Menopause Awareness: Where On Earth Do We Start?

Why menopause awareness needs to build confidence and practical action, not just information.

We're doing a much better job of making menopause visible. And that's a good thing.

There's far more information available than there used to be. We're seeing workplace awareness sessions, webinars, policies, Menopause Action Plans, employee networks, menopause champions, EAP support and conversations about reasonable adjustments.

Some organisations are well on their way. Others are only just beginning.

And awareness is absolutely needed. In fact, awareness is the foundation of all my work.

But menopause at work can still feel incredibly complicated.

There's Certainly No Shortage of Information

Search for menopause and you'll find symptoms, hormones, HRT, nutrition, sleep, exercise, mental health, reasonable adjustments, employment law and medical guidance.

All of these are useful.

But put yourself in the position of an employee, colleague or manager trying to work out what any of this means at work.

Because these are the questions that can keep people awake at night:

•       Do I need to understand every symptom?

•       What am I supposed to say?

•       What shouldn't I say?

•       What if I think somebody is struggling and I'm completely wrong?

•       Should I mention that word menopause?

•       What if they don't want to talk about it?

•       Where does our policy fit in?

•       What about the EAP?

•       Do men need to understand this too?

And suddenly a subject we're trying to make easier to talk about feels very complicated.

That's the main reason we need to be clear about what workplace awareness is actually there to do.

We're Not Here to Create Menopause Experts

Anyone can find a symptom list. And while symptoms are important, I don't believe everybody in the workplace needs an encyclopaedic knowledge of them.

We need enough understanding to know that menopause is a life stage, that hormonal changes can affect people in very different ways and that there is no standard menopause experience.

Some people will experience symptoms that significantly affect their daily lives. Some will experience relatively mild changes. Some may experience very few symptoms at all.

And menopause doesn't happen in isolation. We all bring our age, health, hormones, medication, experiences and everything else happening in our lives to work with us.

Which is why I have a fairly simple rule:

Please don't diagnose Sophie from Finance.

If she has forgotten something she would normally remember, seems less confident than usual and is fanning herself with a notebook, menopause might be relevant.

Or it might not.

We're human beings, not symptom checklists.

We don't arrive at work as a menopause symptom. We arrive as a whole person.

Awareness should help us understand that complexity, not give us a new set of assumptions.

So What Should Awareness Give Us?

For me, good awareness gives people enough understanding to feel more confident around the subject.

We don't need to medicalise every workplace conversation or feel responsible for diagnosing or fixing somebody.

Men need to be part of the conversation too. And this is where allyship starts to become important, because everyone can play a part.

Most importantly, it takes that enormous amount of information that's out there and starts making it useful at work.

That's where I start introducing the HOW. Because eventually somebody will ask: what do I actually do?

Imagine a colleague who is normally confident has become much quieter. Someone who has always been incredibly organised has started forgetting things. Or perhaps somebody simply tells you:

“I'm really struggling at the moment.”

Knowing the definition of perimenopause isn't necessarily going to tell you what to say next. Neither will knowing all the possible symptoms.

This is where awareness can start becoming practical.

You don't have to diagnose. You don't have to fix. You don't have to know all the answers.

You can listen. You can ask rather than assume. You can understand what support your organisation has available. And sometimes you can simply say:

“I don't know, but I'll find out.”

Or even:

“What can I do to help you?”

Both are a perfect way to start.

And Support Doesn't Have One Standard Answer Either

A menopause policy can be useful, but only as a starting point and only if it doesn't just sit there.

So can a Menopause Action Plan, an EAP, occupational health, an employee network, menopause champions, flexible working and reasonable adjustments.

But again, only if they're communicated, understood, managed properly and able to adapt to what people genuinely need.

Because people don't fit neatly into a standard response.

A fan may be exactly what one person needs. Someone else may need some flexibility after several nights of poor sleep. Another person might need something completely different. And another may need nothing at all.

No two experiences are the same, so why would we expect one standard response to work for everybody?

That's why awareness needs to give people enough confidence to start thinking about the individual rather than reaching immediately for a perfect answer.

A Simple Question for Organisations

Whether you're planning your first menopause awareness session or already have support in place, I'd start by asking:

What do we want people to understand, feel more confident about and actually be able to do afterwards?

Because all three are important.

Understand. Give people credible knowledge about menopause and the differences in how it can be experienced.

Feel more confident. Remove some of the fear and awkwardness around the subject.

Do. Start giving people practical ways to use that understanding at work.

That doesn't mean trying to solve every possible menopause-related workplace situation in one awareness session. It means giving people a strong foundation and somewhere sensible to start.

Awareness Is the Beginning

We need to keep making menopause visible. We need awareness. We need wellbeing support. We need symptom management. We need policies, conversations and reasonable adjustments.

And we also need to make all of that easier to understand and easier to use.

That's the thinking behind my Awareness & Allyship work.

BUILD THE UNDERSTANDING.  INCLUDE EVERYONE.  REMOVE SOME OF THE FEAR.  START INTRODUCING THE HOW.

Because menopause at work doesn't need another layer of complication. It needs a clearer way through it.