Our Story
About Us
Positive Pause was founded in 2016 by Ann Stephens with a simple but powerful mission: to change the conversation around menopause. After struggling to find relatable, trustworthy information during her own perimenopause journey, Ann created a welcoming online space where women could find support, understanding, and hope through every stage of menopause — from pre and peri to post-menopause.
What began as a personal mission quickly became part of a wider movement to make menopause conversations more open, informed, and empowering. Positive Pause earned a reputation as a trusted voice in menopause awareness and education, helping countless women feel less alone and more confident in understanding their changing bodies and minds.
Today, Positive Pause has evolved and joined forces with Menopause Movement to deliver accredited, CPD-certified menopause training for health and fitness professionals. This next chapter builds on the Positive Pause legacy of evidence-based education, equipping professionals with the knowledge and confidence to better support others through menopause.
The Positive Pause ethos remains at the heart of everything we do — combining credible education with compassion, positivity, and real-life understanding.
Ann Stephens and Christien Bird, directors of Menopause Movement and owners of the Positive Pause trademark, continue to grow this trusted education brand and champion better menopause awareness for all.
“I just wanted to thank you both so very much for a wonderful afternoon at your event on Saturday. Your speakers were amazing, and their advice was invaluable. I learnt so much…I love your site, I cannot imagine how many women you have helped (saved!) You are amazing.
Thank you ”
The History…
Our Heritage
Positive Pause was born from one woman’s search for answers. When Ann began experiencing overwhelming anxiety and brain fog, she had no idea these symptoms were linked to perimenopause. Like so many women, she felt confused, isolated, and unsupported.
Searching online only added to the frustration — the information she found felt clinical, bleak, and impossible to connect with. So Ann decided to create something different: a colourful, friendly, and relatable online space where women could find honest conversations, trusted information, and reassurance that they were not alone.
Positive Pause quickly became part of a growing movement to open up the conversation around menopause, helping women feel seen, heard, and empowered. It also laid the foundations for the credible, evidence-based training now delivered through Menopause Movement.
Today, Positive Pause continues its mission through online workplace training and education — providing trusted menopause support that helps women, workplaces, and communities navigate menopause with greater confidence, understanding, and hope.
Meet the Founders
It all begins with an idea. This is just what Ann and Christien found when they entered their menopausal years.
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Ann has a long career in the design business. Originally in fashion, as senior designer for Mulberry, Laura Ashley & Conran Design Group. Re-training as an interior designer, she has over 20 years’ experience in ID and teaches the subject in adult education. Her lack of knowledge about peri/menopause was the driving force behind developing PositivePause. Ann’s experience of running high-quality adult learning courses, her presentation skills and attention to detail, enabled PositivePause to run first-rate menopause public events, awareness sessions for HCP and within organisations. The necessity to take the business online led her to build an online learning platform, encompassing her skills to design, develop and co-ordinate an elite learning experience.
“I just wanted to say that I heard you on the radio and love your website and what you are trying to do. All hail to you both, thank you very much!”
Menopause Movement - our sister business
“Women in midlife feel largely ignored, invisible and irrelevant, and this is particularly true when it comes to sport and exercise. Yet sustaining fitness and activity levels for women of this age has such life-changing benefits in relation to happiness, mental wellbeing and physical health, now and into later life” 84%* of women going into menopause want to be more active but lack confidence*
In partnership with our clinical lead, Women’s Health Physiotherapist, Christien Bird, we’ve developed Menopause Movement, a training platform for all the health & fitness pros, and healthcare professionals who work with women to help them find their confidence on their movement journey in menopause.
To date, we’ve trained thousands of professionals. Check out our Menopause Movement Directory to find an accredited health & fitness pro who can help you exercise safely and confidently benefitting your mind & body in menopause.
*(Inspiring Women to be Active During Midlife and Menopause, Women In Sport, May 2021)