Pune: In a bid to improve menopausal health in India especially in the lower income segment, the Indian Menopausal Society (IMS) has intensified initiatives, said Dr Suvarna Khadilkar, IMS National President.
She was speaking on the sidelines of the two-day conference Midlifecon 2017 organised by IMS Pune Chapter. Dr Khadilkar added that IMS has kick-started the ‘Menopausal health charitable clinic’ which is a focus of this year’s agenda.
“Under the programme 75 centres have been set up where on every fifth day of the month a free counselling camp is held for women in rural and semi-urban areas with subsidised investigations and treatments. Around 15 such centres are active in Maharashtra near Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur and other areas,” said Dr
Khadilkar.
She added that IMS, which was formed in 1995, has now 43 chapters and around 3,025 members. The chapters have now come out with modules for camps and awareness programmes in 12 languages to reach out to rural women.
“We have also adopted 20 villages in India where we are doing a lot of field work. To intensify the programme we have launched a ‘train the trainer’ course, an intense 3-hour certificate course so that they in turn train more doctors,” noted Dr Khadilkar.
Midlife possesses a lot of problems, especially for women. The average age in India for menopause is 44 years in India. There is still a huge gap between urban and rural women.
The average age for menopause in lower economic strata is 35 to 40 years while in urban women it is 50 years. With knowledge and awareness, counselling, proper nutrition, exercise and treatment the problems that women go through can be reduced. Menopause is now developing into a superspecialty.
