In her mid-40s Heather started suffering from bad menopausal symptoms. She felt that orthodox hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was not for her, so set about finding a more natural approach. Getting trustworthy information and advice was really hard. She found it was either too scientific or medically based or claimed to work with no proper evidence. Some treatments even carried extra health risks too.
Heather is an Oxford science graduate and has also done an MA in Complementary Health Studies at ExeterUniversity so she decided to research and analyse all the options. She took a critical look at her life - what she ate and drank and how she worked and exercised - and found solutions and products that worked for her. But it was on a walk with a friend in June 2009 that the thought struck her, all this information could help other women too! With that inspiration, she set out to write her Programme to lead other women along the same path to find what would work for them.
With help from her husband, she set up Menopause Support as a Community Interest Company, a new type of business which operates as a not-for-profit social enterprise, so any profits it makes are used to help more menopausal women by raising awareness of the menopause, organising the courses on the Programme and by running this website.
Following the first successful courses and widespread enthusiasm from all sides, the company has expanded to provide advice and information through telephone workshops and 1:1 advice, as well as the original workshops.
The emphasis though is always on giving women the information and confidence to make positive choices about how to take control of their own health through the menopause. All the courses aim to provide objective, evidence-based information and to maintain an unbiased, integrated and balanced approach.
And as for the future? We would like to thank all our Group Leaders and members for their ideas and support and we look forward to Menopause Support continuing to expand to meet the real needs of women and their families.