Keynote address: menopause and the developing world

Abstract

I would like to start this keynote address by quoting Macbeth: ‘If you can look into the seeds of time and say which grain will grow and which will not, then speak tome…’ (Macbeth I, iii); and I wish to speak to you about a very special grain, ourselves, which will not only grow too rapidly, but which may grow in such a way that it may cause global problems, unless new remedies are applied. And new remedies are urgently needed, since the extent and especially the rate of change around us is almost overwhelming; indeed, the changes are so rapid that our perception of these changes seems to lag more and more behind. This is my main concern and the reason for selecting the well-known quotation from Sir Francis Bacon as the motto of this address.

And he that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator. (Sir Francis Bacon, Essayes, XXIV, 1625)