Keynote Speaker
Liisa Galea Ph.D., FCAHS
Dr. Liisa Galea is the inaugural womanmind Treliving Family Chair in Women’s Mental Health at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and a Professor of Psychiatry at University of Toronto. She comes to Toronto, after 25 years as a Professor at University of British Columbia. She leads the Women’s Health Research Cluster (more than 1100 members worldwide across 44 countries)and is a passionate advocate for research on women’s brain health.
Dr. Galea is a world-renowned expert in sex hormone influences on brain and behaviour in both health and disease states, with a focus on dementia and stress-related psychiatric disorders.
Dr. Galea is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and a Top 25 Women of Influence in Canada in 2025, and won numerous awards including the NSERC Discovery Accelerator. She has given over 60 international talks, including the Mortyn Jones Lecture(International Congress of Neuroendocrinology). She is an International Behavioral Neuroscience Society (IBNS) Fellow and Kavli Fellow. She has over 220 papers, is highly cited, is the Past President of Organization for the Study of Sex Differences and co-Vice-President of Canadian Organisation for Sex and Gender Research. She serves on several science advisory boards (Germany, Switzerland, US) and is associate editor (Psychoneuroendocrinology, Neuroendocrinology), and has served on peer review panels (NIH, Wellcome Trust, CIHR, NSERC).
Dr. Galea is also tireless advocate for women’s health research and for sex and gender-based analyses towards improved health for all people.
What does menopause mean for our long-term brain health?
Why do some women sail through menopause while others feel like they’re losing themselves? Why does hormone therapy help one woman but not another? And most importantly - what does menopause mean for our long-term brain health?
For over 30 years, Dr. Liisa Galea, one of the world’s leading researchers in women’s brain health and hormones, has been uncovering answers to questions most medical research has overlooked. Although women are more affected by many brain disorders, less than 5% of neuroscience studies even analyze
sex differences - and less than 3% look at female specific factors like pregnancy history or the type of menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) used. This lack of understanding has created real health gaps for women.
In this eye-opening keynote, Dr. Galea will break down what every woman deserves to know.
Menopause is a turning point-not “just aging.”
Ovarian hormones affect every organ system - skin, heart, lungs, bones, and especially the brain. No wonder we experience such a wide range of symptoms when those hormones decline.
Not all estrogens or hormone therapies work the same.
Different hormone formulations - gels, patches, pills, vaginal options -affect the brain differently. Your genes, lifestyle, and personal hormonal history (like pregnancies or birth control use) can shape which therapies work best for you.
Your hormonal history influences how your brain ages.
Dr. Galea’s research shows that our past - pregnancies, contraceptive use, stress load - leaves a “hormonal fingerprint” that impacts how we experience menopause today.
Diversity in menopause experiences = opportunity, not chaos.
There is no single menopause, no single symptom pattern, and no one-size-fits-all treatment. When we understand our unique biology, we can move from “surviving” to thriving in midlife and beyond.
What attendees will walk away with:
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A deeper understanding of how menopause affects the brain and body
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Clarity on different types of MHT and how to navigate choices
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Why some treatments work differently from woman to woman
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How to advocate for your own care using science-backed insights
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Hope -real, evidence-based strategies to age with power, not fear
This is the conversation women have been missing. And there is no one more qualified - or more passionate - than Dr. Liisa Galea to lead it.