‘Thrive through it’: Geelong’s first menopause clinic

A new Geelong health clinic is changing the way women view menopause.

Drs Elise Davey and Yvonne McCartney are opening Menopause Health Geelong in Leopold. Picture: Alison Wynd

A new health clinic is coming to Geelong, and it’s hoping to change the way women view menopause.

Menopause Health Geelong, open from October, is the passion project of general practitioners Dr Elise Davey and Dr Yvonne McCartney.

The pair saw a need for a clinic for an undeserved population of women in Geelong – women navigating the complexities of peri and post menopause and menopause.

Dr Davey said they founded the clinic to specialise in this unique time of women’s lives, and to help women thrive in it.

“Menopause is a really challenging time,” she said.

“But instead of a time of your life you dread, what if it become a time to focus on yourself and that re-emergence of who you are?

And with specialised, focused treatments, it was possible.

“Its an area where women have been often poorly treated by practitioners in Geelong,” Dr Davey said.

“And there is a tendency for women to go to social media and find out information anecdotally.”

Dr Davey said while most women’s treatment would be managed internally at the clinic, the doctors would also be working with physiotherapists, nutritionists and more, depending on each patients’ needs.

Drs Elise Davey and Yvonne McCartney are looking to change perceptions. Picture: Alison Wynd

Dr Davey and Dr McCartney, along with Dr Anne Kibby will be taking patients from October.

Dr Yvonne McCartney said while working at women’s clinics across Geelong, she had seen the need for a menopause-specific point of call for local women.

“During my work I’ve seen a lot of women putting up with things – period pain so bad they cant go to work with, urinary tract infections, all sorts of things,” she said.

“This is accepted within the community.

“From the moment a girl has their period they’re told to just deal with it, to suffer in silence.

“That’s just continued on into the menopause phases.”

Dr McCartney said she was seeing a huge clientele of women coming in with significant distress during menopause specifically and most had not been given appropriate care options.

“My sub passion is the mental health burden on women in menopause,” she said.

“The highest suicide rate in women is 45 to 50, that’s irrespective of whether or not they have a mental health background.

“Women come fearing that they have got dementia, their confidence is low.”

Dr McCartney said a large contributor to the poor treatment available in the area was an outdated “poorly designed” study – The Women’s Health Initiative Study – on hormone replacement therapy.

“It concluded Hormone replacement increases the increase of heart attacks strokes and breast cancer … Doctors were told it just equals cancer,” she said.

“But there are a very safe subsidy of women that can benefit greatly from this.”

The Leopold clinic, on Kensington Rd, will open in October with bookings available now.

Originally published as ‘Thrive through it’: Geelong’s first menopause clinic