Return to Yourself

As World Menopause Month begins, Dr Louise Newson, the UK GP and menopause specialist, posed a question that has stayed with us all week. Around 1.34 billion women worldwide are menopausal, she wrote, yet only around 5% are prescribed hormone treatments, treatments that both improve symptoms and protect future health.

Her question was a simple one: why are so many women needlessly suffering?

September 29th is World Heart Day. This year the World Heart Federation's global campaign is called "Don't Miss a Beat" — a title that could apply just as easily to how most of us treat our own hearts as it does to the condition itself. Ask most women what they're most worried about health-wise, and the answer is rarely their heart. Breast cancer, usually. Sometimes menopause symptoms, sometimes mental health. Heart disease barely registers.

The women around us talk about this constantly. We keep each other going, whatever the thing happens to be. Pilates, yoga, a walk, the gym. It matters less which one than whether somebody is nudging the rest of us to show up. And the same question keeps coming up. We're in our forties and fifties, something has shifted, and we want to know what we should actually be doing.

We're halfway through September now. The uniforms have (mostly) been found, the lunches are becoming routine again, and for a lot of households the school run has settled into its familiar rhythm — or is only just starting to, if this is the year of a first school gate, a first secondary school corridor, or a first week away at college. Whatever September has looked like in your house — a big first, or simply the usual back-to-school reshuffle — it tends to bring the same thing with it: busyness. A particular kind of busyness, too, made up mostly of things nobody really notices you doing.

September 10th is World Suicide Prevention Day. This year's global theme, set by the International Association for Suicide Prevention, is "Changing the Narrative on Suicide" — a call to move from silence and stigma toward open, honest, evidence-based conversation.

September is Urology Awareness Month, tucked inside that broad remit is a topic that affects a huge number of women, and that almost none of them talk about: bladder leaks, urgency, prolapse and pelvic floor changes, particularly after childbirth and through the menopause transition.

Every year, sexual health tends to make headlines for one of two reasons: an STI awareness campaign, or a story about declining birth rates. Rarely does it get discussed the way we'd discuss sleep, movement or nutrition — as a genuine, evidence-backed pillar of our overall health and wellbeing.‍

You may have seen September being called Perimenopause Awareness Month. Before writing about why it matters, it's worth answering the honest question first: is this actually a global observance, or is it another wellness-calendar addition that's bigger in some places than others? The honest answer is a bit of both — and understanding why is actually the perfect way into the bigger story.

Listen to Georgie Sliney McCormack, Co-Founder of The Balance Project, and Dr Louise Fitzgerald, GP with a Special Interest in Women’s Health & Menopause and a contributor to The Balance Project workshops and retreats, joined Oliver Callan to chat all things hormones and Own It!

From spring 2027, large UK employers (250+ staff) will have to publish a Menopause Action Plan alongside their gender pay gap report. Not guidance. Not a nice-to-have. Law.

Increasingly, high-quality research is showing that hormone health, particularly during the menopausal transition, is not just about managing hot flushes or sleep disruption. It is deeply connected to quality of life, long-term health, healthy ageing, and overall wellbeing. It is part of the longevity conversation.

Increasingly, researchers and clinicians are paying closer attention to how ADHD may present differently in women, and how hormonal changes across the lifespan may influence symptoms, functioning, and lived experience. What is emerging is an important and still underdeveloped area of understanding - one that deserves far more attention than it has received to date.

Listen to Georgie, one of our Co-Founders, in conversation with Elizabeth Hearst on Q102, as they chat about the importance of hormone education and why understanding our changing hormones matters.

For a long time, public conversation around GLP-1 medications has been dominated by one theme: weight loss. And while weight loss is certainly part of the picture for some people, it is becoming increasingly clear that this is far from the whole story.

Research consistently shows that social connection is a powerful contributor to both mental and physical health, and that loneliness and social disconnection are linked with poorer wellbeing outcomes. Social relationships, belonging, and feeling meaningfully connected to others are not just “nice to have”; they are foundational to health.

We're delighted to share some exciting news — The Balance Project will be hosting evening workshops and one-day workshops at The Factory, Boland's Mills, one of Dublin's most storied and atmospheric spaces.

For a long time, public discussion tended to centre on a familiar list of symptoms - hot flushes, sleep disturbance, mood changes, irregular periods. Those matter, of course. But increasingly, research and clinical thinking are pointing to something much more complex and much more compelling: menopause is not only a hormonal transition. It is also a neurological, psychological, relational and social one.

**Part 3 of 3-part Series**

Part of our ongoing conversation about puberty, hormones, and why girls deserve better preparation and support.

For many girls, the first and most trusted source of information about periods is not a teacher, doctor, or book.

It is their mother.

**Part 2 in a 3-part series*

Why girls need more than information when it comes to periods

When we think about menstrual education, it is easy to assume that more information is the answer.

And of course, information matters. Girls need accurate, practical, age-appropriate education about their bodies, their hormones, and what to expect from puberty and menstruation.

But research suggests that information alone is not enough.

**Part 1 in a 3-part series**

For many women, conversations about periods begin too late.

They begin after the confusion. After the fear. After the first experience of bleeding has already happened. By then, what should have been a normal and understandable part of development can feel frightening, embarrassing, or isolating.

This isn't just a menopause problem, or a women's health problem. It's a research problem, a funding problem, and an education problem, all compounding on each other — and every one of us who's lived through this transition without answers is evidence of exactly why it needs to change.

Our recent hike with Edel Conroy was exactly that kind of morning - a wonderful group of women gathering to walk, talk, breathe, laugh and simply be. No pressure, no performance, no agenda beyond making the time to show up for ourselves and each other.

The Balance Project is collaborating with RCSI —  your story could shape the future of menopause care in Ireland

A newly published scoping review in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology, & Women's Health has laid bare what many women already know from lived experience: menopause care is still fragmented, inconsistent, underprioritised, and too often deeply unresponsive to women's needs.

When Women Speak, Medicine Listens

The Balance Project is collaborating with RCSI —  how your story could shape the future of menopause care in Ireland

A report titled "It’s More Than a Period: Menstrual Cycle Considerations in Female Athletes - A Coaches Perspective" offers an important reminder that feels highly relevant far beyond sport: girls need better support, better language, and better education around their menstrual cycle.

A growing body of Irish evidence is telling us something important: women in midlife are trying to navigate menopause while also managing everything else. That is exactly why the conversation around menopause needs to move beyond awareness alone and towards informed, practical, evidence-based support.

A recent survey carried out by Rhona Fleming of Kindle Health Coaching, a contributor to The Balance Project, explored the lived experiences of women navigating perimenopause and menopause. Its purpose was simple but important: to better understand women’s symptoms, struggles, support gaps, and what they truly need to feel seen, supported, and empowered.

A report titled "It’s More Than a Period: Menstrual Cycle Considerations in Female Athletes - A Coaches Perspective" offers an important reminder that feels highly relevant far beyond sport: girls need better support, better language, and better education around their menstrual cycle.

At The Balance Project, we have always believed in the power of education.

We believe that when women understand their bodies, their hormones, their health, and their experiences more clearly, they feel more confident, more informed, and more empowered to take care of themselves.

But over time, I have come to realise something else just as important:

Information matters. But connection matters too.

The study, “Prevalence and severity of menopausal symptoms in peri and post-menopausal women”, explored symptom patterns among 308 women and adds something deeply valuable to the conversation around midlife women’s health: evidence. And not just general evidence, but Irish evidence - grounded in the experiences of women living here.
For us at The Balance Project, that matters.