October 18 2024 - World Menopause Day
The ‘M word’ - well believe me - It is life changing, it is scary, it runs at you like a bull to a red rag, and it can completely knock your confidence and throw you to it’s mercy.
So just to be clear - the Menopause isn’t just about hot sweaty flashes at the supermarket checkout —or rubbing some HRT gel on your thighs and sticking a patch on your bum - it’s a significant mental and physical transition that impacts the entire female body and your wellbeing.
My own Menopause experience comes from distinctly unnerving hormonal changes that you just cannot understand or explain. This leads to erratic mood swings, crazy doubt and anxiety, to painful physical symptoms like inflamed joint pain, chronic insomnia, piercing headaches and oh the extra pleasure of vaginal dryness and lack of libido - just to put the ultimate cherry on the top!
The Menopause can affect you wholly - making a previously strong, capable, clever woman crumble . You lose your self worth, you lose your energy, you lose all sensible focus of previously ‘easy’ tasks, you panic and feel anxious in previously ‘normal’ situations and you lose your overall well-being.
It can literally drain your sanity dry and make you feel like you are having an out of body experience… believe me I know.
Understanding these bodily challenges is key to creating a more inclusive and compassionate workplace where Menopausal women don’t have to suffer in silence.
Empathy at this life stage is so important- but oh so overlooked when surrounded by younger teams who are growing and blossoming - getting married , falling pregnant having a family and getting through their exciting young lives! How could they possibly know what it is like to be menopausal?
So let us support our older women - with understanding through this critical life phase with tenderness, awareness, flexibility, and open and honest conversation, and let us give them the quality time and patience they deserve.
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