She writes about alcohol in that book and in this short Instagram post: Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
The good news for those of you who do like to have a drink from time to time is that, once through menopause, most women can go back to tolerating small amounts of alcohol.
Experiment with your own alcohol intake by giving yourself a month or even a couple of weeks of being alcohol-free, see if you notice a difference in your symptoms and take it from there.
If you are someone who feels you are alcohol-dependent but would like to give not drinking a go, ask a healthcare practitioner to support you.
Other useful resources:
HOW DOES ALCOHOL AFFECT MENOPAUSE AND PERIMENOPAUSE? | HFC (article)
Half a glass of wine a day could increase risk of breast cancer returning | National Breast Cancer Foundation (article)
Limit alcohol. Alcohol use is a cause of cancer. Even drinking small amounts of alcohol increases the risk of developing cancer. | Cancer Council WA (article)
Alcohol and Cancer | Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (fact sheet)
Naturopathy & nutrition
As we witnessed from the presentations by Tara Nelson and Helen Shaylor, naturopaths offer so much knowledge to help you reduce your symptoms and navigate this stage of your life. Individually tailored plans that take a whole-body approach to your specific needs are the hallmark of naturopaths, herbalists and other aligned holistic healthcare practitioners.
Genetics, lifestyle, overall health and hormonal fluctuations all make perimenopause different for everyone. Naturopaths prescribe herbs, particular diets, exercise, supplements and good stress management and sleep practices as successful tools.
They look at ways to support and balance your body’s capacity to deal with its current situation and help you move towards optimal health. They are also known to collaborate with other healthcare practitioners to get the best outcomes for you.
Tara and Helen stressed that it is imperative that any insulin resistance is addressed as it can increase at menopause, where it can play a covert role in weight gain, diabetes, high cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, fatty liver and loss of muscle mass.
Tara explained that many apparently perimenopausal symptoms may in fact be related to a thyroid condition. She has written a blog exploring the overlap between perimenopause and an underactive thyroid gland.
Our naturopaths and other presenters were unanimous in their message that nutrition, exercise, sleep and stress management are the four lifestyle pillars of good health.
With regard to nutrition, Tara and Helen provided the following tips:
Cut out ultra-processed foods
Eat foods that are anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and nutrient-dense
Phytoestrogens are important – fermented types of soy are better at this stage of life
Not all calories are the same – nutrient-dense calories win every time
Drink plenty of water
Eat a Mediterranean diet with plenty of protein
Craft your plate:
o Protein: 1/4 of your plate – aim for an average of 90g per day
o Fibre-rich carbs: 1/8 of your plate
o Good fats: 1/8 of your plate
o Fruit and vegetables: 1/2 of your plate
Don’t worry too much about the sugar content of fruit – a whole piece of fresh fruit every so often is nutritiously good for you
Do your own research and seek out foods that act like medicine for your body during this stage of your life
Many women successfully navigate their way through menopause and beyond under the guidance of naturopaths and other healthcare practitioners. Menopause symptoms do not automatically have to be treated with MHT or other medical interventions.
Other useful resources:
Electrolytes, Dehydration and Menopause | Menopause Natural Solutions (blog)
Hormone Repair Manual | Lara Briden (book). This book was referred to frequently by our presenters.
Adaptive Medicine: Your Ally in Menopause and Graceful Ageing | Menopause Natural Solutions (blog). Jennifer Harrington writes that 'ageing well is a skillset - not a lottery'.
Mental health
Perimenopause, menopause and postmenopause may come with a range of challenges. While there are some common physical changes, our psychologist, Rosemary Crake, pointed out that the number, intensity, longevity and impact of these depend on many individual factors. Some of these factors may be genetically based, while many others are potentially within our control or influence. Female brains are more affected by emotions and remember emotional experiences more than male brains. Rosemary was also keen to point out the importance of being mindful of how much fuel you have in your tank, paying attention to what puts fuel in and what takes it out.
We know that women’s mental health vulnerability is higher at this time of life. This is when women are most susceptible to depression, anxiety and even suicide ideation. Self-esteem, stress levels, coping capacity, sleep and relationships are often affected. Statistics show that women are more likely to take their own lives between the ages of 45 and 54 than at any other time. Some of this vulnerability is rooted in hormonal changes.
It’s not uncommon for women to feel that they are losing the plot in perimenopause but are at a loss to explain just what’s happening. Their primary relationship may have changed, they may have teenage children, and often they are approaching the peak of their careers with the added workload that comes with that.
Many women these days are so overloaded with responsibilities and the demands of everyday living that being exhausted feels like the norm, so when the common symptoms of hormonal imbalance start to present themselves they are often overlooked. These symptoms can start subtly, or they may appear with such force that it knocks them right off their feet.
The symptoms that affect mood may include anxiety, agitation, overwhelm, disinterest, lack of motivation, depression, sleep disturbance, brain fog and memory loss. These symptoms are often ignored by women who are used to just getting on with things, that is until they suddenly find that they can’t complete tasks that they previously had no trouble with.
For many women this can be a distressing turning point in their lives, hijacking them with a loss of self-confidence, self-worth and self-reliance. This can also have far-reaching and negative financial consequences.
Into that mix you may add reflections on decisions that were made many years earlier that may be impacting your general sense of who you are, such as a career choice that no longer suits, a decision to live somewhere that no longer works for you or your family, or the realisation that the partner you thought would eventually change because you love them hasn’t.
It is very important that you pay attention to your symptoms. Their presentation is not always linked to perimenopause and hormonal fluctuations by doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors and other mental health practitioners. If you think that hormonal changes might be playing a part in your issues, talk to menopause-aware healthcare practitioners who can guide you through them.
It is essential to understand that, while a counsellor or psychologist can be tremendously helpful at this point, it is also imperative to address your physical hormonal health at the same time. If your body is experiencing an imbalance of hormones strong enough to cause extreme mental and physical changes within you, speak to a doctor and ask them whether the symptoms could be linked to perimenopause. Go armed with information and questions, and take your partner or a good friend as more likely than not your head will be all over the place. If you continue to feel unheard, look around for a doctor who is across the complexity of (peri)menopause and its association with mental health issues.
Here are a couple of helpful questionnaires to fill in and take to your doctor and other healthcare practitioners:
Menopause Symptom Questionnaire | Dr Louise Newson
Meno-D a rating scale to detect depression in perimenopause | Jean Hailes organisation
Another thing to bear in mind for yourself or your loved ones and friends is that research suggests that menopause can affect neurodiverse women slightly differently, with symptoms that include intensified sensory sensitivity, problems with emotional regulation and difficulty with executive function, e.g. planning, focusing and multitasking.
Here are a couple of articles that highlight this:
Menopause – ADHD & Neurodiversity | Dr Louise Newson
Menopause, Hormones & ADHD: What We Know, What Research is Needed | ADDitude
It is important that you find yourself a GP or menopause specialist who, firstly, has the appropriate current menopause training and, secondly, understands that the best outcome for women who experience adverse symptoms of menopause is to take a holistic approach, which sometimes involves other healthcare practitioners such as naturopaths, pelvic health physiotherapists, counsellors/psychologists and exercise/movement practitioners.
If you can find appropriate help and negotiate your way through your physical and mental issues, perimenopause and postmenopause can become a wonderful time to take stock of all that has been, to get clear about your future and to fully honour your body, mind and spirit. The presentation that our counsellor, Genevieve Morrissey, gave on the power of words addressed the need to find your authenticity. If you don’t know the words to authentically articulate who you really are and how you really feel, it is very difficult for you to identify what your needs are and nigh on impossible for anyone else to fulfil those needs, no matter how much they love you or how much of a psychic or mind reader they are. If you feel that you don’t matter, or your voice is dismissed, you feel disempowered and act accordingly. Genevieve explained that when you understand the power of emotional literacy and fully realise the implications of the chemical connection between body, mind and emotions, you give yourself permission to live a life with more balance, more ease and more connection to others around you.
Other useful resources:
Not just hot flushes: how menopause can destroy mental health! | The Guardian (article)
Rural women hope menopause Senate inquiry will lift taboo, improve access to hormone treatments | ABC News (article)
Mental illness and the role of Oestradiol with (Australian) psychiatrist Professor Jayashri Kulkarni | Dr Louise Newson (podcast)
Menopause depression: Under recognised and poorly treated | Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry (article)
Other inspiring podcasts and links
Nutrition company ZOE has put together a Menopause and Women’s Health playlist of interviews conducted with Dr Claire Haver, Dr Louise Newson, Davina McCall, Prof. Sarah Berry, Dr Stacy Sims, Dr Kameelah Phillips, Dr Jennifer Ashton, Prof. Cyrus Cooper, Dr Jen Gunter and Tamsen Fadal. We hope you find these as interesting, informative and inspiring as we do: ZOE Science & Nutrition Podcasts – Menopause Playlist.
We also recommend you check out the Simple Hormones website, set up by Steve Goldring, a pharmacist in the United States.
Senate Committee inquiry and report, and the Government response
In September 2024, the Australian Senate handed down a report on ‘Issues related to menopause and perimenopause’ following a 10-month inquiry.
This long-overdue inquiry was commissioned to take a comprehensive look at how menopause and perimenopause impact the lives of women in Australia.
The main areas of interest were:
the economic consequences
workforce participation, productivity and retirement planning
physical health impacts
access to healthcare services
mental and emotional wellbeing
caregiving responsibilities, family dynamics and relationships
cultural and societal factors influencing perceptions and attitudes
the level of awareness among medical professionals and women of the symptoms and treatments, including affordability and availability
the level of awareness among employers and workers of the symptoms, and the support provided
existing Commonwealth, state and territory government policies, programs and healthcare initiatives addressing menopause and perimenopause
The inquiry members travelled far and wide across Australia holding hearings in most major cities, including Perth. They received over 280 submissions, from Australia and abroad, from a wide range of organisations, medical practices, leading lights in women’s health, government agencies, women’s health organisations, individual doctors, unions and workplace organisations, medical training institutions, holistic healthcare practitioners and a large number of women with a lived experience.
The report was wide-ranging and made 25 recommendations to the Government, which responded in February 2025 with ‘support’ for 10 of them and ‘support in principle’ for another 6.
There were several recommendations around educating and upskilling healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and other practitioners, which the Government ‘supports in principle’. The Government will encourage the Australian Medical Council to consider including perimenopause and menopause in the Graduate Outcome Statements of the Standards for Assessment and Accreditation of Primary Medical Programs. Further to that, in “its formal request to the Australian Medical Council (AMC), the Government will encourage the AMC to work with the Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand to prioritise health practitioner knowledge and skills in menopause within upcoming accreditation reviews of medical programs of study, undertaken by AMC” (Australian Government response to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee report).
And here are some more positives:
The Government has introduced two new general practice MBS items for menopause and perimenopause health assessment services of at least 20 minutes' duration, effective from 1 July 2025.
To address price barriers for access to MHT, the Minister for Health and Aged Care has referred this matter to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) for review.
The Government will also provide much-needed funding for research into women’s hormonal health and says that a lot more money will be put into awareness campaigns, not only for women but also for the general community, and that includes the workplace.
There is still a way to go, but the Senate report does provide a fabulous launching pad for a new age of information sharing across communities and through practitioners working with girls and women to bring about lasting change.
When we think back to the PWP’s first menopause event (Paperbark Conversations on Menopause in October 2021), there was so little support back then for women who were suffering because of their hormonal health. That was why we at the PWP were galvanised into action to address this topic, and we will continue to do so in the years ahead.
Contact details for presenters
Tara Nelson: Tara Nelson – Thyroid Health Naturally
Helen Shaylor: Helen Shaylor Naturopath
Dr Sarah Moore: Dr Sarah Moore
Amee Rice: Central Focus Physiotherapy
Issy Downie: Refresh Physio
Rosemary Crake: Ideal Outcomes
Genevieve Morrissey: Cowara Counselling
Photography
Thanks to David and Jeff for taking photos for us.







































This symposium seems really informative! I’ve been wondering how menopause care compares internationally — do the top hospitals in Germany follow similar approaches to hormone therapy as discussed here?