The next chapter

EDITOR-IN CHIEF

A time of change is often a good opportunity for reflection and looking back now, so much has changed in the 35 years since I first became involved in menopause as a junior doctor at King’s College Hospital, London. At a time when fetal medicine, ultrasound and laparoscopic surgery were taking off, menopause seemed relatively unexciting by comparison. How wrong I was; it has taken me on an incredible journey scientifically, clinically and socio-politically during which time I have learnt so much about many aspects of health that most gynaecologists don’t go near and I have been fortunate to have met so many wonderful people from all over the world. So, it is truly a great honour and a privilege to be writing my first editorial as the new Editor-in Chief of Climacteric.

Firstly, my huge thanks go to Rod Baber who has done so much for Climacteric and the IMS over many years. The journal goes from strength to strength and under his stewardship Climacteric has cemented itself as one of the major journals in the field with a truly global outreach. The model of having six Associate Editors from different continents has worked well and I’m pleased to say that Peter Chedraui, Rakibul Islam, James Pickar, Yu Qi and Tevfik Yoldemir have all agreed to stay on. I’m also delighted to announce that Professor Antonio Cano from Valencia, Spain has joined the team as the European Associate Editor. I’m sure you will all continue to give them your support with refereeing papers and submitting your research.

As the female population of the world approaches 4 billion, the next few years will offer us plenty of challenges and opportunities as we seek to meet our vision “that all women across the world will have easy and equitable access to evidence-based knowledge and health care, empowering them to make fully informed mid-life health choices.” Sadly, for many women around the world today, health care of any sort is only a dream and within health care, women’s health care in particular continues to be low on the list of priorities in many countries. However, against this rather depressing backdrop there are many positives for us to build on. Our IMS family is ever expanding with members in 87 countries and through a revitalised CAMS led by Dr Duru Shah we have active engagement from 63 member societies around the globe. This presents us with a real opportunity to share and exchange knowledge, experience and expertise with many countries where women’s midlife health struggles to get on the agenda. We aim to focus a special issue of Climacteric on this in the next 12 months or so. Elsewhere, it's been heartening to see women’s health and menopause climb up the political agenda in many countries. For example, in 2022 the UK Government published a Women’s Health Strategy for England aiming to improve training, education and research in various areas of Women’s Health including menopause [1]. In November 2023, the White House has set out some priority areas for women’s Health research in the United States including peri-menopause and menopause [2] and the Australian Government has recently commissioned an enquiry into menopause services to be led by their Senate [3]. So, at last, there appears to be a welcome recognition of the need to focus research and services into women’s mid-life health. We will do all we can to support and encourage this.

Climacteric’s aim is to continue to provide up to date quality scientific research, opinion and evidenced based reviews to guide and support health care professionals around the world. In an era where unsubstantiated claims and poor quality or unvalidated research can quickly gain traction through social media, the need for authoritative peer reviewed science and recommendations has never been greater and this will be a focus of Climacteric over the next few years. Our key activities will include publication of the updated IMS recommendations and the joint publication of the updated POI guidelines. Our white Paper this year, to coincide with World Menopause Day, will address key prescribing issues in MHT, and then of course we have our keenly anticipated scientific congress in Melbourne in October.

But, as the last 35 years have taught us, the menopause world never stays still for long. In their final editorial in 2007 [4], David Sturdee and Alastair MacLennan highlighted the rollercoaster ride that menopause and MHT had been on over the first 10 years of Climacteric and indeed, continues to do so now. I’m sure there will be many more ups and downs over the next few years and Climacteric will be here to put them in perspective and provide some sanity in an increasingly crazy world. So as Climacteric starts its next chapter there is much to look forward to; strap in and enjoy the ride!