On a quiet Saturday afternoon in 1995 I was summoned by Prof Indra Ramamurthy to meet her at her residence to discuss some programs to be rolled out by the southern zone of the AICC RCOG. As I prepared to leave she said – “ We really should seriously consider starting an association for Menopausal Health in Chennai “. The aim was to create awareness amongst fellow gynaecologists and also the women approaching Menopause.I nodded, I smiled “ Sure Maam “. Prof I R had also spoken to Dr Usha Sriram . We certainly wanted to start the Association but time moved on.

The Indian Menopause Society was started in 1995 and registered members from all over the country. Amongst the early members from Chennai to join were Prof IR, Dr Usha Sriram and Dr Gita Arjun.

The IMS consisted of a parent body with affiliated chapters, Chennai joined this august group in 2003 as the eleventh Chapter. Dr Usha Sriram , with a little help from me was largely instrumental in gathering medical and non medical members and forming the Chennai Chapter of the IMS . Dr. Asha Kapadia was sent as a representative from IMS for our official launch which took place in November 2004.I had the privilege of taking responsibility as the Founder Secretary of the Chennai Chapter of the IMS  and Member Governing Council of IMS.

The Chennai chapter grew in size as more members joined and we were able to conduct several educative and awareness programs. The secretarial baton moved on to Dr Sumana Manohar, Dr Mala Raj, Dr Vijayalakshmi Seshadri and Dr Hepzibah Kirubamani.

Chennai hosted the National Conference of the IMS in 2010 with the theme

“ Autumn is awesome – so is menopause “. Incidentally this theme was a thought that surfaced as I sat on a cable car watching the Fall colours

 ( autumn ) across the Smoky Mountain Range USA. The scientific program with Dr Sumana Manohar as organizing secretary was a phenomenal success and our theme was adopted as the tagline by the IMS magazine Poise by Dr Sonia Malik.

The IMS felt the need to change the involvement format of the member Chapters and offered the status of “Society” to individual chapters. The Chennai Menopause Society was formed during Dr Hepzibah’s tenure as Chapter Secretary  in 2017.Thanks to her energetic organization I was able to complete all formalities – registration, bank accounts etc and we were the third Society to be registered in India. I acknowledge the immense help we received from our auditor Mr Prabhakar and Ms Sripriya for prompt secretarial assistance.

I again had the privilege of being installed as the Founder President of Chennai menopause Society. With an excellent and enthusiastic team on board we continued our activities even through the pandemic. In 2019 Dr Hepzibah instituted an Oration in the name of her mother “Esther Memorial Oration” and the the first awardee was Dr Gita Arjun. The second Oration was awarded to Prof Mary Anne Lumsden in February 2021 at the  Annual Conference of the Chennai Menopause Society – an online event.

My best wishes to the new team taking over under the leadership of

Dr Hepzibah. I will continue my contribution as founder President. Menopause is only a Change , not a Challenge.

Dr A Jaishree Gajaraj

MD DGO FRCOG(UK) FRCS(Ed)

Founder Secretary & Founder President

Chennai Menopause Society

“Changes not Challenges”