A VITAL lived experience leading to a novel interventional platform for women’s mental health

Background – My suboptimal lived experience in entering peri-/menopause drove the creation of a novel platform for national healthcare intervention. Despite representing the majority of Australians in peri-/menopause, & even with the advantage of >20 years of medical research experience, perimenopause’s arrival & subsequent impact on my mental health & work productivity were a complete surprise.
Aim – To apply my previous research experience to create a peri-/menopause registry prioritising what consumers – not purely clinicians or researchers – think most important, share data via appropriate circumstances, & enable this community to have a voice in making even more change and translation into improved health outcomes.
Methods – I began a qualitative content analysis – aka explored social media, scientific journals, clinical society websites etcetera, & became even more concerned about the lack of knowledge & support available on the sheer range of symptoms & intensities, subsequent costs, time commitments, and impact on daily function. But peri-/meno wasn’t my specialty, so I reached out nationally to gather expertise across all relevant specialties & backgrounds, including consumer networks, to kickstart the changes needed.
Results – “VITAL”, the Virtual registry of perI-/menopause in AusTrALia, has recently launched, enabling the peri-menopause community to not just report on their symptoms but advise on our registry questions & volunteer for both committees and further research. Our platform has been deliberately designed to enable future embedding of randomised clinical trials, authorised data sharing, wearable compatibility, & international rollout for even greater translational impact.
Conclusion – Hoping my own lived experience helps others in future.