Congratulations! ORWH recently awarded three Menopause Society Travel Awards to support the development of junior investigators focused on midlife women's health research. Each recipient received $2,000 to help cover the costs of attending and presenting their research at the Menopause Society Annual Meeting, taking place October 21–24 in San Diego, California.
Sona is a third-year medical student at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. She earned her undergraduate degree in Anthropology and Human Biology from Emory University, where her work as a labor support doula sparked her interest in women's health. At the meeting, she will present her research, "Effect of Combined Estrogen and Testosterone Therapy on Bone Mineral Density in Postmenopausal Women." Sona is passionate about improving bone health in menopausal patients and looks forward to sharing her findings on how combined testosterone and estrogen therapy affects bone mineral density.
Katrina is a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois Chicago. She studies changes in brain structure and function that influence women's memory during menopause and the years that follow. At the meeting, she will present her research, "Prefrontal-Hippocampal Functional Connections Associate with Verbal Memory Performance and Differ by Menopause Stage." Katrina is particularly interested in understanding the brain changes that may make certain women more vulnerable to Alzheimer's disease.
Dr. Sailer holds an MD/PhD from Basel, Switzerland, and an MSc from Dresden International University. She is currently a third-year Clinical and Research Endocrine Fellow at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS). Dr. Sailer's research focuses on the complex intersections of cardiometabolic changes, mood, and sleep across the menopause transition. She will present her research, "Perimenopausal Depression Severity Is Inversely Correlated with Allopregnanolone Levels," at the annual meeting. Her clinical practice — providing specialized endocrine care to women navigating the menopause transition — directly informs her research, with the goal of improving long-term health outcomes.