Menopause legislation - helpful or not?

[Runor]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-68366519

Firms must make reasonable adjustments for menopause. Great for women, or another reason for a business to recruit a man instead?

Speaking as a middle-aged woman who would like to get back into the workforce, I’m not sure this is going to help! What do you think?

But 90% of women don't want, need or in my case welcome any action around menopause, so it should be handled directly by GP and HR for the unlucky people really suffering surely? Not highlighting and virtue signalling for the women who aren't having menopause related issues but are the right age.

When is the attention going to be put on handling fertility issues and miscarriage at work. Not everyone experiences it but for those who do, work can be horrific. It’s far more traumatic and emotional

Its not helpful to get into what's worse. All those things are specific to the individual. Especially as I know my mother having psychosis triggered by menopause was worse for her than her MCs before I came along, and it's certainly the same for my friend who tried to take her own life recently.

I'm currently peri, well, 99% sure I am. If the way I feel at times is magnified in coming years i can confidently say it will be a lot worse mentally and emotionally than my MCs.

I do too.

I think it’s just going to allow ‘are you having a hot flush?’ to be the new ‘are you on your period?’ type dismissive comment if older women disagree with or get angry about male bullshit.

I am concerned this will be yet another reason for employers to not want to hire women of any age...

There is already enough age discrimination when you get to 40 not to add to the idea that older workers can only be a burden.

I would find this really intrusive as I had to have a hysterectomy due to Adenomyosis when I was still young-ish so have not had period for ages and I certainly don't want to discuss this with work.

I think there should be a focus on supporting home and flexible working (part-time, job share...) more widely for employees in general when their job can be done remotely. At least there would be less stigma for specific group of people.

Women have had to work really hard over the last few decades to be considered equally as capable in the workplace, this is going against everything we have worked for.

Basically there needs to be a very radical change in research on/ for women and health care across all ages.

All types of female healthcare, mostly gyne related.

If you think about it it's actually quite victim blamey to be saying women need meno to be seen as a disability when it really shouldn't be that disabling.

GPs and oc health can certainly provide supportive adjustments or even sick leave whilst a woman is attempting to get on top of her health. But it shouldn't be something that lasts too long or the healthcare system is failing women.

I find this so complicated.
I'm peri and yes, it's affected my performance at work. I get menstrual migraines that last 2 days. And I get bad brain fog and general disorganisation.

The problem is if you get a bad boss they can easily use your menopausal symptoms as an indicator of "underperformance". So some protection is necessary.

Conversely my issues mean I'm not performing to my best all the time and in a senior role, that's not always tolerable. How do you make it acceptable for some people to forget stuff, but not others?

I also agree with this view its just another way to make women look flaky and unreliable.

I think I'd prefer an approach where menopause was covered by sex/disability protections. I did read a while back that middle aged women were considered the demographic that would decide the next election so I wonder if this is a (patronising) attempt at a vote winner by assuming what women will vote on?

"I think I'd prefer an approach where menopause was covered by sex/disability protections"

It is covered, it always has been, any long term or debilitating condition could be considered a disability in employment law requiring reasonable adjustments.

And it's covered under sex discrimination laws - if a male has a condition affecting his work and he's afforded adjustments, and a female in the same workplace going through the menopause also having her work affected is not afforded adjustments, then that would be sex discrimination too.

The media referring to the latest EHRC guidance as menopause legislation is not helpful at all, never mind being completely incorrect.

Here’s the research the 10% came from:
https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=9672cf45-5f13-4b69-8882-1e5e643ac8a6

Here’s another link to an article about research on women in the nhs and the menopause:
https://www.balance-menopause.com/news/healthcare-staff-struggling-with-menopause-symptoms-are-considering-quitting-newson-health-survey-finds/

With regard to pathologising normal conditions, I agree with Warrior. Lots of gynaecological issues are being treated as normal when they should be pathologised. It took me years of haggling with my gp before being referred to a consultant for my menopause issues, which were then resolved almost immediately and almost perfectly. Not all issues can be resolved as simply as mine, but the notion that women should just put up with things, or quietly leave the workforce, isn’t acceptable. My doctor was dreadful, dismissive and actively dangerous in both her prescriptions and lack of them.

I'm not sure.

I absolutely think that menopause is a workplace issue and that lots of women are managed out or just fired around the menopause. Something needs to be done to give women more protection at work.

But I also worry that this will just feed into existing discriminatory attitudes where employers avoid recruiting/promoting women.

I'm also unsure about workplace menopause policies. I've got one where I work but it doesn't really give us anything tangible like time off. Also, I cannot imagine talking to my boss or my colleagues about my peri symptoms. I'd be mortified.

This is a genuine question - do you think there was anything that could/should have been done for your friend that wouldn't be there for someone suffering from non-menopausal clinical anxiety? Like others I'm struggling to understand the advantage of the focus on the cause over the symptom here.