The Menopause Shift

Leading experts Dr Premitha Damodaran and Dr Bharathi Vengadasalam unpack the physical, emotional and professional realities of menopause

- By Kiran Pillay

On the evening of March 12, 2026, The Garden Room of the Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur was one of recognition and candour.

The Front & Female Awards dinner brought together some of Malaysia's most accomplished women for a night of celebration, but it was a fireside chat that may well have left the most lasting impression on the room.

Moderated by Tatler Malaysia managing editor Emma Chong, the conversation featured two of the country’s foremost voices on women's health: Dr Premitha Damodaran, a leading gynaecologist and chair of the Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society of Malaysia's Menopause and Midlife Health subcommittee, and Dr Bharathi Vengadasalam, a resident psychiatrist from Pantai Hospital Kuala Lumpur with extensive experience in women’s mental health. Together, they dismantled myths, issued a rallying call for self-advocacy and made a compelling case for why menopause must be part of our national conversation in the home, clinic and workplace.

MORE THAN HOT FLUSHES

From the outset, Damodaran was eager to reframe the way we think about menopause altogether. “I'd like to sort of dispel menopause as being a bad word,” she said. “Menopause is going to happen to all us women when we reach a certain age.” Menopause marks the end of reproductive ability, but Damodaran rejects the stigma around the change: “I think we should think about menopause as a rebirth, a time to flourish, a time for ourselves because we've concluded our duties in one sense.”