Read: Women’s health in the workplace
Channel 4’s Chief Executive Alex Mahon made clear her frustration at male attendees’ reluctance to engage with a ‘Women’s Health’ training session during London Tech Week last month.
It may be uncomfortable listening for some, but it’s high time that menopause – and women’s health more widely, including menstruation, fertility problems, pregnancy, miscarriage and more – move up the workplace agenda. The time for squeamishness is long gone.
For me, menopause coincided with a long wished for return to work in a job that I loved after a lengthy career break looking after my children. Maybe it was the new challenge, the new friends, the new experiences – and the relief after decades to be rid of the debilitating cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea that are the uncomfortable consequences of many women’s reproductive years – that meant that menopause passed me by almost unnoticed.
Not for me the night sweats, sleepless nights, HRT, brain fog and the multitude of other symptoms that I saw friends working through. What a lucky woman I was, I thought. Ask my long-suffering then boss his opinion, faced with a weeping woman at the drop of a hat on a weekly (at least) basis, and I’m sure he would tell another story. The truth is that I was naïve and it’s only with hindsight that I have really recognised what was happening to me and how it affected me, my colleagues and my work.
In truth I was ignorant about the menopause, and singularly unprepared for it. Friends have suffered lasting and irrevocable damage to their careers and family lives from misunderstanding and mistreatment of symptoms.
Looking back from a safe, post-menopausal distance, I can see now the numerous ways that those years affected me. My confidence and self worth took a knock, my sense of purpose, the disgust I felt with myself at the way that I couldn't lose weight like I used to, or run like I used to, and how I covered up that shame with jokes about my love of bacon sandwiches, and the emotional outbursts for no apparent reason that were a regular feature for a few years, but have now happily passed.
But I got off lightly. I’ve heard numerous stories, and know of friends, who self-medicate with alcohol, drugs, food and damaging behaviours in an attempt to hide their struggle and ease the bridge from their reproductive years to middle age and beyond. It’s tragic, because with understanding, medical help and counselling if needed, and the support of employers and colleagues, women can go on to contribute in a multitude of ways to the success of their organisations and their wider communities for many years post menopause. We are survivors, we are resilient, and there is a lot of wisdom and experience that we can share with colleagues of all ages because of the process we’ve lived through. I’m certainly not the same woman that I was fifteen years ago, but in many ways I’m a better one.
Some of the most forward thinking organisations across the UK are now realising the importance of supporting colleagues through the physical and mental health impacts of womens’ health issues, including our own Purpose Coalition members, Teleperformance, Adecco Group, Pennon Group, Greene King, Travelodge, Virgin Money, Centrica, Channel 4, the Co-operative Group, Sodexo and others. They are ahead of the game, and are reaping the many advantages of a supported and fulfilled workforce as a result. Others need to catch up and learn from their best practice.
Periods, hormones, PMT, pregnancy loss, fertility issues – traditionally rarely spoken about beyond immediate family, often borne by women alone and in many cases swept under the carpet and left there. No more. With businesses across the UK scrabbling for staff, and with the wisdom and talent that is present in women of all ages, it’s time to take a deep breath, open closed minds, and start the conversation.
