Andy Devaney
There are events that politely occupy a corner of the calendar, and then there is PAUSE Live, which has the good sense to walk into the room, switch the lights on and start asking the questions too many women have been left to answer alone. Returning on Saturday, October 10 for its fourth year, the UK’s leading women’s health and menopause event is back with bigger ambitions, a new London home and a programme built around the one subject that quietly runs the whole show: hormones.
This year, PAUSE Live moves to Convene Sancroft near St Paul’s, a stylish venue in the heart of the capital that feels fitting for an event which has grown from a strong idea into something far more substantial. Not just another date in the diary, but a gathering with some real weight behind it.
A women’s health event with proper purpose
What has made PAUSE Live stand out is that it has never traded in soft-focus wellness fluff or brochure-grade reassurance. Its appeal lies in something far more useful: expert advice, practical information and the sort of honest conversation that tends to arrive only after a woman has spent too long being fobbed off, talked over or sent home with more questions than answers.
That is why the event has become such a fixture. Women attend to hear directly from leading doctors, menopause specialists and health professionals on the issues that shape daily life but are still too often dealt with in fragments. Perimenopause, sleep, mental health, relationships, energy, long-term wellbeing — all of it is on the table.
And for 2026, the spotlight falls squarely on hormones, which is rather like finally acknowledging the conductor in an orchestra that has been blamed for every wrong note while nobody bothered to mention who was holding the baton.
London stage, national conversation
Set in central London, PAUSE Live 2026 looks designed to bring scale and intimacy together. Thousands of women from across the UK are expected to attend, but the event’s reputation has been built on making a large room feel surprisingly personal.
Those who have been before speak about the atmosphere first. Not in the empty way event organisers often do, but because it genuinely matters here. The energy comes from women arriving ready to listen, compare notes, challenge assumptions and ask the sort of direct questions that can change the course of their health.
That matters because women’s health has for too long been treated like a side conversation in a crowded pub, while just about everything else got the microphone.
Familiar faces, serious expertise
The live programme will be hosted by TV presenter Cherry Healey, alongside menopause advocates Nina Ambrose and Michelle Ford, a trio expected to bring both warmth and candour to the day’s discussions.
On the Educational Stage, women’s health specialist Professor Joyce Harper will lead audiences through the science of hormones and the practical realities attached to them. That balance is key. The best events of this kind do not drown people in jargon or reduce complex issues to slogans. They translate science into something women can actually use on a Monday morning.
PAUSE Live appears to understand that better than most.
The personal story behind PAUSE Live
Founder Charlotte Body explains: “PAUSE Live has always been about creating a safe space where women feel confident and informed to take charge of their own health. For 2026, we are going deeper than ever. Hormones affect every part of our lives, yet for too long women have been left to work it all out alone.
This event is incredibly personal to me. I started PAUSE Live after my own difficult journey through perimenopause, when I realised how little support and information was available. I didn’t want my children, and my grandchildren, to one day face the same confusion and struggles. PAUSE Live exists so that women today, and the generations to come, have access to the knowledge they deserve.”
It is a striking statement because it gives PAUSE Live its backbone. This is not a vanity project dressed up as a health summit. It comes from lived experience, and from the increasingly widespread frustration that too many women still have to become their own researcher, advocate and interpreter simply to understand what is happening to their bodies.
More than talks, more than a ticket
Part of the event’s strength is that it goes beyond stage sessions. PAUSE Live gives attendees the chance to discover trusted brands, join workshops and connect with others navigating similar experiences. In other words, it is not just about information, but access — to specialists, to solutions and to a community that understands the terrain.
That community element is not some decorative extra. It is one of the main reasons events like this matter. Menopause and hormonal health can still leave women feeling isolated, as though they are somehow failing at ordinary life when in reality they are dealing with extraordinary internal upheaval. Being in a room where those experiences are recognised has value all of its own.
Why PAUSE Live matters now
The timing feels right. Public conversation around menopause and women’s health has improved, but improvement is not the same thing as completion. Awareness has gone up. Understanding has not always kept pace.
That is where PAUSE Live earns its relevance. It sits at the intersection of education, advocacy and lived reality. It offers something more grounded than slogans and more useful than sympathy. For women looking for credible advice and straight answers, that is a serious draw.
PAUSE Live 2026 promises to be the biggest edition yet, and on the evidence available, it has every chance of being the most important one too. Because when an event manages to combine expertise, honesty and community in one room, it does more than fill seats. It shifts the conversation forward.
Tickets for PAUSE Live are on sale now, with more information available at www.pauselive.com.