Move over midlife: the spa experience dedicated to navigating menopause

This month is Menopause Awareness Month, which is a good time to shine a light on the ways that the holistic world of wellbeing supports women through hormonal change. However, it's a space that many spas quietly nurture all the time, offering packages and experiences that give women the time and space to explore, learn, and ask questions in a supportive environment.

Ockenden Manor is one such destination, a beautiful retreat in West Sussex, which is well known for curating deeply considerate wellness experiences. This month they have continued with that legacy, launching their Move over Midlife retreat - a carefully considered one-night escape designed for women looking to navigate and explore the challenges, and often powerful changes midlife can bring.

About the retreat

Designed in collaboration with menopause specialist, Kate Organ, the retreat is a chance to enjoy the beauty of the spa and its surrounding environment, meet other women on a similar journey, and combine pampering and relaxation with helpful workshops.

It offers a holistic approach to hormone balance, nutrition, movement, and energy with a day of workshops led by Kate, followed by a sound bath, creating a calming space for you to find stress relief, emotional grounding or to follow a path into mindful stillness.

During the workshops you will receive valuable tips and advice on how to manage:

• Hormone related mental health and stress
• Protecting your bones and looking after your skin and hair
• The effects of hormonal influences on your sleep
• Metabolic and cardiovascular health

You will also enjoy lunch, a three-course dinner, one night's accommodation, breakfast and full use of the award-winning spa facilities.

About menopause specialist, Kate Organ

Kate's own story is what led her to not only become a clinical specialist in menopause, after personal experience of hormone change and the lack of answers or mixed messages women often face.

Today she is a British Menopause Society registered menopause specialist, holds numerous post graduate qualifications specialising in mental health care, is a consultant clinical pharmacist who has gone on to extend her professional qualifications so she can diagnose and prescribe for the perimenopause, menopause and PMS, PMDD.

She says: "I always felt slightly uneasy about the way women were historically treated when it came to severe mental health because their hormones were never taken into consideration. However, it was only when I had my own children, and experiencing what followed, that I began to dig deeper. I had my first daughter at 33, and then had four failed rounds of IVF and egg donation before I had my second daughter at 39. In those years what I didn't realise about my fertility issue was that my egg count was low, my AMH levels were less than one (with anything less than 10 they don't consider IVF viable). In effect, I was perimenopausal."

When Kate had treatment to host her egg donation, she was given oestrogen replacement hormones, and she suddenly felt amazing after years of headaches, sweating, and migraines. However, after her daughter was born and the treatment stopped, the symptoms came flooding back. By the time she turned 40, she had hormonal migraines, heart palpitations, brain fog, and more, but it was when she was reading a book on perimenopause that everything clicked.

She went to her GP, enthused about having an answer, and was dismissed, until she booked an appointment with a GP who specialised in women's health. She started taking HRT, and she says: "It changed my life."

An integrated approach to menopause

Diligent about understanding the drugs she was taking, Kate went down a rabbit hole of information to understand HRT, the risks vs benefits, as well as the other options available for women. Fast forward a couple of years, and in the process she had done her BMS Advanced Certificate, and met an amazing gynaecologist who became her trainer and mentor.

"In effect, I have now retrained in hormone health and my specialism is menopause, but I also do a lot of work with hormone related mental health, which is a gap that's not bridged by that many people."

She then set up her clinic with a friend, a GP specialising in menopause, and together they have corralled a team of professionals, ranging from nutritionists to psychologists, pelvic health physiotherapists, and more, across the medical and holistic health spectrum. The idea is to offer a connected approach that can be tailored to the individual, because everyone's experience of menopause is different.

A space for connectivity and empowerment

That brings us back to Ockenden Manor and the Move over Midlife retreat.

Kate says: "What I want women to take away from their time at Ockenden Manor is a feeling of being informed about complementary, integrative, clinical, and medical opportunities that are open to them. I want them to have greater clarity on everything from diagnosis and symptoms, to HRT as well as other ideas if they don't want to take that approach, including lifestyle, nutrition, exercise and so forth."

As such, workshops focus on key areas such as sleep, mental wellbeing, stress, and nutrition, interspersed with mindfulness and meditation practices, walking around the grounds, and a general emphasis on the importance of overall wellness. For many women, they are unaware of a whole block of psychological symptoms, including depression and anxiety, as well as tinnitus, vertigo, and cardiovascular issues. Many worry that they are getting the early signs of dementia because of forgetfulness, and that's before you get to uncomfortable topics around sex and discomfort.

Kate says: "I think that's where being together in a group is also important because it can feel very lonely at times if you're experiencing symptoms and you aren't sure what's going on. Your family often doesn't understand, so having that community provides a safe space to share with other people. So much of what's important is to make sure women are feeling heard and recognised."