Better information needed around menopause in the workplace - Dr Sarah Hattam

Half of women say that their symptoms have had a negative impact on their job, and it’s estimated that around a whopping one million women have quit work as a result.

We can’t afford to relegate the menopause to merely a niche issue that affects a minority of the workforce. It will, at some point, be relevant for half of the working population. The average age of menopause is currently 51 years in the UK, which is a consequence of a steadily rising life expectancy for women. It can also affect much younger women. Against this backdrop, the menopause must be seen as a critical dimension of any robust diversity and inclusion strategy.

As a Yorkshire-based GP and menopause specialist with 30 years’ experience of working in the NHS, I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve seen, whose careers have been derailed because of physical or mental health issues.

A consistent thread in such cases has been the significant contributory factor of unhealthy ways of working or poor cultures. Consequently, I now work with organisations to help solve this problem by applying the best evidence about how human bodies and brains thrive in the workplace. Which brings me back to the menopause.

Research shows that menopause is both poorly understood and rarely accommodated for in the workplace. There’s also mounting evidence that women from different ethnic backgrounds experience the menopause very differently, as may colleagues who are neurodivergent, trans or non-binary. There’s definitely no “one-size-fits-all” approach. Yet unlike the progress made in the workplace in awareness of issues like mental health, many organisations have yet to make practical steps in accommodating the needs of women in menopause.

We need to smash the stigma and ensure that all colleagues have some awareness and understanding of menopause. Introducing flexible sickness absence and understanding the practical reasonable adjustments that are helpful is a good place to start.

Outside of the workplace, there are also considerable barriers in accessing a healthcare professional who is appropriately trained in menopause which is hit and miss. All too often menopausal women say that they feel understood by no-one and have nowhere to turn.

With the current pressures on the NHS in general and GP services in particular, women often face huge gaps in getting appropriate advice and provision of treatment for their menopausal symptoms. The internet is awash with info, much of it without any reliable evidence-base. There is more that employers can do to make relevant and evidence-based information available to their workforce.

This is the reason that my company, Concilio Health, developed Me & My Menopause, a digital tool that provides personalised and tailored information and guidance for women.

Dr Sarah Hattam is a Yorkshire-based GP, menopause specialist doctor and health-tech entrepreneur.