Is awareness of menopause and its horrific to start backfiring on us ?

[Bobbyewingshowerscene]

Is the current awareness and better understanding of menopause and its ruddy awfulness going to start backfiring on us on the workplace?
Undermining faith in the competency of women in their 40s and 50s? because there is better understanding of how the body, hormones, sleep, mood, ability to focus, mental health are affected?

Not dissimilar to how employers have historically (and I would argue still currently) viewed mothers/ women of child bearing age- for concerns about future mat leave/ child care issues/ sick days etc.

Is it an unfair irony that promoting more information about the menopause and its negative effects, and this being more publicly understood, is going to set us back to being seen as less capable than our male counterparts?

I guess I've only encountered a very flexible employer (luckily).

Sure but surely you'd want people performing vital roles not to be under ridiculous pressure, sick or knackered midwives, paramedics etc from US style corporate culture? Fortunately we seem to be rejecting that now in the UK and moving forward, slowly.

I agree and think ‘brain fog’ used repeatedly is very unhelpful.
Who wants a tooth extraction or operation or assessment or beauty treatment done by someone with ‘brain fog’

To be honest, I don't blame them and I can understand. I'm not an employer but, if I was and had the choice of someone 30 vs 50, I'd probably give preference to someone at the older stage for this reason.

In theory yes you are right, but as a menopausal disabled woman, I imagine I would be either unemployed or employed at something way below my cognitive ability if my employer didn't understand and support both my disability and my menopausal symptoms. For me with both disability and menopause every time I talk to an employer or a prospective employer, there is a risk that I will be discriminated against before I even get the chance to show what I can do, but without support I can't do it anyway! So yes, there is a risk that the more employers know about the menopause the more they will discriminate, same with disability, but if you can (and chose) to keep your menopause and/or disability hidden, you are one of the lucky ones, so don't complain.

Really? In 4 decades of work I have never heard anything remotely like this sort of conversation. What industry do you work in?

my area has great sick pay and rubbush everything else so you are either in and on or off. I had averagely bad periods - a pain but not a problem and menopause just gave me flushes that patches removed. I am not unusual in my circles and I wish the message was that it should be fine but if it isn’t let’s support and treat it until it is. For all the noise about menopause women still struggle to get doctors to listen or test so there is a long way to go.

Stop being so negative! It's not all doom and gloom out there for women in work. Every woman I know is either thriving in her career, climbing up the ladder or her employers allow different work hours to accommodate school pick ups and drop offs. The more women who get to the top the better. Positive mental attitude.

It’s all my workplace seems to bloody talk about. NHS - so predominately female workforce.

The Menopause support network is very vocal but I think damaging to women’s credibility in the work place.

But being "in menopause" isn't something that can be imposed on someone or assumed because they are a female of a certain age. To do so may be discriminatory in itself. It doesn't automatically come with concessions or accommodations.

Ok, that's interesting. I guess I have always worked in mixed sex workplaces, so maybe that's the difference.

I wasn’t particularly sexy and didn’t start my career until kids were all at school so no mat leave. Hols was on a rota with single women getting equal dibs on Xmas etc and sick days I paid my mum or friend.

So can anyone desk based - it's been the law since 1992 - HSE Display Screen Equipment Regulations.

There is a lot about menopause,but I don't think it's a bad thing. I think women are a lot more aware that symptoms may not be just hot flushes. We have a menopause group at work, that meets for a chat one lunchtime each month, but I haven't been, as I can't think of anything duller, really. I have been lucky so far - periods have been irregular for the last 4 years, and have been heavy enough to get me referred to gynae, but that has been it to date. But I am aware of what problems it could cause - that is only a good thing, surely?

I was made redundant a couple of years ago, and am nearly 6 months into my 2nd job since then (I quit thr first one, because teamlead turned out to be a micromanager.) I had a few interviews, and the jobs I didn't get were down to lack of relevant experience (which I'm not going to get if no one will employ me...) of course, I can't be sure they weren't thinking "she's menopausal!" at the back of their minds, but I don't think they were. And working in a male-dominated sector, I can think of more colleagues in their 50s whose attendance and abilities who have been hit by cancer treatment, plus a stroke - so I don't see why a problematic menopause should be treated differently from that - serious, mostly unpredictable, but after some time, which may be years, the person affected should be back at work as normal. People are just more likely to have to deal with serious health challenges in middle age.

Yes, it should be treated like any other issue people might have in their lives (and I've been fortunate to only be involved with very supportive and flexible employers for all kinds of issues).

I do welcome conversation on the topic, but not all the time as there's more to me than that. But I am very open with people and don't mind if they are open with me. My mother never taught me a thing about menopause so I've had to learn it all on my own. In fact, I'm considering going to see my GP because I don't understand what's going on with me right now but it would be comforting if a number of women around me could say, "Oh yes, I have that," because then I'd be reassured. Instead I'll probably end up with an almost certainly unnecessary scan.

I think most men in the workplace don't give menopause a second thought when it comes to women. My DH is informed now, but that's only because he's married to me going through it all. Never had a hot flush but have other stuff going on.

New company, some.
Old company, yes. Enhanced the medical to ensure access to diagnosis of menopause was a specific inclusion. New company is much smaller though.

Gender pay gap is a good leveller to compare companies. I calculate it so could give a whole lecture on strengths & weaknesses of it as a measure. 😂

My profession is extremely ageist and sexist at senior level so when I went through the menopause (at the young age of normal) I didn’t breathe a word about it except to my GP. So yes op I agree with you.

Hmm, that's a good point. Sorry I haven't read the whole thread. I wouldn't be surprised if some employers, perhaps in small companies lead by younger men, if they started to see women of this certain age as a bit of a liability. And the possibility of stricter laws, maybe they might give menopausal women time off work in the future, who knows. For smaller outfits, this kind of practice could be a bit of a burden.

Fair point

Do the adjustments ever result in other colleagues picking up more work ?

Did your lateness/ abs now impact on colleagues ? How sympathetic were the other woman in your team?

I would 100 percent expect colleagues to be doing that all if expecting paid sick leave

True …

Great insightful post

Nope. I'm actually the only person who does my role, I do have 2 people part trained in it to cover holidays, but no, the reasonable adjustments are there to make it easier for me to carry out my role.

Sorry to disappoint you there 😉

Where did I say lucky you ?
or did you mean another poster x