Women’s Health & Wellness
Why Your Best Sex Is Yet To Come – Making Love During the Menopause
Watch the recording of the event
About this event
The best way to smash a taboo is to talk about it, and one of the biggest taboos around the menopause is sex.
In our latest Rest Less Presents event, ‘Why Your Best Sex Is Yet To Come – Making Love During the Menopause’ we are joined once again by our partners from My Menopause Centre. Registered menopause specialist and GP, Dr Clare Spencer, and women’s wellness champion Helen Normoyle is in conversation with sex therapist Sue Makin and Eleanor Gardner, founder of Pelvic Relief, to get the lowdown on love-making in the menopause.
Sex in the menopause can be as wonderful as it was pre-menopause (if not better) – and sexual wellness is as much about our physical and mental wellbeing as it is about pleasure. With the average woman living 36 years postmenopausally, we need to look after our sexual wellbeing.
During the event we cover common gynaecological symptoms experienced during the menopause that can affect a woman’s ability to have or enjoy sex loss of sex drive and the treatment options available for both – from HRT, lubes and sex toys, to sex and relationship counselling.
About My Menopause Centre
My Menopause Centre (www.mymenopausecentre.com) was co-founded by Dr. Clare Spencer and Helen Normoyle, and provides a website that offers free, evidence-based information and advice on all stages of the menopause transition, thirty-eight symptoms of the menopause and a questionnaire that results in a free, personalised menopause assessment. My Menopause Centre also offers a private online menopause clinic that provides a holistic, evidence-based and personalised approach to menopause care and is available across the UK.
About the hosts
Helen Normoyle, Co-Founder My Menopause Centre
Helen has held Chief Marketing Officer roles with Boots, the BBC, DFS and Countrywide. A self-described women’s wellbeing warrior, Helen is on a mission to raise awareness of the menopause and help empower women with the knowledge they need to embrace this new chapter and thrive. Helen is particularly passionate about supporting women in the workplace and helping employers understand the benefits of having a positive menopause policy.
Having wondered herself why it was so difficult to find easy-to-understand, Helen took the leap from the corporate world to co-found My Menopause Centre with Clare, a femtech start-up and online clinic and community empowering women to take control of their menopause and thrive with evidence-based knowledge and advice from menopause experts.
Dr Clare Spencer, registered menopause specialist and GP, co-founder My Menopause Centre
Clare is a registered menopause specialist and an NHS GP. She qualified from Cambridge University and holds Membership of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners. She initially trained in obstetrics and gynaecology where gained a Doctor of Medicine for research in fetomaternal medicine. As well as her role of clinical director at My Menopause Centre, she currently runs an NHS menopause service and is a GP partner in a practice in Leeds. She is also a British Menopause Society menopause trainer and is involved in educating GPs about the menopause transition through talks, lectures and seminars. She wrote the menopause training module for doctors.net and has written for the Primary Care Women’s Health forum publication, Her Life Her Health on a variety of menopause related topics.
While working as a GP she noticed a need for increased awareness and understanding of the menopause transition amongst her patients. As well as her own challenging menopause experience, she could see how their menopause symptoms were having a detrimental impact on all aspects of their lives and decided to qualify as a Menopause GP.
Through her clinical work and being co-founder of My Menopause Centre, Clare is passionate about educating, empowering and supporting all women through all stages of their menopause transition.
Sue Makin, Counsellor and Sex Therapist
Sue is a highly experienced counsellor, sex therapist, CBT (cognitive behavioural therapist) practitioner, mindfulness practitioner, coach and supervisor. She runs a successful private practice in Ilkley and Leeds, also working for Macmillan as a psychosexual therapist, and a supervisor of therapists in Jersey and Alderney.
Sue has developed her psychosexual service over the last 20 years, gaining her BSc. in Therapeutic Counselling 27 years ago then qualifying as a sex therapist and couples counsellor.
She is an Accredited COSRT psychosexual therapist and Accredited COSRT Supervisor. Sue trained with Tavistock in IAPT Couples Therapy for Depression and is an Accredited Counsellor and Supervisor with BSCPC.
Eleanor Gardner, Founder of Pelvic Relief
Eleanor has a master’s degree in physiotherapy and has worked in medical devices since 2007. She founded Pelvic Relief in 2013 bringing together a range of products for pelvic health to manage conditions such as painful sex, incontinence and pelvic pain.
Eleanor works as an ambassador for The YES YES Company, manufacturers of organic lubricants and vaginal moisturisers, attending medical conferences each year on their behalf including The British Menopause Society’s Annual Conference.