A new event to offer support to people going through the menopause is set to be launched with a full day of experts, workshops and support.
Shropshire’s first menopause conference has been organised by Angela Loughlin of Mbrace from Shrewsbury - a county-based menopause training and support provider.
The event, to be held at the new Ashton Theatre at Shrewsbury School on Sunday October 16 from 9.30am-4pm, will bring the renowned menopause training company Talking Menopause to Shropshire to facilitate a full day of presentations from experts.
The experts will include GPs, physios, nutritional therapists and coaches as they come together to support those going through the menopause, along with employers and managers who want to learn how to improve the support for their employees.
Angela, who founded Mbrace following her menopause journey and who is a qualified menopause holistic coach and also a qualified menopause advocate trainer within the NHS, said the event was a whole-day celebration that would support and guide people through the journey.
Sessions include menopause in the workplace, the importance of nutrition, bone health, and your menopause vision.
Angela said: “This full day celebration is about empowering people to take control of their menopause journey and for employers and line managers to better understand what their staff are going through at that time, and the support they can offer.
“The team of experts who will be coming together for the conference will be able to offer support so people know how to control what is very much an experience they have never gone through before.
“The conference team will be able to offer the tools to help people minimise the impact the menopause has on their work, their family and their whole lifestyle.
“For employers and line managers they need to learn the best ways to support their staff going through menopause - we say “hot flushes in the boardroom should be fanned not shamed” - but it is more than hot flushes, more than night sweats and people need to be able to recognise the much wider symptoms and the impact they have on someone’s family life and working life.”
Lynda Bailey, who launched the nationally-recognised Talking Menopause in 2017, will be one of the guest speakers. Her passion is born out of her own experience of menopause while working as an inspector in West Midlands Police.
She was fortunate to have a supportive manager but Lynda was driven to set up a menopause support group at work. Her work continues today across the force and she won the West Midlands Police diamond award for diversity for her menopause work.
The second speaker will be Claire Callaghan, a chartered physiotherapist for over 25 years, who specialises in physical activity and women’s musculo-skeletal health. She has worked in the public and private sectors in Australia and the UK, as clinical and managerial lead in sport and exercise at the University of Bristol.
She presents regularly on women's physical wellbeing, especially during midlife. Claire provides practical solutions to some of the health and lifestyle challenges menopause may pose.
The third speaker will be Joanne Crovini, a nutritional therapist with over a decade of experience working with individuals and organisations to support energy, mental health, hormone health and resilience. She believes in simple and practical changes that have a big impact on how you feel and is full of tips and ideas for how you can incorporate these changes.
As a perimenopausal woman herself, Joanne believes that women often arrive at peri-menopause already depleted from the “24/7 100 mile an hour lifestyle they’ve been living for years and that the onset of menopause can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back”.
She specialises in supporting women through the perimenopause transition and helping them to take back control of their diet and their life.
Pictured: Angela Loughlin
