Judges’ Award 2024 Silver Longform Under £100,000
How we talk about menopause has to change. We created Cycle of Change: Understanding Menopause, a short film to empower women and share real-life experiences from all stages of the menopause transition.
Menopause will affect half of the population, though so many of us are unprepared and don’t know what to expect, it’s not just hot flushes! Menopause can indirectly affect the other half of the population too: partners, family, friends and colleagues.
In the process of making the film we surveyed over 450 women about their concerns, experiences and advice about menopause, ran workshops with 23 women discussing different stages of menopause, interviewed 18 people who spoke in-depth about their experiences and included the voices of 32 women from interviews and workshops.
We hope this film will help you to spot the signs of menopause when it begins and give you the chance to emotionally prepare and find support if needed. There are short edits for social media and subtitled versions of the film on our films page, You can listens to people’s experiences on our Interviews page and see the results from our survey here. The film and content on this website are free resource to share or embed on any other website.
Cycle of Change has recently been added to the UK Government Help to Grown Campaign Menopause Support for Workers for Workers resource.
“So many of my friends are in denial that it is happening. Films like this will hopefully help them realise the symptoms and seek help." Participant
This film has been made by ForMed Films CIC with support from The Burdett Trust for Nursing, The National Lottery, in collaboration with Menopause Support and Bristol Menopause Clinic.
ForMed Films CIC specialise in storytelling through the patient voice to make animated films for medical education. In close collaboration with health professionals and patients, we
bring people’s experiences, emotions and advice into focus so that our audience can relate to and understand an issue to help them to make informed choices.
Menopause Support is a not for profit community interest company and the home of the national #MakeMenopauseMatter campaign, both founded by Diane Danzebrink.
Diane became acutely aware of the woeful lack of education and information about menopause for both the public and health care practitioners as a result of her own dreadful experience following surgery which put her into surgical menopause. Determined to use her experience to lead the call for change to ensure that women of the future would not suffer in the way that she did Diane created the national #MakeMenopauseMatter campaign which calls for mandatory menopause education for doctors, greater menopause awareness and support in the workplace and for menopause to be added to the RSE curriculum in secondary school education.
Menopause Support provides private support via telephone and video consultations and bespoke menopause training and support solutions for businesses and organisations and menopause training days for therapists and well-being professionals. There are lots of free resources available on the website, plus details of the closed Facebook group,
In 2022 Menopause Support partnered with ForMed Films CIC, an award winning animation studio who specialise in storytelling through the patient voice to make animated films for
medical education, to make Cycle of Change, a short film about menopause to educate and raise awareness of the early stages of this major life transition. The aim is to help explain what happens during perimenopause so that men, women and healthcare providers can be better prepared to celebrate and support the one-billion women worldwide going through menopause.
We align with the following UN Sustainable Development Goals:
