The more employers can do to educate women about the symptoms and timing of menopause, the more likely your valued female employees will successfully transition into the next phase of their life, argues Janet O’Neill
The theme for this year’s World Menopause Day later this week (Friday 18 October) is hormone replacement therapy (HRT). But, in discussing HRT, it’s important for employers to avoid presenting it as a magic bullet for ‘curing’ menopause.
On the one hand, menopause is a condition with symptoms, ranging from brain fog and fatigue to hot flushes, brought about by a drop in hormones. It would therefore appear to make sense that it can be ‘cured’ with HRT, which has had proven benefits for many.
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However, it’s not as simple as this. Not only can many women not take it due to hereditary cancer risks and other conditions, but HRT doesn’t work for everyone. Not least because menopause isn’t a disorder to be treated, but rather a transition to be supported.
Also, much as poster girls for HRT, such as Davina McColl, have praised the benefits of HRT, they have also benefited greatly from making lifestyle changes, such as exercising, eating more healthily and drinking less alcohol, that are critical to managing menopause.
In talking to women about HRT, it’s therefore vital that employers don’t over-medicalise it or expect women to ‘recover’ from it, but instead think about all the things they can do to support women to make the changes needed to remain healthy and in work.
Support positive lifestyle changes
Exercise can help to improve sleep patterns, maintain a healthy weight and boost heart health, all of which can also become negatively impacted by menopause. However, it can be difficult for women with child and eldercare responsibilities to fit in exercise outside of work, so encouraging them to attend a lunchtime or late morning session can be hugely beneficial.
Managers should also encourage employees to take regular fresh air or movement breaks and women going through menopause to avoid ‘boom and bust’ working patterns. While they might have been able to cope with this before, better pacing themselves and knowing when to say no is essential to managing menopause symptoms such as fatigue and brain fog.
It can also be helpful to provide workshops and webinars on managing menopause symptoms. For example, ways of tackling feelings of reduced self-esteem, eating for energy and avoiding triggers for night sweats, such as alcohol, caffeine and smoking.
Put in place reasonable adjustments
An occupational health provider can work with both the manager and employee to understand how the individual’s symptoms are affecting them at work
For more than a quarter of women who say menopause symptoms have had a negative impact on them at work, it’s important for employers to consider reasonable adjustments. These can range from a reduction in workload to reduce mental health issues such as anxiety, to encouraging the use of memory aids to mitigate brain fog.
Something as simple as allowing someone experiencing problems sleeping to work more flexibly or start work a bit later can also make a huge difference to their ability to stay in work. As can allowing someone experiencing hot flushes to use a desk fan or wear a cotton uniform to keep these manageable.
An occupational health provider can work with both the manager and employee to understand how the individual’s symptoms are affecting them at work. From there, they can suggest reasonable adjustments that work for both the business and employee. The idea is that it’s far better to keep someone in work at 80% of their usual capacity for a time than lose them altogether.
Carry out pre-emptive workforce planning
Half the population will go through menopause, so as the workforce ages, it’s becoming increasingly important to anticipate the impact of menopause on the workforce. Otherwise, if everyone in a mostly female department goes through menopause at the same time, it could become unreasonable to allow all of them to work in a reduced capacity.
Critical to avoiding this is carrying out workforce planning to pre-empt which other departments could take people on a reduced capacity for a time and putting in place measures to bring women off reasonable adjustments once they’ve gone through menopause or symptoms improve.
At the same time, this workforce planning could look at the potential impact of other prevalent conditions, such as cancer or depression, and the effectiveness of the wellbeing plans in place for supporting everyone affected by a health condition to stay in work. Not least because most people want to remain productive and in work if supported to do this.
Help women recognise the onset of menopause
Perhaps one of the biggest challenges associated with supporting women through menopause is helping them to recognise when they’re going through it. Although menopause is clearly defined as having occurred when a woman hasn’t had a period for 12 months, symptoms can start ten to fifteen years before this.
On average, UK women reach menopause at age 51, which means women in their late 30s and early 40s can start to experience symptoms such as fatigue, memory loss and anxiety, without understanding what’s happening to them.
Many mistakenly assume they just can’t cope with the pressures they’re under. This causes one in ten women to quit their job and puts women at more risk of low self-esteem and suicide than at any other time in their lives.
With the psychological symptoms of menopause often being the most crippling, we also see a lot of women incorrectly referred to our occupational health services for mental health issues. Although we’re rapidly able to provide them with the menopause support and understanding needed, one in ten women without access to occupational health will have to attend six to 10 appointments to get a diagnosis from their GP.
All of this means that the more employers can do to educate women about the symptoms and timing of menopause, the more likely they are to get the support needed to successfully transition into the next phase of their life. A clear menopause policy, explaining what the menopause is, how to open up about it and what support is in place to help.
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