Manage Your Menopause Naturally by Maryon Stewart

Author:Maryon Stewart
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781608686834
Publisher: New World Library
Published: 2020-09-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

MENOPAUSE IN THE WORKPLACE

Turning fifty should be cause for celebration. Many women will have successfully navigated the major challenges in life, such as establishing a career and raising a family. They are at the peak of their powers, likely earning more than ever before, and they should feel confident about coping with life. Instead, we are seeing lost workdays, a hit on the economy, and relationships under strain. A whole cohort of women is living in misery due to menopause.

According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, an estimated 6,000 US women reach menopause every day. In all, 27 million women in the United States — 20 percent of the workforce — are experiencing menopause each year. Forbes magazine predicts that in 2025, over 1 billion women will be experiencing menopause around the world. That’s 12 percent of the entire world population! At least 75 percent of them will experience hot flashes and night sweats, and among women experiencing menopause symptoms, the loss of productivity at work will be nearly 60 percent greater than among women not experiencing symptoms. The cost of this lost productivity and the burden on healthcare systems is estimated at more than $810 billion.

Menopause has traditionally been associated with the classic discomforts of night sweats, sleep deprivation, and muddled thinking. But it has deeper repercussions for both our personal and professional lives. In a survey of over one thousand working women that my team and I undertook in 2017, 80 percent reported suffering moderate to severe menopausal symptoms. Fifty percent of respondents said menopause had caused stress and strain on their close relationships; 60 percent reported lower self-esteem and a dip in confidence.

The survey found that despite women having more freedom and disposable income at midlife than previous generations, lack of knowledge about and effective treatment for menopause was draining them of money, happiness, and productivity. Eighty-four percent of respondents said their productivity at work was reduced; 75 percent felt their productivity was reduced for more than a week every month. This equates to 280 million less-productive workdays per year in the UK alone. Surprisingly, only 20 percent of the respondents took any time off work to deal with the symptoms.

Our workplace survey coincided with a government study released the same week, titled The Effects of Menopause Transition on Women’s Economic Participation in the UK. The authors analyzed 104 international publications published from 1990 to March 2016 on the effects of menopause symptoms on women, the workplace, and the economy. I reviewed their study for the Daily Mail and concluded that the report contained a great deal of information about the problem and not much about the solution. The authors agreed. (One of the authors is Professor Jo Brewis, whose story appears on page 141.)

In a UK Trades Union Congress (TUC) study published in 2018, 78 percent of women surveyed said they avoided disclosing menopause symptoms to their line managers. When asked the reasons, 67 percent expressed concern that managers would link their situation to their performance at work, and 35 percent cited embarrassment.

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