Menopause Awareness Month…
As I like to say, ‘wonky hormones aren’t the preserve of the teenager’ and while many women may experience hormonal changes as a result of pregnancy, EVERY woman goes through the menopause at some point. For many, this is a period of rethinking life, reassessing legacy and impact, and a new lease of life. A golden age. Many women change career at this time, bringing their wisdom in their field of work to bear in a different way, others start completely new walks of life altogether, and menopause has implications for all leaders, both those going through the menopause themselves, and those leading others at this time of change. The Chinese believe that woman age in cycles of 7 and the mean age of menopause was in the seventh cycle between the ages of 49-56. They think of it as our ‘second spring’. This is a wonderful way of explaining the mental and physiological processes that occur during menopause.
For some women, the ‘second spring’ is a confusing time of change which they know little about, find confidence-depleting and energy-sapping. About 25% of women going through the perimenopause* and menopause think of leaving the workplace and 10% actually do, taking their valuable wisdom and experience with them. This is because the symptoms they experience during the perimenopause tend to vary as hormones fluctuate and can be debilitating in intensity and frequency. Often women are unaware of the connection between the seemingly random things that may be happening in their bodies, and are simply trying to manage the individual symptoms, and find they cannot cope sufficiently, so leave the workplace. Combined with the fact that menopause was not taught in schools in the past, and so women have typically not had any education about the perimenopause for example, each woman has a unique ‘cocktail’ of over 40 symptoms with differing levels of impact and intensity. Not all of the symptoms are immediately obvious ‘indicators’, and so recognising the connectedness can take time. That is why something like the Newson Clinic’s Balance App – a menopause symptom tracker – is so valuable in helping women and GPs to see the patterns and connections.
Raising awareness of the symptoms and impacts can help women manage them most effectively in order that we can make the most of this season of change. Raising awareness can help our team-mates, partners, families and communities understand and support us better, so we can fly high with their support at this time, and truly embrace the second spring and the wisdom and insight it brings, to better our workplaces and communities.
* Perimenopause - the period preceding the menopause, on average 4-5 years or longer before the menopause is reached, but often much longer
Reflections:
Leading the way on menopause awareness - what one thing can you & your workplace do to lead the conversation during ‘Menopause Awareness Month’?
Who do you know that might benefit from or appreciate a supportive conversation about the menopause? Silence around the topic prevents development – who might you learn more from?
What else can you do to raise your awareness of the impact of menopause and how we can best support ourselves during this period of change?