Early Menopause & Menopause

Experts
Evidence & Translation

Our aim is to improve the health and well-being of women with early menopause.

We are working towards increasing women’s, health professional’s and the community’s understanding and knowledge about early menopause.

We are researching the impact of early menopause on women, new treatments for early menopause and developing innovative methods to improve understanding, reduce knowledge gaps and improve clinical care for women with early menopause.

The usual age of menopause is around 51 years. However, for some women this occurs much earlier. Early menopause, is menopause occurring before age 45 years and premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) is loss of ovarian function before age of 40 years, affecting 12% and 4% of women respectively. For most women the cause of spontaneous early menopause/POI is unknown. Early menopause or POI may occur as a result of medical treatments including surgical removal of both ovaries, chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Early menopause has multiple impacts on a woman’s life.

The Early Menopause Research group conducts clinical research investigating the impact of early menopause and treatments for early menopause. In addition, we co-design and implement evidence-based resources to assist women and health professionals to manage early menopause.

The Early Menopause Research Group collaborates with healthcare organisations/ professionals, research institutions, national and international medical societies, non-government organisations and consumers.

Implementation & Impact

Together with women with early menopause and our partners, we co-developed and implemented the HealthTalk Australia Early menopause digital resource to support women with early menopause, health professionals and the community. We are now expanding this and have developed the mobile App for women – Ask Early Menopause.

Read about its impact here

Current Projects
  • Early menopause research projects as part of the Women in Reproductive Life (WHiRL) Centre of Research Excellence
  • Clinical trial investigating the effect of the addition of testosterone therapy to usual hormone therapy on musculoskeletal health and wellbeing in women with POI. This is a multi-site collaboration with researchers at Monash University Women’s Health program and Keogh Institute, Western Australia.
  • Clinical research investigating musculoskeletal health in women with POI with collaborators at Hudson Institute and the Bone and Muscle Research Group, Monash University Department of Medicine, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health.
  • Epidemiological research with collaborators at the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health investigating bone health in women with early menopause.
  • Investigating the impact of COVID -19 pandemic on osteoporosis and menopause management/ healthcare delivery in Australia.
To deliver health impact, we use the following MCHRI platforms
Group Members
Dr Sam KozicaResearch managersamantha.kozica@monash.edu
Dr Eveline JonaClinical trials managereveline.jona@monash.edu
Dr Alicia JonesPhD Candidatealicia.jones@monash.edu

Student Research Projects

This team offers a variety of Honours, Masters and PhD projects for students. There are also a number of short-term research opportunities available. You are encouraged to get in touch regarding potential projects that align with the research areas.

We gratefully acknowledge the funding given to our group by the following groups:

  • MRFF
  • NHMRC 
  • National Breast Cancer Foundation
  • Women’s Health Victoria
  • Monash Health Foundation
  • ANZBMS-OA
  • Amgen