Dawn Butler’s menopause policies

[FeminismandWomensFights]

Look I think it’s great if employers do more to accommodate the needs of women going through meno.

Not remotely convincing though coming from Labour and Dawn Butler. How will the employers even know who to target for this help- since in their book anyone who wants to can be a woman?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49781137

I’m a lifelong Labour voter and a menopausal woman so I should be all over this. I just feel totally patronised.

Yep, this is why so many female MPs, like Dawn, have cocked up; because they've taken such a ridiculous position on something as fundamental as 'what a woman is', women have lost trust in her and therefore have no interest in anything she has to say about any other women's issues.

So if we refer to menstruators to avoid the literal violence of using the word woman, how do we refer to those going through the menopause? Are they menopausers? Do we pretend that there is no connection between the two groups?

I really have no wish discuss my menopausal symptoms with HR.

It's bollocks. I'm going through the menopause and I don't need a special arrangement any more than I did when I was going through puberty.

Who do they think they're going to sway with this, if a menopausal woman is not keen?

Trans women never go through menopause, they remain dewy fresh maidens. They’re not like boring old ‘cis’ women.

So the policies don’t apply to anyone who wants to call themselves women because they’re always women under 25

if and when Dawn shows that she knows what a woman is I may be interested in what she has to say about women's issues. Until then, nope.

Trans women never go through menopause

I bet they would if they got to leave work early with symptoms.

No, the menopause isn’t sexy.

Whoops. link:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49781137

Eskewed I actually think that having policies about menopause is a good thing. So many women suffer in silence. It’s the same with periods. I lose several days a month but if I complain I get laughed at and it seems to be okay for men to make jokes about time of the month etc. The world is built for men who never have periods and to succeed we have to pretend we don’t either.

The problem of course is that Ms Butler and a host of other idiots have said that it’s wrong to say that women have periods and that we are menstruators rather than women, or pregnant persons or cervix-havers. One day they’re going to have to wake up to the fact that all of those terms refer to the same people and that by separating out these functions, it means overlooking that nearly all women are during their lives menstruators, cervix havers, menopausers and that many will also be pregnant persons and that this combination often means a lifetime of less favourable treatment.

That was exactly my reaction, how can you put forward a proposal for menopause when she doesn't even know what a woman is? I'm going through menopause and it's not fun. I am very tempted to give up work.

However I'm no longer a menstrator so bleeder doesn't work, I don't have uterus so according to them I'm no different to a man anyway.

And you can just see that in the same way the LibDems lgbt twitter account was taken over by a transwoman with the most terrible period so they'll be going through the menopause as well once it looks like they can get extra attention out of it

Frankly she can just f* with her bollocks as she's done too much harm by denying we exist in the first place.

My first reaction when I saw this was - she can fuck off as she doesn't know what a woman is.

I've not yet formulated a second reaction.

Its good to see that there are quite a few replies on Dawn's feed asking her the exact same thing...

how can you put forward a proposal for menopause when she doesn't even know what a woman is?

Absolutely this!

At the same time I've listened to enough pieces on the menopause when I was off school with a cold at age 14 on Woman's hour to know it ain't easy for some. I also work in a mostly female environment and have seen the various ways it can affect working life over the years.

I'm currently dealing with some interesting things going on between thyroid levels and the fact that periods haven't really returned due to extended breastfeeding and I'm realising it's not going to be smooth sailing from that POV when I do hit menopause as I rely fully on thyroxine.

No, the menopause isn’t sexy

It probably is. I mean it'd never crossed my mind that periods were sexy, but with so many men claiming to have periods, they must have some sort of charm.

A much better approach would be to ensure that every menopausal and peri menopausal woman had access to appropriate HRT if so desired.
I have two friends whose GPS were reluctant to prescribe for them (one a few years ago, one more recently) because of “risks”. I advised them to tell the GP that their marriages were under pressure because their husbands complained about poor quality sex lives due to menopausal symptoms. Lo and behold, prescriptions ensued.

I've come across MTFs who said they would stop taking hormones in middle age so they could go through a "natural menopause".

Where I work there is a new employee network for menopausal women, which is making great strides in educating the rest of the workplace. The woman who started it said she was sick of the jokes about "hot flushes".

We already have flexible working policies but she is liaising with HR to get some menopause-specific policies brought in. Can only be a good thing, surely?

Former lifelong Labour voter here too, staring down the menopause barrel.

And equally convinced that the policy will be co-opted, and centred on, TW and their pseudopauses.

Fuck off and work out what I am, Labour, and I might just possibly be interested again.

I've come across MTFs who said they would stop taking hormones in middle age so they could go through a "natural menopause

Oh for goodness sake

I think there should be more education in schools and outside about hormones

Including the myth that men don’t have hormonal spikes and are therefore more balanced than women...manapause ds2 called it yesterday

I must say, I do believe the GRA needs reform just not the way the TRAs decide. It has woolly language and also can actively harm women and children through its legislation.

Ereshki I mean they probably will experience symptoms by coming off long term estrogen but won’t it just return them to their male bodies? Hair growth etc.

The most stupid thing about this whole thing is seeing some deluded male idiots go on about periods and how they are brought on by taking artificial estrogen. Estrogen does cause mood swings but that’s not a fucking period. If you are bleeding from your male genitals on a regular basis, you need to go to your GP asap.

It’s amazing how they think that menstruation and pregnancy are just individualised discrete functions that they too can achieve by taking pills or attaching a muscular sac to their internal organs, rather than part of a really balanced and complex internal biological process.

I mean they probably will experience symptoms by coming off long term estrogen but won’t it just return them to their male bodies? Hair growth etc.

Surely that depends on how far they've taken their 'transition'? I know the adrenal gland produces some testosterone but is it enough to return to normal male if testicles have been removed?

My first thought was that it would add to the many ageist reasons why employers wouldn’t want to employ women of a certain age. It’s already hard enough if you’re job hunting.

daisypond I guess that is a downside of any policy that accommodates women. But bear in mind that the same argument can be used to argue that there should be no maternity rights. Employers should be the ones forced to change, women shouldn’t have to put up and shut up just because everyone seems to accept that the default is always male.