On Sunday May 7th, I was invited by a family friend to give a talk on women’s health, which was titled, “What every woman should know from teens to menopause”, at a Mother’s Day brunch at a nearby primary school.
As guest speaker, I nominated Counterpart as my preferred charity to deposit the funds raised. The $825 that was raised from the raffle was deposited into the the Counterpart account on their recent 20th birthday celebration, which I attended.
Counterpart is a peer support service for women in the community diagnosed with cancer. It’s run by women who are cancer survivors who elect to train in peer support. I was on the board of Women’s Health Victoria for 8 years, and am impressed by the growth of this services which impacts the lives of Victorian Women with cancer so positively.
What I talked about:
- Periods – what’s normal and what’s not normal. If they are abnormal, what might this mean and how can this be managed from school age to perimenopause.
- Endometriosis
- Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
- Body image, eating disorders, social media and its impacts
- Social media: be wary of incorrect medical messaging
- Mental health in teens and perimenopause / menopause
- Cancer screening at all stages of life
- The importance of booking yourself for a Women’s Health Check with your GP every year from adulthood onwards.
- Menopause – what’s next?
Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM is the Immediate Past President of the AFMW (2020-2023), former President of VMWS (2013 & 2017-2020) and current AFMW National Coordinator (2024-2026). She is a full time clinician who also holds positions on several not for profit organisations, driven by her passion for bridging gaps across the health sector. She is a leading women’s health expert, keynote speaker, climate change and gender equity advocate and government advisor. Magda is member of The Australian Health Team contributing monthly articles.
Magdalena was awarded a lifetime membership of the RACGP for her contributions which include past chair of Women in General Practice, longstanding contribution to the RACGP Expert Committee Quality Care, the RACGP eHealth Expert Committee. She is regularly invited to comment on primary care research though mainstream and medical media and contributes articles on various health issues through newsGP and other publications.
Magdalena has represented the RACGP at senate enquiries and has worked on several National Health Framework reviews. She is author of the RACGP Guide on Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery and co-reviewer of the RACGP Red Book Women’s Health Chapter, and reviewer of the RACGP White book
Both an RACGP examiner and University examiner, she undertakes general practice research and is a GP Educator with the Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, which develops education tools to assist the primary care sector identify, respond to and manage family violence . Roles outside of RACGP include the Strategy and Policy Committee for Breast Cancer Network Australia, Board Director of the Melbourne University Teaching Health Clinics and the elected GP representative to the AMA Federal Council. In 2022. she was award the AMA (Vic) Patrick Pritzwald-Steggman Award 2022, which celebrates a doctor who has made an exceptional contribution to the wellbeing of their colleagues and the community and was listed as Women’s Agenda 2022 finalist for Emerging Leader in Health.
Magdalena has presented at the United Nations as part of the Australian Assembly and was appointed the Australian representative to the World Health Organisation, World Assembly on COVID 19, by the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) in 2021. In 2023, A/Professor Simonis was included on the King’s COVID-19 Champion’s list and was also awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division for significant service to medicine through a range of roles and to women’s health.
