Lockdown measures have had a significant impact on women experiencing the menopause, but very few have spoken to their employer about their symptoms.
According to a survey of 2,000 people, seven in 10 women over the age of 40 said England’s second lockdown had increased anxiety among those who are menopausal.
Menopause
Supporting employees through menopause remotely
Swathes of women taking long-term leave for female health symptoms
Some 95% had never spoken to the employer about what they were experiencing and 86% had not raised the issue with their GP.
Some 73% of 45 to 54-year-old women said menopause symptoms – which can include chronic insomnia, night sweats, anxiety and racing thoughts – had affected their sleep recently, with 32% of over-40s getting only an average of six hours of sleep a night and one in 10 over-55s waking up at least five times a night, the OnePoll survey commissioned by wellness brand CBII found.
This is despite the NHS recommending that adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep per night.
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
“Now menopausal women are caught having to juggle lack of sleep and other menopause symptoms with working from home, home-schooling, the stress of having children at university and not being able to see elderly parents and relatives, as well as all the general concern around coronavirus,” said menopause positivity campaigner Elizabeth Carr-Ellis. “It’s a mental health catastrophe waiting to happen.”
Phoebe White, marketing manager at CBII, added: “These are tough times for all of us. But for menopausal women, it appears sleep issues have a follow-on impact to their mental health as well as their general health.”
2 comments
Sadly, these are all issues we see at Over The Bloody Moon with our perimenopause community. It’s so important to get support both in and out of the workplace. We are proud to help individuals and corporates with workshops, programmes and a digital self-care toolkit. We’d love to hear from you.
Good article at least menopause is being written about. Lots of women feel hopeless especially those on low incomes and alone. I don’t understand why the government don’t take this seriously, I can’t take hrt because of a health condition but used to be able to get get free acupuncture from NHS that really helped so much. I’ve walked out of several jobs because of discrimination now am scared to ever go to work again and I have no pention saved. The inequality is very bad and needs to be resolved.
Comments are closed.