Meet the UnPause Founding Posse
Meet the UnPause Founding Posse
Meet the UnPause Founding Posse
UnPause emerged from the real-world experiences and frustrations of the founding posse. We came together and united under a simple mantra - we want women’s voices heard. We are committed to supporting women move forward with purpose and vitality. To make honest and open conversation about menopause normal.
UnPause emerged from the real-world experiences and frustrations of the founding posse. We came together and united under a simple mantra - we want women’s voices heard. We are committed to supporting women move forward with purpose and vitality. To make honest and open conversation about menopause normal.
UnPause emerged from the real-world experiences and frustrations of the founding posse. We came together and united under a simple mantra - we want women’s voices heard. We are committed to supporting women move forward with purpose and vitality. To make honest and open conversation about menopause normal.
We are committed to ending the gaslighting, the medical misogyny and the struggle to find good menopause doctors.
We are committed to ending the gaslighting, the medical misogyny and the struggle to find good menopause doctors.
We are committed to ending the gaslighting, the medical misogyny and the struggle to find good menopause doctors.
To UnFog the menopausal confusion.
To UnFog the menopausal confusion.
To UnFog the menopausal confusion.
To UnMute the menopause taboos.
To UnMute the menopause taboos.
To UnMute the menopause taboos.
To UnPause the paralysis and withdrawal that menopause can cause.
To UnPause the paralysis and withdrawal that menopause can cause.
To UnPause the paralysis and withdrawal that menopause can cause.
Welcome to UnPause.
Welcome to UnPause.
Welcome to UnPause.
Mary Coustas
Co-Founder
Actor, Writer, late-in-life mum, taboo-tackler, truth-teller, hope-giver.
I hit menopause at the same time I became a mother. Beautiful, yes — but also brutal. My body was running on empty while my career, child and life all demanded more. I realised that as informed as I was on many women’s issues, on this I was a ‘Menopause Ignoramus’. Maybe because I missed perimenopause as throughout my 40’s I was busy doing 23 IVF’s. I could never have imagined anything more excruciating than that. But I was wrong.
Menopause didn’t just hit me. It king hit me. And like so many other women, I didn’t know what was happening to me. I thought it was grief. I’d been there many times before and I figured it was back again. Except this time with a vengeance. The heaviness felt full-bodied. Like a building parked on my chest. And if that wasn’t enough, I felt like I was dragging a Mack truck with me everywhere I went. Still I was high-functioning, against all logic and odds. Then the pandemic hit and it felt like the entire world was going through menopause.
Finally without any help from the many doctors I had seen, I came to my own unqualified conclusion that it had to be menopause. Throughout that period I wrote my book MARYPAUSE to try and make sense of it all. I realised that if I struggled to that degree, then so must many others. That’s when I decided that I wanted to do more than just write about it — I wanted to fix it. Driven by my own personal needs I searched for answers. That search led me to discovering my founder partners, who like me had struggled unnecessarily and lost a lot along the way.
And UnPause was born. A place where we can stop the confusion, start talking, and help women get the real care they desperately need and deserve.
Xanthi Kouvatas
Co-Founder
Ex-corporate exec, business owner, mum and step-mum, elder-care juggler, information seeker.
My young daughter diagnosed me with perimenopause with a simple, disarming question “mummy why are you angry at life?”. She was right - I was angry! My hormones have been my frenemies since my teenage years, frequently wreaking havoc with the 3Ps of pimples, periods and pregnancy. This frequent hormonal mayhem – plus the need to have my thyroid removed in my mid-30s - I thought made me somewhat hormone-aware. But I was wrong. While gearing up to live my second-act with ambitious, liberated gusto, my hormones abandoned me.
The timing of peri-menopause is exquisitely diabolical. Right as we are hitting our stride in terms of wisdom, experience and confidence, we start forgetting, aching and raging. As John Lennon sang “Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans”. My hormones were causing mayhem with my plans! UnPause is the menopause helping hand I needed. I built it as I am passionate about giving women the knowledge, support, time-saving hacks and high care-factor they need to live the second act they want.
Dr. Natasha Andreadis
Medical Advisor
Medical Doctor, Podcaster, Community Builder.
Medicine and healing were my calling. After completing training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, I underwent further subspecialty training in reproductive medicine and infertility (CREI). During this hard slog, I had the option of working a regular surgical list Monday mornings to further my skills in laparoscopic surgery or attend a menopause clinic. I chose menopause, mainly because after a full decade of medical training, I felt I still had very little knowledge and confidence in managing this phase in a woman’s life.
Fast forward 15 years and menopause is a big feature of my private practice. It is also one of the most satisfying aspects of my work as a doctor, as I can see that when women are heard and cared for during the menopause transition, their lives change for the better. Not only their lives, but their partners’, children’s, friends’ and probably even their pets’ lives! Menopause management has a real time ripple effect and I’m here to play a positive role in the changing of the tides for all my sisters out there. UnPause is here as a trusted guide for me and it’s here for you too. Let’s do this together!
Kim Zacharia
Registered Nurse
Registered nurse, advocate, mum, founder myzac - always optimistic!
I see menopause as an opportunity for growth. Not a phase to endure. Having searched for the right care and frustrated with being unable to find it, I made it my mission to help others find what I had been looking for.
With UnPause I can fulfill my passion to make things easier for you with concierge-style menopause care. To have others follow through for you. To be in the hands of doctors who know what is happening to you. To approach menopause with information not resignation.
I believe menopause is a doorway to empowerment. Women at this stage often have clarity about who they are, what relationships nourish them and which activities bring joy. I am passionate about creating a menopause experience that celebrates freedom rather than loss. To fellow UnPause Posse members I like to say that this natural transition can become a catalyst for an authentic, joyful, wisdom-filled chapter of life.
Dr. Dalia Ubied
Medical Doctor, General Practitioner, Cosmetic Physician, Women’s Health Advocate.
Medicine and women’s health have always been at the heart of my career. I am a Fellow of both the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and Australasian College of Cosmetic Surgery and Medicine (ACCSM).
Over the years, I realised that many of my patients’ deepest struggles weren’t just physical but tied to the hormonal and emotional transitions of midlife. Too often, women came to me feeling unheard or dismissed in their perimenopause and menopause journey. This inspired me to focus on menopause medicine, hormone management and integrative approaches that combine evidence-based care with practical lifestyle solutions.
I’m proud to contribute to UnPause as a clinical advisor and menopause practitioner. My passion is making sure women have access to personalised, safe and supportive care—care that empowers them to understand their bodies, regain confidence and thrive through midlife and beyond. It's also a personal mission to collaborate with other doctors to build a stronger framework for menopause education and care across Australia.
Tanja Perl
Posse Experience Manager
Teenage kids, mid-menopause, makes things happen, full steam ahead.
I was working full time, parenting teens, navigating my marriage breaking down and quietly falling apart inside. Not sleeping with elevated bad cholesterol levels, I was told to ‘download a mindfulness app’ and ‘eat healthy and exercise more’.
It was so easy to point at my obvious stress levels, but you’d expect a GP given my age to consider potentially reduced estrogen levels as a contributing factor, no matter how much I exercised or ate healthily.
Medically gaslit over and over – it took 3 years and 5 GP’s to find the right one that didn’t point the finger at everything but my depleted hormone levels.
That’s what I now deliver to our UnPause patients — the kind of meticulous support I craved when everything hit at once. We don’t just care. We get it. And we’ve got your back.
Mary Coustas
Co-Founder
Actor, Writer, late-in-life mum, taboo-tackler, truth-teller, hope-giver.
I hit menopause at the same time I became a mother. Beautiful, yes — but also brutal. My body was running on empty while my career, child and life all demanded more. I realised that as informed as I was on many women’s issues, on this I was a ‘Menopause Ignoramus’. Maybe because I missed perimenopause as throughout my 40’s I was busy doing 23 IVF’s. I could never have imagined anything more excruciating than that. But I was wrong.
Menopause didn’t just hit me. It king hit me. And like so many other women, I didn’t know what was happening to me. I thought it was grief. I’d been there many times before and I figured it was back again. Except this time with a vengeance. The heaviness felt full-bodied. Like a building parked on my chest. And if that wasn’t enough, I felt like I was dragging a Mack truck with me everywhere I went. Still I was high-functioning, against all logic and odds. Then the pandemic hit and it felt like the entire world was going through menopause.
Finally without any help from the many doctors I had seen, I came to my own unqualified conclusion that it had to be menopause. Throughout that period I wrote my book MARYPAUSE to try and make sense of it all. I realised that if I struggled to that degree, then so must many others. That’s when I decided that I wanted to do more than just write about it — I wanted to fix it. Driven by my own personal needs I searched for answers. That search led me to discovering my founder partners, who like me had struggled unnecessarily and lost a lot along the way.
And UnPause was born. A place where we can stop the confusion, start talking, and help women get the real care they desperately need and deserve.
Xanthi Kouvatas
Co-Founder
Ex-corporate exec, business owner, mum and step-mum, elder-care juggler, information seeker.
My young daughter diagnosed me with perimenopause with a simple, disarming question “mummy why are you angry at life?”. She was right - I was angry! My hormones have been my frenemies since my teenage years, frequently wreaking havoc with the 3Ps of pimples, periods and pregnancy. This frequent hormonal mayhem – plus the need to have my thyroid removed in my mid-30s - I thought made me somewhat hormone-aware. But I was wrong. While gearing up to live my second-act with ambitious, liberated gusto, my hormones abandoned me.
The timing of peri-menopause is exquisitely diabolical. Right as we are hitting our stride in terms of wisdom, experience and confidence, we start forgetting, aching and raging. As John Lennon sang “Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans”. My hormones were causing mayhem with my plans! UnPause is the menopause helping hand I needed. I built it as I am passionate about giving women the knowledge, support, time-saving hacks and high care-factor they need to live the second act they want.
Dr. Natasha Andreadis
Medical Advisor
Medical Doctor, Podcaster, Community Builder.
Medicine and healing were my calling. After completing training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, I underwent further subspecialty training in reproductive medicine and infertility (CREI). During this hard slog, I had the option of working a regular surgical list Monday mornings to further my skills in laparoscopic surgery or attend a menopause clinic. I chose menopause, mainly because after a full decade of medical training, I felt I still had very little knowledge and confidence in managing this phase in a woman’s life.
Fast forward 15 years and menopause is a big feature of my private practice. It is also one of the most satisfying aspects of my work as a doctor, as I can see that when women are heard and cared for during the menopause transition, their lives change for the better. Not only their lives, but their partners’, children’s, friends’ and probably even their pets’ lives! Menopause management has a real time ripple effect and I’m here to play a positive role in the changing of the tides for all my sisters out there. UnPause is here as a trusted guide for me and it’s here for you too. Let’s do this together!
Kim Zacharia
Registered Nurse
Registered nurse, advocate, mum, founder myzac - always optimistic!
I see menopause as an opportunity for growth. Not a phase to endure. Having searched for the right care and frustrated with being unable to find it, I made it my mission to help others find what I had been looking for.
With UnPause I can fulfill my passion to make things easier for you with concierge-style menopause care. To have others follow through for you. To be in the hands of doctors who know what is happening to you. To approach menopause with information not resignation.
I believe menopause is a doorway to empowerment. Women at this stage often have clarity about who they are, what relationships nourish them and which activities bring joy. I am passionate about creating a menopause experience that celebrates freedom rather than loss. To fellow UnPause Posse members I like to say that this natural transition can become a catalyst for an authentic, joyful, wisdom-filled chapter of life.
Dr. Dalia Ubied
Medical Doctor, General Practitioner, Cosmetic Physician, Women’s Health Advocate.
Medicine and women’s health have always been at the heart of my career. I am a Fellow of both the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and Australasian College of Cosmetic Surgery and Medicine (ACCSM).
Over the years, I realised that many of my patients’ deepest struggles weren’t just physical but tied to the hormonal and emotional transitions of midlife. Too often, women came to me feeling unheard or dismissed in their perimenopause and menopause journey. This inspired me to focus on menopause medicine, hormone management and integrative approaches that combine evidence-based care with practical lifestyle solutions.
I’m proud to contribute to UnPause as a clinical advisor and menopause practitioner. My passion is making sure women have access to personalised, safe and supportive care—care that empowers them to understand their bodies, regain confidence and thrive through midlife and beyond. It's also a personal mission to collaborate with other doctors to build a stronger framework for menopause education and care across Australia.
Tanja Perl
Posse Experience Manager
Teenage kids, mid-menopause, makes things happen, full steam ahead.
I was working full time, parenting teens, navigating my marriage breaking down and quietly falling apart inside. Not sleeping with elevated bad cholesterol levels, I was told to ‘download a mindfulness app’ and ‘eat healthy and exercise more’.
It was so easy to point at my obvious stress levels, but you’d expect a GP given my age to consider potentially reduced estrogen levels as a contributing factor, no matter how much I exercised or ate healthily.
Medically gaslit over and over – it took 3 years and 5 GP’s to find the right one that didn’t point the finger at everything but my depleted hormone levels.
That’s what I now deliver to our UnPause patients — the kind of meticulous support I craved when everything hit at once. We don’t just care. We get it. And we’ve got your back.
Mary Coustas
Co-Founder
Actor, Writer, late-in-life mum, taboo-tackler, truth-teller, hope-giver.
I hit menopause at the same time I became a mother. Beautiful, yes — but also brutal. My body was running on empty while my career, child and life all demanded more. I realised that as informed as I was on many women’s issues, on this I was a ‘Menopause Ignoramus’. Maybe because I missed perimenopause as throughout my 40’s I was busy doing 23 IVF’s. I could never have imagined anything more excruciating than that. But I was wrong.
Menopause didn’t just hit me. It king hit me. And like so many other women, I didn’t know what was happening to me. I thought it was grief. I’d been there many times before and I figured it was back again. Except this time with a vengeance. The heaviness felt full-bodied. Like a building parked on my chest. And if that wasn’t enough, I felt like I was dragging a Mack truck with me everywhere I went. Still I was high-functioning, against all logic and odds. Then the pandemic hit and it felt like the entire world was going through menopause.
Finally without any help from the many doctors I had seen, I came to my own unqualified conclusion that it had to be menopause. Throughout that period I wrote my book MARYPAUSE to try and make sense of it all. I realised that if I struggled to that degree, then so must many others. That’s when I decided that I wanted to do more than just write about it — I wanted to fix it. Driven by my own personal needs I searched for answers. That search led me to discovering my founder partners, who like me had struggled unnecessarily and lost a lot along the way.
And UnPause was born. A place where we can stop the confusion, start talking, and help women get the real care they desperately need and deserve.
Xanthi Kouvatas
Co-Founder
Ex-corporate exec, business owner, mum and step-mum, elder-care juggler, information seeker.
My young daughter diagnosed me with perimenopause with a simple, disarming question “mummy why are you angry at life?”. She was right - I was angry! My hormones have been my frenemies since my teenage years, frequently wreaking havoc with the 3Ps of pimples, periods and pregnancy. This frequent hormonal mayhem – plus the need to have my thyroid removed in my mid-30s - I thought made me somewhat hormone-aware. But I was wrong. While gearing up to live my second-act with ambitious, liberated gusto, my hormones abandoned me.
The timing of peri-menopause is exquisitely diabolical. Right as we are hitting our stride in terms of wisdom, experience and confidence, we start forgetting, aching and raging. As John Lennon sang “Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans”. My hormones were causing mayhem with my plans! UnPause is the menopause helping hand I needed. I built it as I am passionate about giving women the knowledge, support, time-saving hacks and high care-factor they need to live the second act they want.
Dr. Natasha Andreadis
Medical Advisor
Medical Doctor, Podcaster, Community Builder.
Medicine and healing were my calling. After completing training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, I underwent further subspecialty training in reproductive medicine and infertility (CREI). During this hard slog, I had the option of working a regular surgical list Monday mornings to further my skills in laparoscopic surgery or attend a menopause clinic. I chose menopause, mainly because after a full decade of medical training, I felt I still had very little knowledge and confidence in managing this phase in a woman’s life.
Fast forward 15 years and menopause is a big feature of my private practice. It is also one of the most satisfying aspects of my work as a doctor, as I can see that when women are heard and cared for during the menopause transition, their lives change for the better. Not only their lives, but their partners’, children’s, friends’ and probably even their pets’ lives! Menopause management has a real time ripple effect and I’m here to play a positive role in the changing of the tides for all my sisters out there. UnPause is here as a trusted guide for me and it’s here for you too. Let’s do this together!
Kim Zacharia
Registered Nurse
Registered nurse, advocate, mum, founder myzac - always optimistic!
I see menopause as an opportunity for growth. Not a phase to endure. Having searched for the right care and frustrated with being unable to find it, I made it my mission to help others find what I had been looking for.
With UnPause I can fulfill my passion to make things easier for you with concierge-style menopause care. To have others follow through for you. To be in the hands of doctors who know what is happening to you. To approach menopause with information not resignation.
I believe menopause is a doorway to empowerment. Women at this stage often have clarity about who they are, what relationships nourish them and which activities bring joy. I am passionate about creating a menopause experience that celebrates freedom rather than loss. To fellow UnPause Posse members I like to say that this natural transition can become a catalyst for an authentic, joyful, wisdom-filled chapter of life.
Dr. Dalia Ubied
Medical Doctor, General Practitioner, Cosmetic Physician, Women’s Health Advocate.
Medicine and women’s health have always been at the heart of my career. I am a Fellow of both the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and Australasian College of Cosmetic Surgery and Medicine (ACCSM).
Over the years, I realised that many of my patients’ deepest struggles weren’t just physical but tied to the hormonal and emotional transitions of midlife. Too often, women came to me feeling unheard or dismissed in their perimenopause and menopause journey. This inspired me to focus on menopause medicine, hormone management and integrative approaches that combine evidence-based care with practical lifestyle solutions.
I’m proud to contribute to UnPause as a clinical advisor and menopause practitioner. My passion is making sure women have access to personalised, safe and supportive care—care that empowers them to understand their bodies, regain confidence and thrive through midlife and beyond. It's also a personal mission to collaborate with other doctors to build a stronger framework for menopause education and care across Australia.
Tanja Perl
Posse Experience Manager
Teenage kids, mid-menopause, makes things happen, full steam ahead.
I was working full time, parenting teens, navigating my marriage breaking down and quietly falling apart inside. Not sleeping with elevated bad cholesterol levels, I was told to ‘download a mindfulness app’ and ‘eat healthy and exercise more’.
It was so easy to point at my obvious stress levels, but you’d expect a GP given my age to consider potentially reduced estrogen levels as a contributing factor, no matter how much I exercised or ate healthily.
Medically gaslit over and over – it took 3 years and 5 GP’s to find the right one that didn’t point the finger at everything but my depleted hormone levels.
That’s what I now deliver to our UnPause patients — the kind of meticulous support I craved when everything hit at once. We don’t just care. We get it. And we’ve got your back.
© 2025 Unpause Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.
Health Disclaimer: This site shares general health information only. It’s not a substitute for personalised medical advice. Always speak with your healthcare provider. In an emergency call 000 ( in Australia ).
© 2025 Unpause Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.
Health Disclaimer: This site shares general health information only. It’s not a substitute for personalised medical advice. Always speak with your healthcare provider. In an emergency call 000 ( in Australia ).
© 2025 Unpause Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.
Health Disclaimer: This site shares general health information only. It’s not a substitute for personalised medical advice. Always speak with your healthcare provider. In an emergency call 000 ( in Australia ).