When Dr Iona Weir went in for birth injury repair surgery at 42, there was a five percent chance of the procedure triggering early menopause.
At the time, she was eager to return to her life as a mother and scientist, and never considered she’d fall into the minority.
“You think, ‘Five percent – that’s not going to be me.’ But it was. Literally overnight, my skin dried up, I was incredibly moody and there were no more periods. Just gone,” recalls Iona, 58. “Within two weeks, I felt like an irritable prune!”
It took months before the renowned cell biologist would learn menopause was to blame. Initially doctors had believed she was experiencing temporary side effects from surgery.
“When I finally went to see a gynaecologist, she told me I had already gone through menopause. I had a two-year-old and a four-year-old, so it was the worst timing.”
While challenging to accept, the unexpected diagnosis inspired Iona to set up her own biotech company and develop products based on decades of her research – the latest of which is specifically for post-menopausal women.
“My gynaecologist was always commenting on how great my face looked. One day, she asked, ‘Have you considered a cream for vaginal atrophy?’” says Iona, who had launched Atopis, a clinically trialled and globally patented skincare range based on slowing and reversing cell death.
It was while working for Plant and Food Crown Research Institute in her early career developing DNA screening to identify kiwifruit hybrids that she discovered plants went through a similar programmed cell death to human cells.
With years of research, she developed patented technology to reverse the early stages of cell death in plants. Then, she applied this to human cells.
She explains, “Ninety-nine percent of the time, science is failure. But the quirk about scientists is we can handle failing over and over. You just have to keep persisting until you get that amazing yes moment.”
Initially Iona hadn’t thought about how the same science could be applied post-menopause, but the idea intrigued her.
“I looked at the different symptoms women were facing. Some included urinary frequency and weakness, loss of sexual function, drying and tearing of vaginal tissue, and risk of prolapse,” she explains.
The result is Myregyna, a non-hormonal cream developed to support sexual and genital health during and after menopause. Women can also use it alongside hormone replacement therapy.
Iona is overwhelmed by the feedback from women, like actor and ambassador Robyn Malcolm, raving about how life-changing it’s been.
“I have women ringing me up saying they’re excited about jumping on the trampoline or that their husband is so happy!” she laughs.
She’s delighted her work is bringing the normally taboo subject of women’s sexual function and pleasure as they age to the mainstream. She says there’s often a tendency to “put women on the shelf” after a certain age.
“When I’ve been dealing with some male heads of big companies overseas, they’ll ask, ‘Is that an issue for women?’ Or say, ‘Oh, we don’t see a market for that.’
“It’s such a silent epidemic. They’ve got Viagra, but no one seems to consider that women might have thin, dry vaginas and no longer be as sexually responsive.
“It’s really cool that 35 years of work is actually coming to fruition and making a change. And it’s for women.” Iona reflects on a lifetime of exceeding expectations.
She shares, “As a kid, I went to 31 schools. It was a dysfunctional family and from my background, I never thought I’d achieve a PhD. I had one teacher say I was so quiet, I would go through life unnoticed. My story shows despite whatever you’ve been through or a lack of schooling, you can get there.”
At 12, she earned the top mark in the country in science and with one life-changing comment from another teacher, Iona began to dream.
“He said, ‘Please understand, you can achieve anything you want to.’ That was revolutionary for me. Until then, I didn’t think I would amount to much.”
Quietly determined, she went on to study science at Canterbury and then the University of Auckland.
Now she wants to reassure other women that menopause doesn’t have to be a terrible transition suffered in silence.
“Women need to understand that it’s not scary,” she says. “You reach this moment where you don’t care, you don’t feel worried about what people think and you just do what you want. Post-menopause is the last third of your life, but it’s also incredibly liberating.
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