The Story Of The Menopause Network

Hi Network!

For our very first news article, we’d love to share the story of how the Menopause Network came to be.

But first… who are we?

The Menopause Network is an initiative by True Relationships and Reproductive Health (you might remember us as our old name, Family Planning Queensland). The True story started over 50 years ago with two visionary mothers, June Morris and Marjorie Millburn, who sparked the idea at the Ascot State School tuckshop. From those humble beginnings, we’ve grown to become a statewide service, providing sexual and reproductive health services across metropolitan, regional, and rural Queensland, alongside statewide education and specialist counselling for people affected by sexual violence in Cairns.

In late 2024, we received funding from the Queensland Health’s Women and Girls Strategy to develop a statewide menopause peer support program. No small task – so how did we begin?

We started by listening.

We conducted a statewide survey that gave us great insights into the habits, needs, and preferences of people navigating menopause. We asked how people wanted to receive information, whether they had sought care, and what kinds of support they were missing...

Alas, the Menopause Network was born!

We have three clear goals:

1.      Foster connection in communities around peri/menopause

2.      Improve health literacy for those going through or approaching peri/menopause

3.      Increase support for people on the menopause journey

We’re achieving these goals through:

·         Peer meetups and our dedicated online hub

·         Community education sessions and a growing resource library

·         Mentoring opportunities to connect people with lived experience

We’re still at the beginning of this journey, and we’re excited to see where it takes us and what we can achieve.

If you have any insights you’d like to share, ideas for collaboration, or questions about our work… we’re all ears!

In the meantime, we’ll keep doing what we set out to do: breaking the stigma around menopause, creating connected communities, and ultimately redefining what this stage of life can look like - together.

Sincerely,

Jess & Erin