The Merry Menopause

Menstruality and the menopause both play an integral role in a woman's mental and physical health. Raising awareness and offering support regarding both of the above will make a huge impact to the performance, attendance and retention of your female workforce. A woman’s menstrual cycle is powerful. We are led to believe that it is a painful and unwanted inconvenience. It is the total opposite. By understanding the real truth of her cycle and the information it contains, a woman can plan her life and her work around the natural ebbs and flows of her hormones. How does that help your organisation? Imagine if you could empower your employees to know the best time of the month to deliver a big presentation? Give or receive an appraisal? Plan an important client visit? Make big financial decisions? Know which days would be better spent office-based catching up on administration? All this and more is contained in the miracle that is the menstrual cycle. With the right knowledge it’s easy to harness and, with the support of colleagues and the organisation, easy to implement. The Menopause starts before a woman’s periods stop and for many symptoms of the perimenopause start in their early 40s and peak around 50. Women over 50 are the fastest-growing group in the UK workforce and research has shown that menopausal symptoms can have a significant impact on workplace attendance and performance. Surveys tell us that approximately one in four women going through menopause consider resigning. Menopausal symptoms can lead to women leaving their jobs early, or not putting themselves up for promotion. The menopause is not a choice, it’s natural and every woman, if she lives long enough, will go through it. I want to encourage women to work with their menopause, to accept it and embrace it, it’s part of who they are and it won’t go away. A key way to achieve this is by knowing that they are supported at work.