Menopause is now a mainstream conversation, as the sold-out International Menopause Society's world congress shows. Here is how it handled record numbers, an audience from 89 countries and a market full of claims.

Fifty years ago, 165 delegates gathered in France for the first International Congress on Menopause. In 2026, more than 4,500 delegates from 89 countries registered for the 20th congress in Rio de Janeiro. It sold out before the doors opened. The attendee numbers are up from 2,548 compared with the previous Congress in Melbourne in 2024.

What’s changed in 50 years, what’s behind the sudden profitability of the menopause market, and what happens when your association topic goes mainstream?

Associate Professor Ang Seng Bin, president of the International Menopause Society (IMS), is careful not to claim too much for any single cause. "It is difficult to separate the effect of the wider public conversation about menopause from other factors, but we believe it played a significant part," he says.

In answers to AMI, Ang set out what the IMS believes drove the growth, how it handled the consequences, and what other associations could learn from it.

Your audience arrives with new questions

The clearest effect of the public conversation, Ang says, is on the professionals who treat menopause. "Women are arriving at appointments with more questions, and sometimes with information that is inaccurate or misleading," he explains.

That pushes clinicians to keep up. "Clinicians are keen to stay up to date, so they can offer women clear, evidence-based advice and the best possible care," he says. The Congress is where they do it: it brings clinicians from around the world together to hear the latest evidence, question speakers and colleagues, and share research and best practice.

The argument is a demand-side one. Public attention does not fill a scientific congress by itself, but it gives clinicians a practical reason to attend.

Meet the demand

Location mattered as much as the conversation. Brazil, as host country, accounted for more than half of all registrations, and attendance from across Latin America was particularly strong.

Language was part of the answer. The programme included dedicated halls in Spanish and Portuguese, with 23 symposia delivered in those languages, and real-time AI translation was available across the whole programme. The result, Ang says, is that delegates could follow the programme in their own language.

The IMS also credits its regional partners. Working with the Associação Brasileira de Climatério (SOBRAC), the Federação Brasileira das Associações de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia (FEBRASGO) and the Federación Latinoamericana de Sociedades de Climaterio y Menopausia (FLASCYM) gave the Congress "local reach and credibility that no international society could achieve alone".

The market behind the headlines

Estimates of the size of the global menopause market vary.

PwC puts it at roughly $10–15 billion, growing between 8 and 10 per cent a year by 2030. Grand View Research is higher, at $18.7 billion in 2025 and $28.8 billion by 2033.

While estimates vary, it's clearly a multi-billion dollar.

What is counted matters. An earlier edition of the Grand View Research report, which covers supplements and over-the-counter products only, found dietary supplements made up 94.23 per cent of revenue. The audience behind the market is large and, by some measures, underserved. Grand View says more than a billion women worldwide are expected to be menopausal, around 12 per cent of the global population.

In a BCG report, only 2.5 per cent of French women over 45 had accessed hormone replacement therapy (HRT), although 87 per cent experienced symptoms. The UK rate of accessing HRT, however, is far higher at roughly 14 per cent. Elsewhere, PwC estimates that menopause costs the US about $1.8 billion a year in lost work time.

Larger figures circulate and need care. The widely repeated $600 billion comes from a 2020 Female Founders Fund report that framed it as an opportunity for companies, not current revenue. The $1 trillion a year by 2040 in WEF and McKinsey Health Institute research refers to closing the whole women's health gap, not menopause alone.

The figures are large, and many sectors want a piece of the profit pie.

That is the commercial backdrop to the IMS's decision to put misinformation on its main stage.

Expect misinformation, and a marketplace

Mainstream attention has a downside, and the IMS chose to put it on the main stage. "As menopause has moved into the mainstream, commercial interests have driven the promotion of a wide range of products," Ang says. "Social media is rife with misinformation, and with people promoting themselves as menopause experts."

One of the Congress's eight plenary lectures was devoted to the problem. Dr Jen Gunter, known for her work challenging health misinformation, delivered "Menopause for Sale: Misinformation, commercialization, and monetization", chaired by Ang.

The society is keen to separate that from hostility to industry. "That does not mean opposing industry," Ang says. Well-regulated, evidence-based products have an important place in menopause care, he adds, and industry partners support research and education. "The question is always whether a claim is supported by the evidence."

He sees it as a duty of scientific societies to raise awareness of misinformation and to appraise the latest data independently, "so that women receive the best outcomes with minimal risk". The IMS carries that work beyond the Congress through its public information platform, Menopause Info, and through World Menopause Day each October, which it uses to reach women as well as healthcare professionals.

Let the programme and the exhibition hall carry the evidence

Concern about misinformation shaped how the programme was built. An international Scientific Programme Committee, drawn from leading experts in menopause and midlife women's health, worked with a Local Organising Committee. Together they assembled 258 faculty members from 46 countries across 131 sessions.

The principle, Ang says, is that "the latest evidence is the most effective answer to misinformation". ‘Meet the Expert’ sessions gave delegates the chance to discuss that evidence directly with leading clinicians and researchers.

The same standard applied to the exhibition hall. The IMS's governance committee vetted the Congress sponsors through what Ang calls a rigorous process, "to ensure that only clinically evidenced products were represented".

Plan for the crowd

The programme ran across 10 parallel halls over four days. When a session reached capacity, it was broadcast live into an overflow room so that delegates could still take part. Through the Congress app, participants could also listen to live sessions and read transcripts.

The Congress was recorded, and all registrants will have access to the recordings so they can catch up on anything they missed. For people who could not register, there is an IMS2026 On Demand package available.