Day 3 | Session 8 | Concurrent | Managing the Menopause – what’s in RANZCOG’s new guideline
Managing the Menopause – what’s in RANZCOG’s new guideline
Hormonal management of vasomotor symptoms: key recommendations from the RANZCOG guideline
Vasomotor symptoms are among the most common and distressing features of menopause, and a frequent indication for seeking clinical care.
This presentation will outline the key recommendations of the new RANZCOG Menopause Clinical Guideline, drawing on the current evidence base to support safe, effective, and individualised prescribing.
Equity, access, and culturally safe menopause care will be considered in the context of contemporary clinical practice.
Dr Catriona Melville
MBChB FRCOG FCSRH FRANZCOG DipGUM GAICD
Senior Staff Specialist, Clinical Lead Reproductive Health
Metro South Hospital & Health Service, Logan Hospital
Brisbane
Dr Catriona Melville is a UK-trained gynaecologist and subspecialist in sexual and reproductive health who now calls Meeanjin (Brisbane) home.
She is Clinical Lead for Reproductive Health at Logan Hospital, Director of Redlands Gynaecology, and an Associate Editor of ANZJOG.
Catriona is Chair of RANZCOG’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Committee and chaired the recent RANZCOG Menopause Guideline Development Group. She has a strong interest in evidence-based, equitable, and person-centred women’s healthcare.
Evidence summary: Non hormonal interventions for vasomotor symptoms
Up to date evidence for non hormonal interventions for vasomotor symptoms, considering Minimal Clinically Important Difference (MCID).
Dr Magdalena Bofill
Research Fellow
University of Auckland
Magdalena is a Paediatric and Adolescent Gynaecologist trained in Chile (IFEPAG) and holds a PhD from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Auckland.
Magdalena is currently a member of the Research and Policy team at RANZCOG, where she contributes to the development of clinical guidelines.
Long term outcomes of menopausal hormone therapy
The Women’s Health Initiative study (WHI) began recruitment in 1993. This was the first RCT to evaluate the benefits and risks of MHT for chronic disease prevention. When the study was stopped the women using estrogen V progestogen had used it for 5.6 years and women using estrogen only therapy had 7.2 years of use. We now have 20 year follow up for these women.
This presentation will discuss the clinical implications of this follow up and compare the risk/benefit profile of the use of both of these regimens of MHT for the management of vasomotor symptoms in younger women.
Associate Professor Helen Roberts
Menopause Consultant
Greenlane Clinical Centre, Auckland Hospital
Following her medical degree at Trinity College, Dublin, Helen Roberts worked in hospitals in Ireland then London. In 1983, she joined New Zealand Family Planning, becoming the Medical Director and National Medical Spokesperson from 1988-1992. In 1991, she completed the MPH at Yale University and on her return took up an academic position in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Auckland. where she was involved in Cochrane reviews of MHT. Helen was Associate Professor of Women’s Health until retirement.
At present, Helen continues working at the contraception and menopause clinic at Greenlane Clinical Centre and has clinics in abortion medicine at Epsom Day Unit.
The management of genitourinary syndrome
Genitourinary syndrome of menopause is one of the most pervasive yet undertreated conditions we encounter, despite being both predictable and profoundly preventable. When we normalize early, routine vaginal oestrogen use, we’re not just easing symptoms—we’re actively heading off avoidable morbidity that continues to harm far too many older women.
Dr Dionne Mills-Sillik
Obstetric and Gynaecology Consultant, Obstetrics Clinical Lead
Middlemore Hospital
In 2021, she, her husband and their three children, moved to New Zealand. Dionne has been an Obstetrics and Gynaecology consultant at Middlemore hospital since 2021 and Obstetrics Clinical Lead since June 2025. She has also provided private gynaecology services in Auckland since 2023.