Conference addressed a wide range of women's health issues.

Sex in the Big City was the title of the inaugural women's health conference organised by the new NZNO Women's Health Section, Held over three days last November in Auckland, the conference attracted 170 delegates, who were welcomed by our chair Margaret Thomson.

Auckland District Health Board Executive Director of Nursing and Midwifery Taima Campbell opened the conference by highlighting the commonalities between indigenous women and nurses. All were leaders in their own communities. We were entertained by journalist Kerre Woodhams who described her journey from a 16-year-old Catholic school girl to public notoriety.

During the next two days, we heard from a range of speakers, covering such topics as female genital mutilation, cosmetic enhancement, family violence intervention, HTV in heterosexual women and the effectiveness of alternative hormone replacement therapies, The committee decided to stay away from more mainstream women's health areas, choosing instead subjects relevant to women in any clinical setting. The committee was delighted to welcome nurses from mental health services, haematology, primary health and tertiary education, as well as colleagues from social work, clinical psychology and midwifery.

The committee congratulates Susan Rae from Auckland for her winning poster in the Mobile X-ray Services poster competition called "Early pregnancy assessment unit--making miscarriage just a little bit easier". Sue O'Reilly from Christchurch won the Obex open paper competition with her presentation "Dementia is a women's health issue", with the runner up prize going to Jill Lamb from Christchurch for her "In formation pamphlet for women on smoking" While there weren't a large number of entries for these competitions, the calibre was high and all deserved to win.

The conference ended with The Great Debate on the motion that "An elective caesarean section will protect my sex life forever". This provoked much laughter and some graphic descriptions of the effects of childbirth. The committee thanks Ann Yates, Heidi Anderson, Julie Arthur, Yvonne Greenfield, Denys Court and Dereck Sourer for their debating skills and vivid imaginations. The motion was defeated.

Although organising the conference was exhausting, the committee was proud of their achievements. The 5tn Women's Health Conference will be held in Christchurch from November 2-4 2006.