I Attended Thriving Through Menopause 2025 and Here’s What Was Covered
By Ricky Allen
On Monday February 24, Chiza Westcarr convened a symposium which was more like a revival meeting than a mere symposium. 200 attendees filled The State Library of NSW, the room abuzz with high excitement from start to finish for Thriving Through Menopause 2025.
For many attendees it was a validation of what they were experiencing in their own lives. It was also an opportunity to discuss freely the fact that they were either perimenopausal or menopausal, and the effects it had on their lives as well as those of their patients.
Attendees travelled from all over Australia as well as New Zealand. Thriving Through Menopause had booked out within a few weeks, further reaffirming the need for this educational forum. There was a raft of very interesting speakers, starting with Professor Rod Baber AM who had set up and run the first menopausal clinic in Australia at Royal North Shore Hospital. He was a true visionary when it came to diagnosing and treating perimenopause and menopause.
Chiza also welcomed guests and spoke about putting the seminar together, as well as on some of her work in this space as a nutritionist and dermal clinician. She said clinicians were the ones who kept urging her to put together the symposium as they desperately wanted this day of intense knowledge for themselves.
Michelle Bridges recounted her experience with menopause and the real benefits of helping to control symptoms through exercise. Cherry Wills, a nutritionist, spoke about the benefits of a good diet, especially a Mediterranean diet. Dr Shauna Watts and Dr Asha Ram spoke about their experiences running women’s health clinics, listing some of the treatments they recommended.
Dr Nneka Nwokolo, a British physician specialising in sexual health, spoke about how different ethnic cultures experienced perimenopause and menopause. Nawal Church, a physiotherapist, spoke about treating symptoms of perimenopause and menopause, including stress incontinence. Dr Anoop Rastogi, a cosmetic surgeon, talked about prescribing Ozempic in his practice before he performed certain surgeries. He had the audience drooling when he showed them some of his before-and-afters.
Dr Martina Lavery, an aesthetic dentist, gave a very interesting talk about the aesthetic problems and solutions for some of her perimenopausal and menopausal patients. Dr Zhuoran Chen, a urogynaecologist, certainly took the fear out of perhaps needing surgery one day, as she gave a practical plan for different urogynaecological problems with short- and long-term solutions. Associate Professor Caroline Gurvid, a neuropsychologist, flew in from Melbourne with some very interesting information about different mental aspects which some perimenopausal and menopausal patients may experience, with treatment plans for those concerns.
The trade were very happy to be involved in the day, handing out information and gift bags. For them it was the first opportunity to be able to showcase the benefits of their skincare or equipment in treating some of the negative symptoms of perimenopause and menopause.
Some of the trade also had speakers such as Dr David Kosenko, Dr Mirjana Janjic, Dr Aman Bhinder and Agnes Dube talking about different treatments which were part of the trade area. The trade included Dermocosmetica, Cryomed, Murad, Advanced Cosmeceuticals Skin Group ,Advanced Skin Technology, Fotona, Gernetic, InMode, Florabiome, Aesthetic Bureau, Innovative Medical Technologies, and Dermal Code. Attendees spent time going from company to company, very eager to hear about their products.
Even the food was well thought out, as healthy but also very delicious food was served throughout the day. All the attendees were given a gift bag filled to the brim with information and products provided by some of the sponsors.
Chiza is likely starting work on the dates for next year’s symposium, such was the positive feedback on the day and the urging by attendees for future events.