As I write this, I live in New York City, which was one of the scariest COVID-19 virus cities in the world seven months ago. Now it is one of the safest. My former office manager’s 72-year-old mother – trim, healthy and athletic – died within five days of contracting the virus. Her 80-year-old father, with severely compromised cardiac function came out of the intensive care unit to recover as fully as his pre-existing condition allowed. Indeed, these are very strange times caused by a very unusual virus, and like nothing any one of us has ever experienced in our lifetime. By the time you read this, who knows what will have happened. A second wave, a vaccine? Everywhere, people talk of a ‘new normal’ after COVID-19. What might this mean for the International Menopause Society (IMS), as I assume the Presidency? What might it mean for any and all medical societies? What might it mean for society itself? These are very weighty questions. We are certainly in uncharted waters. I was asked by the Editor, Rod Baber, to write something to appear in Climacteric about my aspirations and goals for the IMS as I ascend to become its President, just as previous Presidents have always done. I want to reproduce what I wrote pre-COVID here below.
I am truly honored to become the 15th President of the IMS. It is challenging, in fact daunting and yet exciting, especially about the hope for the things that lie ahead. Sometimes it seems change in medicine comes at the speed of a glacier – all too slow yet incremental. That is why we need to build an infrastructure whose goal is a longer horizon than one person’s presidency. I stand on some very big shoulders. The people who have preceded me – Susan Davis, Mary Ann Lumsden, Rodney Baber, Tobie de Villiers, David Sturdee, Amos Pines, Hermann Schneider, Andrea Genazzani, Henry Burger, Wulf Utian, Malcolm Whitehead, Pieter van Keep, David Serr, and Robert Greenblatt – have done a remarkable job in helping the IMS evolve into a truly global enterprise, whose mission, clearly stated, is to work globally to promote and support access to best practice health care for women through their menopause transition and post-reproductive years, enabling them to achieve optimal health and well-being. The rise of the digital world – the internet, social media – means there is almost no corner of the world that cannot, theoretically, be reached. The challenge is the diversity of different regions, different countries, different languages, different values, and different ways of delivering women’s preventative and curative health care. Even sitting around IMS’s board meetings, one gets a taste of how different practice patterns are from country to country. Clearly, most first-world countries have vigorous societies devoted to menopause and midlife women’s health. In these areas, there is little need for the IMS to disseminate information meant for direct health care. What the IMS can do, as evidenced by the global consensus position statement on the use of testosterone, spearheaded by Professor Susan Davis, is to bring together multinational and multidisciplinary stakeholders to create such position statements, identify areas of agreement and allow for areas of potential differences, depending on a variety of issues – practice patterns, what medications are approved where, access to health care, issues of cost, etc. In terms of less developed countries, the IMS must develop a network of societies, if possible, or even champions, if strong societies do not yet exist, and support them with both professional, educational resources and, hopefully, consumer education as well. Obviously, many of these are long-term goals, but, as the saying goes, you must ‘walk before you run’.
We are fortunate to have an engaged, multinational and multidisciplinary Board of Trustees. Our staff is led by Rebecca Cheshire and, although she was thrust into the position of CEO, she has not hit the ground running – sprinting would be a better description. Our journal Climacteric is vibrant and strong. Rod Baber is doing an excellent job on the coattails of Nick Panay and Anna Fenton.
So, what specifically can I, as President, strive to do in the next two years? I am a believer in process. I doubt many of you realize that the evolution of a voluntary society, like the IMS and its Board, has a predictable lifecycle. People have done master’s theses and PhDs on the topic. The IMS has grown and evolved through excellent leaders. I hope to continue that trend. I have been President of national societies like the North American Menopause Society and the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, and, all too often, I have seen how new boards come on and ask the same questions and end up trying to reinvent the wheel. With the help of some very talented Board members and CEO Rebecca Cheshire, I hope to mold and improve various processes, including Board and officer elections, sources of funding, website development and its maintenance, outreach to countries where the World Congress is never likely to be held, continuing the visible presence of the IMS at various regional and national conferences.
Finally, I implore all of you to become involved. If you are a member, join a committee. If you are not a member, become one. If you can translate from English to your language, volunteer. If you have an idea or a concern, contact me. This is your society; we all share the same goal – improving the well-being of women at midlife and beyond. Together we can walk until it is time to run.
As I read and reread this, it is still true and very relevant. Yes, the times ahead will be in uncharted waters for all and will present challenges to the IMS as well. I am confident that this society, led by myself, an outstanding Board and first-class central office, will rise to those challenges and emerge stronger than ever.