Avid viewers of the British Menopause Society (BMS) website will realize that this is my last editorial. A few months ago, I accepted the invitation to become Editor-in-Chief of Maturitas. This was a difficult decision but I felt this was an offer I could not refuse. I officially started on 1 October and am taking care of Menopause International until my replacement is appointed. I wish them well and it will be interesting to see new directions.

Those with long memories may remember that I became Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the British Menopause Society in 1998. The journal was founded in 1995. In 1998, the journal was in magazine style, UK focused, listed on no databases and was available only in paper format. The editorial board was significantly enlarged to make it international with a multidisciplinary focus on the problems occurring in the middle years and beyond. Editorial board members now include not only gynaecologists but also old age psychiatrists, rheumatologists, oncologists, epidemiologists, laboratory-trained doctors, primary care doctors, nurses and ethicists. The reviewer base was increased concomitantly. The journal was included in EMBASE/Excerpta Medica in 2000. We obtained Medline listing following our first application in 2002. The application was supported by the editors and editorial board members of Maturitas, Menopause, Climacteric, Human Reproduction and Acta Obstetrica Gynecologica Scandinavica. Following this success, the journal also moved to online publication (initially with Ingenta and now Highwire) including a digital archive of back issues from 2000 onward.

Initially production of the journal was undertaken by two people: myself and Simon Brown (now the News Editor), who typeset and organized printing and distribution. In 2003 we were approached by the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) Press and since 2005 they have provided a full editorial service with marketing and media support. It became apparent at the end of 2005 that marketing the journal under the name of the Journal of the British Menopause Society limited the potential readership and subscriptions. After agreement from the BMS Council in 2006, the name was therefore changed to Menopause International. This has been a great success and the journal now has a print/online international circulation of 1800 copies. The journal now reaches all BMS members, Chinese National Science and Technology Library consortia (representing 574 libraries), Indian National Medical Library consortia (40 libraries), mainland Europe, USA, Australia and South Africa with electronic subscription for the members of the South African Menopause Society.

The issue has two review articles and an editorial focused on obesity as this is a growing concern worldwide with the expanding ‘in weight’ population. The review articles discuss the effects of obesity on arthritis and the role of bariatric surgery for older women. The other three reviews discuss postmenopausal vulval skin disease, the ethics of assisted conception in women over 50 and HIV and the menopause. An original article on the incidence of reoperation for pelvic organ prolapse is also included, along with the proceedings of the annual BMS meeting held in Manchester in July.

I will miss working with the editorial and publishing team and thank them for their great help over the years in developing the journal from a society magazine into a respected international publication. In particular, I would like to thank Simon Brown and John McGarry with whom I have worked since 1998; and Peter Richardson, Ian Jones, Joy Brooking, Ralph Footring and Delia Siedle from RSM Press. The deputy editors Sally Hope, Ailsa Gebbie and Tony Mander provided invaluable advice and support without which transformation of the journal would not have occurred.