Lucinda Pincott, menopause awareness advocate, spoke at the Diversity and Inclusion Finance Forum (DIFF) Leadership event on 18 March to discuss the impact of the biological event on women and those around them.
She suggested that workplaces should adopt a menopause policy which implements adjusted work practices, and appoint a menopause champion so women have somewhere to go for advice.
Pincott said: “Working for and being part of an organisation where you have a menopause policy, and everybody is aware of it at leadership level is vital. It’s no good having a piece of paper on the shelf. It needs to be something that everybody is trained in and knows.”
What is the menopause?
The menopause is the day when a woman has not had a period for 12 months. The average age for this to happen is 51. However, some women will experience perimenopausal symptoms before this happens, which can start 10 to 15 years prior.
There are 33 different categories of perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms which are broadly split into the psychological and physical effects.
Psychological symptoms can include brain fog, panic attacks, mood swings and rage, depression, memory problems, concentration loss, the inability to hear and word blindness which is where someone is unable to recognise and understand the words they see.
Physical symptoms include insomnia – which can last four to six years – poor sleep quality, a decline in body and muscle health, heart palpitations, migraines and headaches as well as irregular periods.
Pincott said: “It’s a fairly unpredictable and very hard to manage. And for people who don’t struggle it can be quite hard to understand the sorts of things that others are going through.”
“For the vast majority of women it creeps up gently. You’re a little bit tired, there may be a little bit of weight gain. Women will just put it aside and think they’re not looking after themselves, or they’re not eating properly.
“They will go to the gym maybe and this can go on from month to month and then suddenly it’s year to year,” she added.
Pincott said alongside treatments like hormone replacement therapy (HRT), alternatives such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), exercise and changing diet could relieve symptoms.
However, she noted that these treatments “involve work”, making it important for employers to be aware that flexibility may be needed for employees going through perimenopause and menopause.
Pincott added: “They are time consuming. They take life management, they take dedication, and they take information. And with these other treatments an adaptive work situation is really important to helping a woman get through and manage her symptoms.
“You can’t just skive off because you have to go for a walk every lunchtime even though you may have a meeting. It involves planning and it involves people being behind you and accepting that you need to make these changes.”
Pincott also said to be aware of the fact that many employees will not let others know if they experience symptoms, so having a culture of understanding was imperative.
She said: “They will never come to work and say ‘I’m struggling’; they will carry on regardless.
“A little bit of awareness for everybody means that people can be more empathetic and less judgmental and less dismissive of somebody who is off sick three days a month and try to do what they can to help them.”
Cultural differences
The session ended with a question and answer portion, where Pincott discussed cultural attitudes towards menopause, how they had changed over time and how they differed today.
She said: “When GPs started training, women often didn’t live long enough. And then women weren’t at work. And then 100 years or so ago, our grandmothers wouldn’t talk about periods. So, the evolution of what doctors are taught hasn’t kept up with our society.
“They can opt in to do to a two-hour course on hormones, and that is now changing. But the vast majority of doctors that most of us go and see are over 30 and those people have almost no training.”
Dina Bhudia, managing director and CEO of P2M Asset Management, spoke of how attitudes towards women’s health in different cultures could lead to a lack of knowledge and an unwillingness to speak about menstruation and eventually menopause.
She said: “Part of the [Asian] culture is when you are on your period you stay in your room. You are alienated, you do not touch anybody, you don’t dine with them or use the same toilet. It was like Covid in the extreme.
“If you’ve been brought up like that, we didn’t talk to parents, we didn’t talk about pregnancy. When I gave birth to my children, my family weren’t around me. You know, husbands weren’t even supposed to come to the hospitals. It’s all culturally centric.”
Pincott also noted that cultural differences could also mean some women preferred to speak to certain people about their health issues.
She said: “Something that I hadn’t really thought about before that came up is that most women would prefer to go to a female doctor if they’ve got problems.
“And women of colour might prefer to go to a woman of colour GP.”
She said there was a differences between white and non-white GPs, as well as male and female GPs “hampered” many women’s choice to seek medical help.
“And the suffering is more likely to be in silence for just that small, minor little detail that there aren’t enough female GPs, so women pay to choose who to go and see. Even if they are brave enough to go.” she added.
Key takeaways:
- Companies should adopt a menopause policy, which includes adjusted work practices and appointing menopause champion.
- Menopause and perimenopause have 33 different categories of symptoms split between psychological and physical effects. This is different for every woman.
- Treatment can include hormone replacement therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy, exercise and changing diet.
- However, treatments take a lot of work and management, so it is vital employers can support it.
- There are different cultural attitudes towards menopause, which can mean a lack of knowledge and reluctance to speak on such subjects.
