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Each year World Menopause Day highlights the challenges women face during the menopause. As a fact of life which everyone will encounter, be it first-hand, or via their families, friends, and colleagues, it’s an opportunity to educate and support, while normalising the conversation around this historically taboo topic.  

 

For most women, the thought of condensing menopause into a single day would be bliss. Instead, it can present years of ongoing mental and physical health changes that can have potentially life-long impacts if not properly understood and managed. 

 

Ingeus colleagues Mish, age 50, and Maria, 56, have both lived with their menopause symptoms for well over a decade. For them, the massive increase in GPs’, employers’, and public awareness has been welcome. 

 

“Ten years ago, it was so difficult to share what I was going through, especially as I didn’t fully understand it myself,” says Maria. “Menopause isn’t a visible ailment and there was just no understanding of it back then.” 

 

Both Mish and Maria subsequently ‘toughed out’ their escalating condition to near crisis point. 

 

“The perpetual lack of good sleep, night sweats, hot flushes, and sheer rage I would feel at stupid day to day things really took its toll,” explains Mish. “Feeling like that, with children at home, was making things increasingly fraught. My concentration at work was awful and being a bit of a perfectionist, I hated being so tired and not feeling on top of what I was doing. I recognised I was in danger of becoming seriously mentally unwell.”   

 

Similarly, Maria recalls feeling increasingly irritable and isolated, losing focus at work and being overly argumentative at home. It took an outburst at a car mechanic to drive her back to her GP, in tears, for help:  

“I totally overreacted and had a huge argument at the garage,” she says. “Straightaway, I thought ‘Oh no, what have I done?’ and went back the next day to apologise. My son said ‘Mum, that’s not like you’ and I knew he was right.”  

 

The theme for World Menopause Day 2024 is Menopause Hormone Therapy (MHT), better known in the UK as HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy). The International Menopause Society endorses evidence-based treatment, including HRT, and reports that while every woman’s menopause experience is unique, HRT ‘offers women relief from symptoms, helps prevent long-term health risks, and enhances overall well-being and quality of life’. 

 

That has certainly been the case for Maria and Mish:  

“HRT worked wonders for me,” says Maria, who wears hormone patches and diligently balances exercise, foods, and additional remedies such as oestrogel, collagen, and MCT creamer to improve her health. “It took a couple of months to take effect but two years in and I sleep like a baby and feel much calmer. I still monitor my weight closely but I’m back to being the person I was.” 

 

Mish adds: “My pre-existing mood disorder made me wary of HRT but when I realised I really needed help, a good ten years after my symptoms began, my GP explained body-identical hormone options and I decided to give it a go. I haven’t looked back, it’s been fantastic. Within a few weeks my sleep had improved, and my mood was more manageable. I’ll continue to take it for as long as recommended to help reduce the risk of osteoporosis, which runs in my family.” 

 

There have been many medical advances, and a much broader promotion of ‘menopause matters’ in recent years.   

 

Now accredited as a Menopause Friendly employer, we encourage colleagues across the business to join regular ‘Let’s Talk About Menopause’ panel sessions. We have menopause training for managers and have recruited and trained menopause wellbeing champions. The Peppy menopause App is offered as part of our colleague healthcare package and flexible working arrangements or citing menopause symptoms as an absence reason are available to women who feel they need to. 

 

Maria and Mish also recommend several avenues of self-help. “Understanding that menopause is a process is important. There’s no quick fix but there’s much we can do to help ourselves,” Maria believes. “Celebrities like Davina McCall and Davinia Taylor share lots of useful information, and there’s so much more support and understanding now at work and home. The stigma’s gone and that helps tremendously. We’re all living longer and it’s really important that we look after ourselves through middle age and beyond.” 

 

Mish agrees: “There’s all sorts of help and information out there now. I downloaded a symptom checker which I took to my medical appointment, and I specifically asked to see someone who specialised in menopause. It doesn’t have to be a GP; I saw a brilliant practice nurse who listened to me and then explained the options. Just don’t take no for an answer, get the knowledge and keep making the choices that are right for you.” 

  

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