Greetings to all Malaysian Menopause Society Members

Membership
It is an established fact that the members are the most important asset of any society. It is with that thought in mind that I write to inform you that following the circulation of the September 2007 newsletter, some MMS members responded positively and forwarded their latest postal, email addresses as well as their new hand phone numbers to the secretariat. This response has made one of our tasks easier. Both Ms. Hee and I are undertaking the daunting task of updating the membership list as well as adding new members to it. Following the distribution of Berita Menopos September 2007 issue, there were three newsletters returned to the MMS secretariat due to either incomplete address or there was no forwarding address. If anyone is able to help us contact these “lost members” by providing current email, postal addresses or hand phone numbers please do contact the secretariat. These life members are as follows

	Membership No.	Name	Reason for return of MMS newsletter
1.	L120	Puan Hanis Hussein	insufficient address
2.	L235	Puan Tuan Sapia	has moved
3.	L290	Ng Wan Shang	has moved

 
MMS Activities
The recent MMS activities have again shown that both MMS members as well as potential members had enjoyed these sessions. The participants agreed that a lot of information on menopause had been disseminated to the public from all walks of life as well as to the health professionals.

The Public Seminar on Menopause themed “Kesihatan Meniti Usia Emas” was held at Kota Bharu Kelantan on 1st September 2007. It was organized by MMS and Women Health and Development Unit, Universiti Sains Malaysia. The venue was the Dewan Utama, Health Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia Kubang Kerian, Kelantan. Associate Professor Dr. Nik Hazlina’s estimates approximately 200 participants attended, of which, about 90% were women while 10% were men. The age range of the participants was 45 years and above. About 60 % of the participants were either paramedics or nurses from Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II, district hospitals and health centres. In between the seminar presentations, the participants were able to visit various booths to participate in the health checks. These included measuring blood glucose, blood pressure, body mass index (BMI) and bone scan. In addition, the dentists from the School of Dentistry USM also performed dental examination on voluntary participants. Overall the participants were very happy with the event and requested for a similar seminar next year.

The World Menopause Day 2007 themed “A Second Spring in Life” was held on the 4th November 2007 at Berjaya Times Square Hotel Kuala Lumpur. I shall not elaborate further as the organising chairperson Dr. Ho Choon Moy has reported on this event in this issue.

 
Forthcoming Activities

Fellowship Nite December 2007
We are now waiting patiently for members to actively participate in the Fellowship Nite 2007
which will be held on 9th December 2007 at Bukit Kiara Equestrian & Country Resort (Opposite the Bukit Kiara Science Centre). The theme will be Reminiscing the Sixties. It will be a golden opportunity for members to attend and rekindle old ties as well as develop new ones. Further information is available from the secretariat.

Annual General Meeting
The 11th Annual General Meeting will be held on 6th April 2008 at Berjaya Time Square Hotel. Again more details will be available by February 2008 from the secretariat.

Continuous Medical Education
One of MMS’s objectives is to continue to update the various health professionals especially the clinicians on the latest information on menopause and its management. The following dates and places have been tentative reserved for these activities. We are in the process of confirming the speakers and the venues. Again information will be available from the secretariat nearer the time.

No.	Date	Town
1.	24th February 2008	Johore Bharu
2.	26th April 2008	Kota Bharu
3.	6th July 2008	Kota Kinabalu Sabah
3.	7th September 2008	Kuching Sarawak

The festive season has been upon us since October, and the EXCO members would like to take this opportunity to wish all Muslims a belated “Selamat Hari Raya” as well as a “Selamat Hari Raya Haji”, to the Hindus a belated “Happy Deepavali / Dwali”, to the Christians a very “Merry Christmas” and a very “Happy New Year 2008” greetings to all.

 
Mdm. Hardip Kaur Dhillon
Hon. Secretary