Improving women’s experience of services and support through menopause in south east London

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Menopause is experienced by women in many different ways and women’s experience of services and support that is available also varies considerably.

Background

Issues that women’s experience with menopause and the health and care services and support available have been highlighted nationally through a publication of the NHS ‘Women’s Health Strategy for England’ (August 2022) and high profile media campaigns, led by Davina McCall and others. All these all calling for greater recognition of the impact Menopause has on people’s lives and also recommending improvements in the support and services that are available.

In south east London we are committed to improving Women’s journey through the menopause by aiming

  • working on reducing waiting times for menopause care
  • raising awareness, promoting and supporting self-management where appropriate
  • supporting local health care professional to improve how women are supported though their menopause journey.

We want to work with local people to listen to their experience to inform and contribute to improve support.

Through the Gynaecology Network we are working across the three hospital trusts in south east London (Guy’s & St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital, Lewisham & Greenwich hospital trusts) and GP practices to improve services.

Listening to local people / our journey so far

Over last year we delivered a series of five online live learning events about menopause. Facilitated by key medical experts from south east London the sessions focussed on providing information and advice around menopause.

The key topics covered in these sessions were:

  • General menopause and hormone replacement treatment (HRT)
  • Menopause and nutrition
  • Menopause and pelvic floor health
  • Menopause and Sex – breaking the taboo

These sessions were very well attended and offered the opportunity to people attending to ask questions which were responded by the panel of experts’ clinicians.

All sessions were recorded, and work is underway to build a resource library which includes these recordings, alongside some of the frequently asked questions and answers from each of these sessions.

To follow up on insights and issues raised at the information sessions we organised five focus groups to explore more in-depth women’s experience on menopause care and listen to their recommendations. See the focus groups presentation here.

Key insights

  • difficulty accessing HRT medication
  • being overwhelmed with all the information available
  • frustrations around menopause being recognised early
  • accessing specific treatment (e.g. around bone health)
  • run more series of menopause information and questions and answers sessions
  • cover more topics - include additional areas within gynaecology to be included

We can read here a summary report.

Building on the focus groups insights and recommendations we established ‘the Menopause advisory group’ and invited women to join. The group was facilitated by a women’s health clinician.

The ‘Menopause Advisory Group’ sessions were held online. Thank you to everyone signing up to be part of the group and to the participants attending. The sessions focussed on:

  • setting up the context of the group and its remit
  • reviewing the insights and recommendations from previous engagement approach
  • tackling the first actions for the group: development of the menopause resources toolkit and enlarge community outreach to ensure support is made available for more marginalised communities
  • the opportunity to hold Community Assessment Days to offer local support and early intervention

    Read papers used on the day and summary of the session discussion.

Following on from the insights from the group we started implementing actions to respond to the feedback and recommendations

  • educational sessions are delivered regularly covering topics that matters to women.
  • outreach sessions are being held in partnership with local women’s and girls’ health hubs in south east London aiming to reach underrepresented groups
    Find out more information about Women's and girls Health Hubs in South East London on our website
  • the menopause information pack is being updated including simplified language, images and infographics, and include content that is inclusive of different cultures and neurodivergent people.

Next steps

Through lived experience people support we have developed guidelines for primary care to support GPs to better manage menopause symptoms locally and advise when specialist referral is needed. We have also delivered two series of online learning events around various aspects of menopause - with information and advice around self management and how to seek further support.

As the initial aims of the programme have now been achieved we will be pausing the current Menopause Advisory Group for the moment - whilst we focus on other projects.

Any future work or plans regarding Menopause care will be shared here in the future.

Please do contact us if you have any questions regarding the menopause resources available or if you have any questions about women’s advisory group at kch-tr.selgynaenetwork@nhs.net

Menopause is experienced by women in many different ways and women’s experience of services and support that is available also varies considerably.

Background

Issues that women’s experience with menopause and the health and care services and support available have been highlighted nationally through a publication of the NHS ‘Women’s Health Strategy for England’ (August 2022) and high profile media campaigns, led by Davina McCall and others. All these all calling for greater recognition of the impact Menopause has on people’s lives and also recommending improvements in the support and services that are available.

In south east London we are committed to improving Women’s journey through the menopause by aiming

  • working on reducing waiting times for menopause care
  • raising awareness, promoting and supporting self-management where appropriate
  • supporting local health care professional to improve how women are supported though their menopause journey.

We want to work with local people to listen to their experience to inform and contribute to improve support.

Through the Gynaecology Network we are working across the three hospital trusts in south east London (Guy’s & St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital, Lewisham & Greenwich hospital trusts) and GP practices to improve services.

Listening to local people / our journey so far

Over last year we delivered a series of five online live learning events about menopause. Facilitated by key medical experts from south east London the sessions focussed on providing information and advice around menopause.

The key topics covered in these sessions were:

  • General menopause and hormone replacement treatment (HRT)
  • Menopause and nutrition
  • Menopause and pelvic floor health
  • Menopause and Sex – breaking the taboo

These sessions were very well attended and offered the opportunity to people attending to ask questions which were responded by the panel of experts’ clinicians.

All sessions were recorded, and work is underway to build a resource library which includes these recordings, alongside some of the frequently asked questions and answers from each of these sessions.

To follow up on insights and issues raised at the information sessions we organised five focus groups to explore more in-depth women’s experience on menopause care and listen to their recommendations. See the focus groups presentation here.

Key insights

  • difficulty accessing HRT medication
  • being overwhelmed with all the information available
  • frustrations around menopause being recognised early
  • accessing specific treatment (e.g. around bone health)
  • run more series of menopause information and questions and answers sessions
  • cover more topics - include additional areas within gynaecology to be included

We can read here a summary report.

Building on the focus groups insights and recommendations we established ‘the Menopause advisory group’ and invited women to join. The group was facilitated by a women’s health clinician.

The ‘Menopause Advisory Group’ sessions were held online. Thank you to everyone signing up to be part of the group and to the participants attending. The sessions focussed on:

  • setting up the context of the group and its remit
  • reviewing the insights and recommendations from previous engagement approach
  • tackling the first actions for the group: development of the menopause resources toolkit and enlarge community outreach to ensure support is made available for more marginalised communities
  • the opportunity to hold Community Assessment Days to offer local support and early intervention

    Read papers used on the day and summary of the session discussion.

Following on from the insights from the group we started implementing actions to respond to the feedback and recommendations

  • educational sessions are delivered regularly covering topics that matters to women.
  • outreach sessions are being held in partnership with local women’s and girls’ health hubs in south east London aiming to reach underrepresented groups
    Find out more information about Women's and girls Health Hubs in South East London on our website
  • the menopause information pack is being updated including simplified language, images and infographics, and include content that is inclusive of different cultures and neurodivergent people.

Next steps

Through lived experience people support we have developed guidelines for primary care to support GPs to better manage menopause symptoms locally and advise when specialist referral is needed. We have also delivered two series of online learning events around various aspects of menopause - with information and advice around self management and how to seek further support.

As the initial aims of the programme have now been achieved we will be pausing the current Menopause Advisory Group for the moment - whilst we focus on other projects.

Any future work or plans regarding Menopause care will be shared here in the future.

Please do contact us if you have any questions regarding the menopause resources available or if you have any questions about women’s advisory group at kch-tr.selgynaenetwork@nhs.net

  • CLOSED: The Menopause Advisory Group work is now finalised. Many thanks to all the women who have been involved in developing the Menopause improvements over the past 18 months

    Sign up to menopause advisory group session

    If you are interested to be involved and help us improve the menopause care, please complete this short form and we will send you more details about the next session. It takes two minutes to complete.

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Page last updated: 13 Jan 2026, 11:36 AM