Chair / Speaker

Dr Heather Currie, MBE, Joint Chairman, Programme planning group

Associate Specialist Gynaecologist, Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary; Trustee – British Menopause Society Biography

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Dr Heather Currie MBE. MB BS, FRCOG, DRCOG, MRCGP

Gynaecologist at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary, specialising in Menopause, Pre Menstrual syndrome and Cervical screening. Co- Editor of Post Reproductive Health, the Journal of the British Menopause Society (BMS), Trustee and past Chair of the BMS, Founder and Managing Director of Menopause Matters Ltd which runs the award winning website www.menopausematters.co.uk, and publishes the award winning Menopause Matters magazine. Author of the award winning book, Menopause, answers at your fingertips and of many original papers and review articles in scientific journals.

Previous national Clinical Lead for Gynaecology in Modernising Patient pathways Programme.

Clinical advisor to Scottish Government for development of the Women’s Health plan for Scotland.

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Dr Zoe Schaedel, Joint Chairman, Programme planning group

GP and Menopause Specialist, Brighton and Hove NHS Community Menopause Clinic; Member – British Menopause Society medical advisory council Biography

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Dr Zoe Schaedel BMedSci BMBS MRCGP DRCOG DFSRH PGCert

GP and Menopause Specialist, Brighton and Hove NHS Community Menopause Clinic

Dr Schaedel has 16 years’ experience as an NHS GP with expertise in women’s health and sexual health and she is an accredited British Menopause Society Menopause Specialist. She leads the Brighton and Hove Community NHS Menopause and is a co-director of Myla Health.
Dr Schaedel is currently a member of the British Menopause Society’s Medical Advisory Council, the Primary Care Women Health Foundation’s Education Committee and NHS England’s Menopause Improvement Programme Clinical Reference Group.

Dr Schaedel has developed a special interest in sleep and lectures on the International Sleep Medicine Course. She sits on the British Sleep Society Education Committee and co-founded The Good Sleep Clinic. Dr Schaedel has published articles on Menopause in The Lancet and Post Reproductive Health.

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Dr Paula Briggs

Consultant in Sexual and Reproductive Health, Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust; Chairman and Trustee – British Menopause Society Biography

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Dr Paula Briggs FFSRH FRCGP

Paula Briggs is a Consultant in Sexual and Reproductive Health based at Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust.

She is Chair of the British Menopause Society.

Paula qualified from University of Glasgow in 1987.

She trained as a GP before moving to Liverpool in 1993 and worked in General Practice and Sexual Health until 2012.

She is now devoted to delivery of women’s health care, research and education. Her main interest is menopause management with a particular interest in urogenital atrophy.

She has co-edited 3 books, co-written an undergraduate textbook in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, a revision guide for MFSRH and a book specifically for men about female hormones. She has also written a patient booklet on menopause (second edition).

She is married with four children and enjoys golf, yoga/pilates, reading and cooking.

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Co-chair: Mr Haitham Hamoda

Consultant Gynaecologist, Subspecialist in Reproductive Medicine and Surgery, King’s College Hospital, London; Immediate Past Chairman and Trustee – British Menopause Society Biography

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Mr Haitham Hamoda

Mr Haitham Hamoda is a Consultant Gynaecologist and Subspecialist in Reproductive Medicine and Surgery. He is the Clinical Lead for the Menopause Service at King’s College Hospital and the Immediate Past Chairman of the British Menopause Society. Mr Hamoda has published widely in his specialised field and is actively involved in ongoing research projects both locally and nationally and teaches at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

He is the first author of The British Menopause Society & Women’s Health Concern 2016 recommendations on hormone replacement therapy in menopausal women and author of the British Menopause Society guideline on the management of women with premature ovarian insufficiency 2017.

Mr Hamoda is a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and was awarded a degree of Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the University of Aberdeen. He obtained his accreditation as a subspecialist in reproductive medicine at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital.

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Co-chair: Dr Annice Mukherjee

Consultant Physician and Endocrinologist; Member – British Menopause Society medical advisory council Biography

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Dr Annice Mukherjee

Dr Annice Mukherjee is a Consultant Endocrinologist and Author. Annice has special interests in reproductive endocrinology and menopause, thyroid disease, pituitary disease, calcium and bone disorders, late effects of cancer treatment and medical weight management.
Annice has held elected national positions on the programme and clinical committees for the Society for Endocrinology. She contributes to the Society’s reproductive endocrine network, their patient website “You and Your Hormones” and their magazine “The Endocrinologist.” She is a past treasurer of the North West Endocrine Society.

Annice is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and member of the British Thyroid Association and British Menopause Society. Annice was awarded an MSc from King’s College London in 1998 and MD from the University of Manchester in 2008. She has published original articles and reviews extensively in high impact peer reviewed journals including JCE&M and Endocrine Reviews. Annice provides peer review for several specialist endocrine journals.

Annice supports the Trekstock young cancer support charity, works closely with the charity Prevent Breast Cancer and Greater Manchester Cancer network, to improve awareness and information about safe menopause management in breast cancer survivors.

Annice published “The Complete Guide to the Menopause” with Penguin Random House publisher in 2021.

She worked as a Consultant at Salford Royal Hospital Trust until 2019, having worked in the NHS for 27 years.

She currently practices at Spire Manchester, Orth Team centre and HCA Wilmslow Hospitals as well as her not for profit work.

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Professor Richard Simcock

Breast Cancer Clinical Oncologist, University Hospitals Sussex Foundation Trust; Chief Medical Officer for Macmillan Cancer Support; medical advisor for the charity ‘Mummy’s Star’; Honorary Professor at Brighton and Sussex Medical School Biography

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Professor Richard Simcock

Professor Richard Simcock is a Breast Cancer Clinical Oncologist working at University Hospitals Sussex Foundation Trust where he has been a Consultant since 2004. He has been a National Clinical Advisor for Macmillan Cancer Support for several years and in 2022 was appointed Chief Medical Officer at the charity. He is also a medical advisor for the charity ‘Mummy’s Star’ which advises women diagnosed with cancer during pregnancy. He is an honorary Professor at Brighton and Sussex Medical School. His research interests are in living well with and beyond cancer (LWBC) and was part of the National Cancer Research Institute LWBC subgroup and the James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership for LWBC. He receives more enquiries each week about HRT than any other topic!

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Professor Donal Brennan

Professor of Gynaecological Oncology, UCD School of Medicine, Dublin, Ireland Biography

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Professor Donal Brennan

Donal Brennan is a Clinician Scientist who graduated from the UCD School of Medicine and received a PhD in Cancer biology from UCD. His research interests include ovarian cancer immunology, the standardisation of surgical outcomes in advanced ovarian cancer, the role of hyperthermic intra-operative chemotherapy in ovarian cancer and the development of evidence-based survivorship services for women living with and after cancer – with a specific emphasis on menopause. He has helped develop and continues to work with a number of patient advocacy groups, firmly believing that patients should be involved in all stages of research and service development plans. He has received several awards for research, and was as the inaugural recipient European Young Researcher of the Year in 2010. In 2016 he was appointed as UCD Professor of Gynaecological Oncology and Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin. Since his appointment, he and his team have developed the UCD Gynaecological Oncology Group which was accredited as an ESGO Centre for Ovarian Cancer surgery in 2020 and ESGO training site in 2021 and is now the largest gynaecological cancer centre in Ireland. Donal is also a principal investigator in Systems Biology Ireland and leads multiple clinical and translational research projects. His current H-index is 49.

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Professor Jack Gilbert

Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, SIO Biology Section Head, UC San Diego School of Medicine, USA Biography

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Professor Jack Gilbert

Professor Jack A Gilbert earned his Ph.D. from Unilever and Nottingham University, UK in 2002, and received his postdoctoral training at Queens University, Canada. From 2005-2010 he was a senior scientist at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, UK; and from 2010-2018 he was Group Leader for Microbial Ecology at Argonne National Laboratory, a Professor of Surgery, and Director of The Microbiome Center at University of Chicago. In 2019 he moved to University of California San Diego, where he is a Professor in Pediatrics and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Associate Vice Chancellor for Marine Science, and Director of both the Microbiome and Metagenomics Center and the Microbiome Core Facility. Dr. Gilbert uses molecular analysis to test fundamental hypotheses in microbial ecology.

He cofounded the Earth Microbiome Project and American Gut Project. He has authored more than 400 peer reviewed publications and book chapters on microbial ecology. He is the founding Editor in Chief of mSystems journal. In 2014 he was recognized on Crain’s Business Chicago’s 40 Under 40 List, and in 2015 he was listed as one of the 50 most influential scientists by Business Insider, and in the Brilliant Ten by Popular Scientist. In 2016 he won the Altemeier Prize from the Surgical Infection Society, and the WH Pierce Prize from the Society for Applied Microbiology for research excellence. In 2017 he co-authored “Dirt is Good”, a popular science guide to the microbiome and children’s health. In 2018, he founded BiomeSense Inc to produce automated microbiome sensors. In 2021 Dr Gilbert became the UCSD PI for the National institutes of Health’s $175M Nutrition for Precision Medicine program. In 2022 he became Vice President, and in 2023 President, of the Applied Microbiology International society, the oldest microbiology society in the UK.

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Co-chair: Kathy Abernethy

Director of Menopause Services, Peppy Health; Trustee – British Menopause Society Biography

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Kathy Abernethy

Kathy Abernethy is Director of Menopause Services at Peppy and as former Co-Lead of a long-established NHS Menopause service has extensive clinical experience working with women at and after menopause, As Chairman of the Society until July 2019, she contributed to the British Menopause Society handbook on menopause management and is a registered BMS Specialist, current Trustee and Medical Advisory Council Member. She is member of the Clinical Reference Group for the NHS Optimal Management Pathway group for menopause and has an education programme for nurses. Her book for women: “Menopause: The One Stop Guide” was Highly Commended in the BMA Book Awards 2019.

With Peppy, Kathy leads a team of menopause practitioners to offer one to one personalised menopause support through the support of employers.

www.peppy.health

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Co-chair: Dr Kate Panter

Consultant, Menopause Clinic, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London; Member – British Menopause Society medical advisory council Biography

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Dr Kate Panter

Kate is a Consultant Gynaecologist in South-West London and works in the Menopause Clinic at Guy’s Hospital. She is also a BMS Menopause Specialist and trainer. Having rowed for Cambridge and GB in the 1984 Olympics, Kate is an advisor to the English Institute of Sport and was an accredited doctor for the 2012 London Olympics.

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Ms Elaine Hindal

Chief Executive, British Nutrition Foundation Biography

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Ms Elaine Hindal

Elaine Hindal is Chief Executive of the British Nutrition Foundation. She was formerly Chief Executive of the alcohol education charity Drinkaware, and prior to that, Director of External Relations for The Children Society, a charity supporting children and young people facing abuse, exploitation and neglect.

Prior to joining the non-profit sector, Elaine held a number of senior marketing and commercial roles including with Cadbury Schweppes plc, Cadbury Beverages North America, The Coca–Cola Company, Beiersdorf AG and Boots plc. She has worked in markets across the globe and lived in Europe and the USA.

Elaine moved into the non-profit sector to apply her expertise in marketing, behaviour change, campaigning and public affairs, and to further her commitment to social justice and inequality. She is a Trustee of Mencap, the national learning disability charity, where she advises on brand and corporate communications strategy and is a member of the charity’s Finance Committee, and a Trustee of the alcohol and drug treatment charity, Change Grow Live (CGL). Elaine is Chair of CGL’s Brand & Business Development Committee.

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Mr Nigel Denby

Registered Dietician and Founder, Harley Street at Home Menopause Biography

Chair: Dr Vikram Talaulikar

Specialist in Reproductive Medicine, UCLH and Hon. Associate Professor in Women’s Health, UCL, London Biography

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Dr Vikram Talaulikar

Dr Vikram Talaulikar is a Specialist in Reproductive Medicine at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Hon. Associate Professor in Women’s Health at the University College London.

He graduated in medicine in India in 2003 and completed postgraduate degree in obstetrics and gynaecology in 2007.

He is a fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and completed PhD degree at St. George’s University of London in 2016.

His clinical interests include reproductive endocrinology, polycystic ovary syndrome, recurrent miscarriage, premature ovarian insufficiency, and menopause.

He is a certified ‘menopause specialist’ by the British Menopause Society.

He has published widely in Reproductive Medicine and Menopause. He is a member of the British Fertility Society, European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, British Menopause Society, and International Menopause Society.

He runs a busy menopause and PCOS clinic at UCLH and Menopause Clinic London on Harley Street. He is a Principal trainer for FSRH Menopause SS module and a trainer for BMS principles and practice of menopause care programme.

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Dr Karen Morton

Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust Biography

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Karen Morton MA MRCP FRCOG

Dr Karen Morton is a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist in Guildford, having trained in Cambridge, Oxford, Queen Charlotte’s and St Thomas’s.

‘My special interests are paediatric and adolescent gynaecology and Menopause. I am a British Menopause Society menopause trainer. My obstetric specialist area is the care of medical problems in pregnancy such as diabetes and thyroid disease; and I love the excitement and challenge of the labour ward.

My latest venture has been to bring Women’s Health Specialists into Primary Care, and also as an affordable private service for all women. I am passionate about our collaboration with Adora Health; an AI driven conversational menopause companion. After years of dealing with a multitude of gynaecological issues over the phone I concluded, long before COVID, that medicine had been slow to embrace communication technology. Women need for gynaecological reasons (contraception, period problems, fertility and pregnancy, then menopausal matters) to seek medical advice more than men. My mission is to deal with gender health inequality and the impact it undoubtedly has on career progression and women’s quality of life.

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Co-chair: Professor Anne MacGregor

Associate Specialist in Sexual & Reproductive Health, Centre for Reproductive Medicine, Barts Health NHS Trust, London; Member – British Menopause Society medical advisory council Biography

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Professor Anne MacGregor

Anne is a Specialist in Headache and Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare at Barts Health NHS Trust, London and has an academic post at the Centre for Neuroscience, Surgery and Trauma at Queen Mary, University of London. Her clinical work crosses the boundaries between neurology and reproductive medicine. She is a recognised trainer for the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Medicine for the Diploma, Letters of Competence and Menopause. She has undertaken research in all aspects of primary headaches but her main interest focusses on the effects of sex hormones on headache. In addition to her work in headache she is active in Medical Education, is a Fellow of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare and a member of the medical advisory board of the British Menopause Society.
She has been a member of the BMS for more than 20 years and now serves on the Medical Advisory Council.

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Co-chair: Mr Paul Simpson

Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, Norfolk & Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Hospital; Member – British Menopause Society medical advisory council Biography

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Mr Paul Simpson

Mr Paul Simpson is an Obstetrician & Gynaecologist at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. He is the Clinical Lead for the Menopause Service as well as having specialist interests in endometriosis & minimal access surgery. He was awarded his Medical Doctorate (MD) from the University of East Anglia at UEA and continues to take an active interest in research, recruiting for NIHR Portfolio studies and as associate editor for Post Reproductive Health.

He has been a member of the British Menopause Society since 2014 and is currently a member of the BMS Medical Advisory Council.

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Dr Sue Mann

Clinical Fellow NHSE National Menopause Programme/Clinical Lead and Consultant in Women’s Health, Hackney, East London Biography

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Dr Sue Mann

Sue Mann is dual trained in Public Health and Sexual and Reproductive Health. She currently is lead for women’s health in city and hackney where she has led a programme of virtual engagement events and group consultations in menopause, menstrual health, fertility, continence and contraception. This is integral part of a neighbourhoods and population approach to women’s healthcare delivery for a diverse population in north London.

Aside from this she has recently stepped down from her role as National Medical Expert in Reproductive health and is currently leading a project at NHSE on interventions to improve access to and quality of menopause care in the community and primary care.

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Dr Katie Barber

Clinical Lead Community Gynaecology, Oxfordshire; Founder and Clinical Director, Oxford Menopause Ltd; Member – British Menopause Society medical advisory council Biography

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Dr Katie Barber BSc BM BCh MRCGP DRCOG, DFSRH

GP with a special interest in Gynaecology and Menopause
Member – BMS Advisory Council
Clinical Lead Community Gynaecology, Oxfordshire
Founder and Clinical Director, Oxford Menopause Ltd

Dr Katie Barber qualified from the University of Oxford in 2002 and has worked as a GP in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire for more than 15 years. Katie worked as a GP specialist in the Gynaecology and Menopause departments at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford before leading the NHS Specialist Menopause Service until 2021. Katie became Clinical Lead for the Community Gynaecology Service (NHS) in Oxfordshire where she successfully incorporated menopause services to enable women to have timely access to menopause specialist advice and expertise.

She was awarded the Advanced Certificate of Menopause Care by the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare in 2019 and is an Accredited British Menopause Society specialist and PPMC trainer based in Oxfordshire. Alongside her NHS roles, Katie teaches and lectures in the NHS, public and private sector, and undertakes private menopause and women’s health clinics at Oxford Menopause, a private menopause and women’s health service which Katie founded in 2020, providing individualised, evidence-based advice, care and treatment for all aspect of women’s health and menopause.

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Sara Moger

Chief Executive, British Menopause Society Biography

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Sara Moger

Sara began her post-graduate business career in marketing, with positions at Surrey County Cricket Club and at Extrastaff, part of the Blue Arrow group. After 11 years she converted from the commercial to the charity world, where she has remained! A senior managerial position with the Lord’s Taverners led to her creating her own consultancy – and professional introduction to a range of healthcare charities. As the partner of a GP in SE London, she was already personally committed to the broader medical world.

After consultancy roles with Baby Lifeline, Women’s Health Concern (WHC) for whom she is a trustee, and the British Menopause Society (BMS) she was appointed Chief Executive of the BMS in 2007. In 2011 WHC became the patient arm of the BMS. To date, Sara has served seven distinguished chairmen and is an ex officio member of the Medical Advisory Council. She has transformed the Society to a business with an annual turnover of close to £1 million and 2,200
members.

Sara sits on numerous healthcare committees and works closely with NHS England, RCGP, RCOG, and FSRH. She was a lay member of the NICE Guideline for Menopause Care, 2013-2015. With the rapidly increasing national and international profile of post-reproductive health, Sara has a key role, not only with healthcare professionals in the development of responsible menopause education and management, but with politicians and throughout the media.

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Chair: Mr Tim Hillard

Consultant Gynaecologist, University Hospitals Dorset, Poole; Member – British Menopause Society medical advisory council Biography

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Mr Tim Hillard DM FFSRH FRCOG

Graduated from Southampton University and spent most of his postgraduate training at King’s College Hospital, London where he developed special interests in Menopause and Uro-gynaecology. He received his MD (1994) for work on transdermal HRT and osteoporosis. Appointed Consultant in 1994 and heads a busy Uro-gynaecological department and runs one of the few specialist menopause clinics in the South of England outside London. He has lectured and published widely on various aspects of the Menopause and Uro-gynaecology.

Positions held:
British Menopause Society: Past Chairman and founding Trustee.
International Menopause Society: Board member and Associate Editor of Climacteric
British Uro-Gynaecology Society (BSUG); past Secretary and Chairman of the meetings committee
RCOG: past Chairman of the Patient Safety Committee and now Clinical Lead for Patient Safety.
Patient Groups: Patron of The Daisy Network and Medical advisor to Women’s Health Concern

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Against: Dr Elizabeth Owen

Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, West Middlesex University Hospital (Chelsea and Westminster Foundation Trust) Biography

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Dr Elizabeth Owen

Dr Elizabeth Owen has been doing Menopause Clinics for over 40 years and recently celebrated 30 years as an O&G consultant at the West Middlesex Hospital, specialising in Subfertility and Minimal Access Surgery. She was awarded a Doctorate in Gynaecological Endocrinology from the University of London and a Masters of Medical Education from the University of New South Wales, Sydney. Dr Owen was Clinical Director of Chelsea and Westminster Women’s Services from 2017-2021. She is an enthusiastic teacher and trainer and recently received the 25th Anniversary Teaching Award from the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College, London.

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