Aug 23, 2026 · 27 min · 13 segments
A year on from Australia’s landmark Senate Inquiry into Menopause and Perimenopause, Senator Marielle Smith returns to *Thriving in Menopause* to talk about what’s changed – and what still needs to…
Marielle SmithGuest
Zoe MeunierHost
Now we're seeing one of the inquiry's recommendations come to life with the recent launch of the National Awareness Campaign.
I mean, over the course of our inquiry, we heard from hundreds and hundreds of women who shared really personal stories with us and shared a great deal of vulnerability about their own experience of perimenopause and menopause and how they just hadn't felt supported or well-informed.
And I was really conscious of this as we went through the inquiry, as we wrote our recommendations, and then as we've done the work since to advocate for those recommendations to be implemented.
So to see something like the national campaign come to light, it's a really big deal.
And I feel like it really honours those women who called for this information and called for this style of campaign.
Well, we want women to feel seen, we want them to feel empowered and we want them to have access to good quality information.
Because one thing that women told us over the course of the inquiry is that they felt like they just weren't at all prepared for some of the symptoms that they experienced in perimenopause especially, but in menopause too.
They felt like then when they went to try to find good information, it was really hard to do that online.
And for those women who went and sought out appointments with their GP for help, they didn't always get the care they needed either.
So having that good quality information, helping women feel seen, having that moment where a woman might see the ad and go, ah, that's happening to me.
So why do you think as sort of a national ad campaign or awareness campaign was considered so important? Why this sort of format, if you will?
So we want to reach women when they're watching TV, when they're listening to radio, when they're at the cinema, when they're online.
It's about really going to the places where women are online and where women are consuming content and media.
And part of that is also countering some of the junk information which is out there.
You know, any woman in her 30s and 40s and 50s knows that when she jumps onto her Instagram feed, she just gets bombarded.
Now we're seeing one of the inquiry's recommendations come to life with the recent launch of the National Awareness Campaign.
I mean, over the course of our inquiry, we heard from hundreds and hundreds of women who shared really personal stories with us and shared a great deal of vulnerability about their own experience of perimenopause and menopause and how they just hadn't felt supported or well-informed.
And I was really conscious of this as we went through the inquiry, as we wrote our recommendations, and then as we've done the work since to advocate for those recommendations to be implemented.
So to see something like the national campaign come to light, it's a really big deal.
And I feel like it really honours those women who called for this information and called for this style of campaign.
Well, we want women to feel seen, we want them to feel empowered and we want them to have access to good quality information.
Because one thing that women told us over the course of the inquiry is that they felt like they just weren't at all prepared for some of the symptoms that they experienced in perimenopause especially, but in menopause too.
They felt like then when they went to try to find good information, it was really hard to do that online.
And for those women who went and sought out appointments with their GP for help, they didn't always get the care they needed either.
So having that good quality information, helping women feel seen, having that moment where a woman might see the ad and go, ah, that's happening to me.
So why do you think as sort of a national ad campaign or awareness campaign was considered so important? Why this sort of format, if you will?
So we want to reach women when they're watching TV, when they're listening to radio, when they're at the cinema, when they're online.
It's about really going to the places where women are online and where women are consuming content and media.
And part of that is also countering some of the junk information which is out there.
You know, any woman in her 30s and 40s and 50s knows that when she jumps onto her Instagram feed, she just gets bombarded.
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