On this year’s World Menopause Day, which is held every year on the 18th October, working women are calling for better workplace support for women going through the menopause.
Organised by International Menopause Society, the purpose of the day is to raise awareness of the menopause and the support options available for improving health and wellbeing. The theme for World Menopause Day 2021 is Bone Health.
According to an Ipsos MORI poll, 47% of working women (aged 40-65) experience three or more menopause symptoms while they are working. This includes feeling tired (38%), hot flushes (38%), headaches (24%), difficulty concentrating (23%), feeling tearful (17%), heavy periods (17%) and feeling dizzy or faint (11%). Yet, most employers currently offer little support to working women going through the menopause.
BETTER SUPPORT NEEDED
Working women want employers to “up their game” and offer better support to women going through the menopause. The Ipsos survey also revealed that 60% of women experiencing menopausal symptoms want their employers to provide more support.
In fact, both women and men need to be better equipped to support colleagues around the menopause, revealed the survey. It found that nearly half (48%) of women experiencing symptoms have not spoken to anyone at work about their experiences. Those that do are more likely to turn to female colleagues (45%) for support than male (1%).
SUPPORTIVE MEASURES
So what kind of support should organisations provide women going through the menopause? More than half (55%) said they would feel more positively about a company that had a menopause awareness programme. Over a third (37%) staff would like their employers to offer access to specialist menopause advice from a third-party expert. An additional 31% want their employer to offer a menopause policy.
Another study revealed that 69% of employers are “not menopause savvy”, and 59% of women feel that companies don’t provide adequate menopause support. Click here to read more.
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