September 2020
President’s Update
With sadness, I can announce that we will not be holding the rescheduled World Congress on the Menopause in Melbourne in February 2021 as we had hoped. This is an enormous disappointment to all of the people who have made tremendous contributions to the planning of the Congress, invited speakers and those with accepted presentations, and all delegates and sponsors. But you will see below that the IMS will welcome you all to Melbourne in 2024.
I would particularly like to thank Dr Tobie de Villiers who chaired the Scientific Program Committee and his team for all the work they did over 2 years to prepare what was going to be an exciting congress program. Although the program will not be realized, I would still like to congratulate Tobie and his team for what they had achieved, which offers a blue print for future programs. I would also like to thank the leadership of the Australasian Menopause Society, Dr Amanda Vincent (immediate past President) and Dr Sonia Davison (current President) for their support and collaboration over the past 2 years, and the work of Ms Vicki Doherty, the AMS Executive Director.
The World Congress is the time when we recognize outstanding contributions of members of the IMS. Our 2020 Awards will be announced on World Menopause Day, so watch out for these special announcements. In addition, the Congress is when we showcase the research being undertaken by young researchers in the Robert Greenblatt Award session. We selected six finalists for this Award and they will present in a Robert Greenblatt Award webinar symposium in late October, when their research will be shared and their presentation judged for the Award. Please look out for the announcement of the date and tune in if you can to support these young people from across the world.
I would like to highlight that the next World Congress on the Menopause will be in Lisbon on October 26–29, 2022, with Dr Pauline Maki chairing the Scientific Program Committee. I suggest you all save the date now.
I am also delighted to share with you that the 2024 World Congress on the Menopause will now be held in Melbourne on October 18–22.
This report would be incomplete without my acknowledging the dedication of David Genazzani and his team at BT Congress to the planning and execution of our congresses, and publicly sharing my personal thanks to David and the BT team. They have worked tirelessly with us from when we were first confronted with the prospect of having to reschedule the Congress from April 2020. Of note, they never dropped the ball despite Italy being in upheaval with the first Covid-19 wave, and their working through extremely tight lockdown, which created difficult personal circumstances in Italy over many weeks. David worked closely with Tobie and me to reschedule the Congress to 2021, which we at the time thought was a wonderful outcome. However, during the last few months we have had to work through countless scenarios to find the best solution for the IMS membership.
My best wishes to you all
Susan R Davis, MBBS FRACP PhD FAHMS,
President, International Menopause Society.
