How might it feel?
The reason I mention this is that I am now running my ‘Your Menopause Toolkit’ packages, for business’. I’m cracking the corporate world folks, and to do this well I need to understand what It might be like for a woman going through symptoms of peri-post menopause in that environment.
Picture it: sitting at her desk in a room mostly full of men, with a lot of pressure to keep up her phenomenal previous record, maybe with the weight of a big, endless, difficult pile of things to achieve- or try to each day. And other, sometimes tricky people to organise and remain patient with.
Carrying the load.
God forbid she should experience a hot flush which would make some of her co-workers feel uncomfortable at best or terrifyingly, bully her at worst. Or she looses her cool and snaps at someone. She might get the rug pulled out from under her with narcoleptic levels of fatigue. And because this office has probably been physically and mentally designed around the average males needs, she just has to fit in and keep quiet to survive. Realistically, how long can that go on?
The statistics in the Government paper - UK Parliament report on Menopause and the Workplace are so depressing, women are leaving their jobs in droves. Women who know so much, have all the talent and experience, feel that it is impossible to stay in their roles unsupported. Discrimination is also a massive problem, young women, and the male workforce often know nothing about the difficulties of the menopause transition, have no empathy, and let us not forget the huge problem of ageism.
I am talking about the corporate, office based world here, but my heart goes out to every woman working (paid or otherwise) during the menopause transition, to the self employed cleaner, full time parent, nurse, motor mechanic- you name it. Hot flushes are a giant pain. The shame around symptoms needs to end, along with discrimination and a lack of empowering knowledge.
It is a no brainer for companies to equip their workforce with an in-depth knowledge of what to expect in peri-post menopause and a whole heap of ways for women to help themselves through this time. Just talking about what may happen, and policies to put in place is not enough - it’s great but not the whole story. Women need to be served with real help and research based tools and advice.
some of what I cover in my four live ‘Your Menopause Toolkit’ webinars:
Menopause and hormones involved
Symptom checker
Anxiety and stress in menopause
Nutrition and supplements for menopause
Future proofing, movement that helps you, libido and how to get good sleep