Jennifer Chan de Avila

Dr. Jennifer Chan de Avila is a political scientist, menopause doula, and researcher specializing in gender, intersectionality, and body politics. She holds a PhD from Freie Universität Berlin and has conducted postdoctoral research on diversity in organizations. After being diagnosed with Premature Ovarian Insufficiency (POI) in her late 30s, she turned her personal experience into a source of embodied knowledge and professional transformation. This led her to train as a certified menopause doula and to found La Menodoula, a project that bridges research, advocacy, and holistic support.

Jennifer was a research associate in the MenoSupport project at HTW Berlin, where she co-developed the MenoMATRIX and MenoMAPP frameworks to support menopause-inclusive workplace health strategies. She is the co-author of Wechseljahre am Arbeitsplatz: Handlungskonzept für ein innovatives betriebliches Gesundheitsmanagement (“Menopause at Work: An Action Framework for Innovative Workplace Health Management”, Transcript, 2025), and serves as Germany’s expert in the international ISO 45010 working group on menstruation, menstrual health, and menopause. Her work is grounded in a feminist, embodied approach that understands menopause as a multidimensional and transformative life stage.