Three women from Maplewood and South Orange are bringing the national conversation about menopause to the Maplewood and South Orange community with a day-long symposium called Not Your Mother’s Menopause, NJ on Sunday, January 12.
A year ago, Maplewood-based women’s strength and fitness trainer Allison Kalsched, pelvic health specialist and owner of 5 Point Physical Therapy Stacey Futterman Tauriello of Maplewood, and marketing executive and menopause advocate April L McKenzie of South Orange, decided it was time to have that national conversation close to home.
“The conversation about menopause is everywhere, and we wanted to bring that conversation to our friends and neighbors,” said Kalsched in a press release. “In the year that we have been planning this event, we have become acutely aware of the overwhelming need the women in our community have for information about the menopause transition.”
“While this discussion is long overdue, sometimes it’s hard to figure out how to access help in your own community,” said McKenzie. “Hearing celebrities and Instagram-famous doctors share their stories and knowledge is very helpful, but we wanted to give the women of MAPSO (and adjacent areas) real help in accessing resources in their own communities.”
Nationally renowned experts Dr. Sharon Malone, a D.C.-based OB/GYN and certified menopause practitioner, and author and advocate Jennifer Weiss-Wolf will be joined by local and regional experts for panel discussions about hormones, exercise, nutrition, pelvic health, complementary and alternative treatments, mental health.
Malone, the chief medical director of Alloy Women’s Health, is also the author of The New York Times best seller Grown Woman Talk. Weiss-Wolf, the executive director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at NYU School of Law, is working with NYU Press to release her forthcoming book, Period. Full Stop. The Politics of Menopause, in 2025.
To see a full list of presenters, sponsors, and ways to connect with Not Your Mother’s Menopause NJ, visit the event website, where later this month access to an edited recording of the symposium will be available for purchase. Information and resources can also be found on the event’s Instagram @notyourmothersmenopause_NJ and the Not Your Mother’s Menopause NJ Facebook Group, which has grown to more than 1,000 members since McKenzie started it in 2021.
