Abstract
Dr Jean Coope was a founder member of the British Menopause Society (member no 005) and was integrally involved with the Society for many years.
Jean was one of nine lecturers at the inaugural BMS symposium which was staged in London in late March 1990 and attended by more than 600 delegates. Her lecture Hormone Replacement Therapy and the General Practitioner provided practical guidance to general practitioners (GPs) in dealing with their menopausal and post-menopausal patients. A summary of her lecture, published in the first BMS Conference Report, outlined the importance of scientifically assessing the benefits and risks of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Education of doctors, nurses and patients, Jean asserted, was key to the successful management of the menopause. She went on to comment that ‘Many women experience great anxiety as a result of articles in the popular press, heightening the depression they may experience at this time’.
Twenty-two years later, it is sobering to consider that education of clinicians and women alike is as relevant and as important now as ever.
The BMS Newsletter was launched late in 1990 and Jean contributed articles to the second, fourth and fifth editions, assuming the mantle of editor in 1994 until 1997. When the newsletter evolved into the Journal of the British Menopause Society, Jean became a member of the editorial and the international editorial boards. Jean was a founder BMS council member contributing to the direction of the society and in particular, the Society's education programme, from 1992 to 1994.
Dr Jean Coope, MD, FRCGP, was a family GP in Bollington for 30 years and a leading expert on HRT for menopausal women. She was a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners and the author of a number of publications, including her booklet Hormone Replacement Therapy, published by the RCGP and Time of her Life, which was co-authored with Professor Myra Hunter and published by BBC books. She used the royalties from her publications – together with her lecture fees – to set up a teaching clinic to show women how to keep healthy in later life.
Jean was awarded a scholarship to study medicine at Manchester University where she earned a gold medal, the award given to the faculty's best student, and was also awarded a Doctorate in Medicine (DM).
Jean moved to Bollington when she married John, also a GP, in 1953 and joined the family practice at Waterhouse, now Bollington Medical Centre. At home, her main concerns were the practice and her six children, but she learnt to play the cello in later life which she enjoyed immensely. Her grandchildren and her two great-grandchildren also brought her lots of joy.
In 1994, she became a member of the World Health Organization Committee on Research on the Menopause, meeting in Geneva. She also worked locally as a member of the Osteoporosis Prevention Group at Macclesfield Hospital and at the East Cheshire Branch of Age Concern.