The Red Hot Mamas is an organization founded in 1991 by Karen Giblin, as a means of helping provide medical care and information to women undergoing menopause. The idea quickly spread, and the company now operates through many hospitals, by offering hospitals opportunities to initiate Red Hot Mamas programs that are usually offered free to local patients and community members who would like to understand what’s occurring as they approach or undergo menopause. Red Hot Mamas should not be confused with a clothing company operating under the same name that sells “cool” clothing designed to help women better cope with hot flashes.
In addition to providing educational resources, like PowerPoint presentations, seminars, and information on how menopause may be approached medically, the Red Hot Mamas programs when run by hospitals also offer opportunities for women to reach out in open social forums to others undergoing similar things. Some hospital programs have walking or dancing classes, which emphasize maintaining physical fitness but doing so in a relaxed way. The website for the organization also contains a wealth of information for anyone seeking out the latest on menopause, and it features message boards where women across the country can communicate with each other about symptoms, or simply the difficulties of undergoing this major life change.
Giblin’s plan in creating her fledgling organization was to try to provide support and information, and health care to the number of women in her Connecticut community who were pre-menopausal or menopausal. As the organization grew, it aimed to be the number one information source for providing the best care and information to women, recognizing that it would be easier to have information collected, parsed and disseminated through a single source. Currently, there are over 80 hospitals that have Red Hot Mamas programs to help women understand the variety of physical and emotional changes and symptoms that come with menopause.
Generally the program works by selling a set of information to various caregiving facilities, like hospitals. Hospitals then implement the program as created by the overhead company and offer the program at no to low cost to community members. The organization that administers the program is called Prime Plus, Inc, and it is not a nonprofit company. With that in mind, some women who don’t favor using medication to deal with menopause symptoms may find the program leans slightly toward a pharmaceutical approach. This largely depends upon the manner in which the program is presented, which does emphasize a wide variety of choices in managing changes in health, emotional status, and behavior that many accompany menopause.
The Red Hot Mamas program is praised by many women who have participated in the programs, and a number of prominent women’s magazines have featured articles on the company’s commitment to collecting research on menopause and making this available on their website and to program participants. For many women, menopause is challenging, and so much conflicting information exists regarding it, that having a single information source is exceptionally welcome. Hospitals or clinics interested in the program can access more information via the Red Hot Mamas site, and individuals interested in the program can find out where programs may be operating near them.
