Featuring Female Health: Managing Menopause in the workplace.
"Consequently, it has faced and continues to face stigma and bias. It has stayed a stereotype of women's undertaking. A stereotype or an icon that has particularly hindered scientific endeavors. Additional, complimentary, and some more unpleasant features and problems include beaching behind. Sadly, this meant the working conditions and policies of many employers lacked support for menopause... More increasingly women are working on past their 50s and 60s. Hence, it is any matter now that employers will have to take concern over much more closely,"
-Sharon Edwards, Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) Women's Committee Chair
Hello reader, we are embarking on a new journey in this company, and I intend to specialise in women's health issues. Many people are familiar with the term menopause and understand that it deals with something concerning women health. But how many get to know what happens to a woman's body and how it can be disturbing, stressful, and at times aggravating painful? So today, DJM will be walking through what menopause is and what happens to a woman's body as she goes through it. There is a reasonable argument to make that employers must be educated and informed about the ISO-certified norms about menopause symptoms and how they can turn to be women's health and menopause confidants employers.
Menopause is expected in women aged approximately 45–55 years; in the UK, this age is 51 years, as opposed to 44 years recorded. A few women reach Menopause before they are 40 years old, which is termed premature Menopause or premature ovarian insufficiency. Women can experience several features, and the degree to which these features are experienced differs among the affected women. Just as no snowstorm is the same, each woman will experience Menopause differently- It is more than a cliché. It is stimulating. While several women undergo forced Menopause, most follow this route naturally, and that is the end of reproductive recovery.
The NHS website states that the following are some of the symptoms women must pay attention to if they think that they have begun experiencing Menopause:
Nonetheless, there are a vast number of more symptoms that patients may fulfill, notably the following:
This is where the mental change happens, accompanied by physical effects. Of course, this brings about a significant shift in a woman's life. As menopauseintheworkplace.co.uk reports, in the last few years, the number of women suffering from menopausal symptoms and active in the labor market is the fastest-growing segment. As per the report titled: "Workers aged 50 years and over in 2013," published by the NOS- National Office of Statistics, 1/3 of the workforce in the United Kingdom belongs to the age over 50, and half of those individuals are of menstruating age. The current ''workplace'' in the UK is becoming older, as is the population cusp. However, women who have gone through the process of Menopause are not discussed, nor are they catered for in training courses and workshops.
Menopause in the workplace?
The number of women in the workforce has grown to unprecedented levels. Yes, 70% of women are employed, though this number may be even more significant today. They account for 47% of the workforce today. Addressing Menopause and the transition to it is an issue that is often overlooked, for example, in women women's health. Attention to menopausal women is also required by three provisions under the Equality Act 2010 based on age, sex, and disability. Also, the poor consider the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which applies to Menopause even in most cases. The policies are undermined by LMP, including Policies concerning Menopause and its related treatment, instances of support, and complaints procedures that have been instituted for HR in most employers.
The government has published a report on equality and employment called Menopause Transition: Effects on Women's Economic Participation, highlighting how societal stereotypes hamper women's participation in the workplace. If you want to look at this report, it will be linked at the end of this article. Using this article, this blog will look at a few things concerning Menopause in the workplace.
The stresses of aging in women are explored within the context of how a woman's life is constructed from a (bio) psycho-cultural incorporation. This means one has to add, for instance, how a woman perceives and acts towards growing old, including influencing psychological and social aspects that may determine how a woman takes care of her family, for instance, or relates to people at work, as well as the child care responsibilities that come in.
The government of the United Kingdom has found a few studies of women who cannot look for a job (these will be listed at the end of the government report), cut down on their working hours, or complain and seek redress of such policies in a system where they already know all too well the odds are against them. None of these problems, though, are related to the transition and progression of a career from the career and management levels to the workplace.
The report mainly focuses on the coping methods of women towards their symptoms. Most women in the climacteric phase try to suppress and internally manage their bodily discomforts within work settings individually. The discrimination against aging women in workplace settings has been emphasised as several women stated that their fellow employees were unkind or others to them.
What employers can do to support women in transition to menopause
The government has also advocated that as the symptoms can be aggravated under specific working conditions, these apprehensions should not be disregarded whenever they arise. For example, situations that are extremely hot or non-ventilated and places without lifts or sufficient areas can make women feel detached.
Many men of a similar age as women at the menopause stage hold the top management levels. They are unable to empathize with some of the challenges and some of the levels of stress that come with the symptoms they cause. These women do not have a receptive and inclusive workforce reporting system that is nonjudgmental towards the complaints or issues that these women raise.
One way of solving the problems is to ensure that employers are willing and ready to provide an authentic forum for such discussions. There is no other reason that has been of importance that has not been repeated in several blog discussions since some things are essential for one to appreciate why, like the discomfort in a particular environment. If it is possible to avoid such situations, they should be resorted to only when they are unavoidable, and it is not possible to use them; the workplace should use professional external executive officers to manage physical and psychological health matters. Such issues do not have to be given to HR departments as they might not be equipped, knowledgeable, or trained to handle them.
This includes, of course, the psychological impact of going through such physical changes. Menopause is much more complicated than just a physical transition.
Women who have partners have learned that their symptoms may also affect men. In the government survey, women's male partners referred to the study as tiredness and weariness because they were keeping awake or waking up when their partner did because her menopausal symptoms bothered her. So whether any changes are necessary concerning the person undergoing the physical transition or it is the partner, they must be allowed to express or show the challenges that are posed to them without holding back.
Stay in tune for the complimentary podcast that is coming. We will be going into even more detail about the issues of menopause and how it can affect women, and what should be done to help them.
Useful Links:
Governmental Reports:
Unison Reports:
https://www.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/2019/10/25831.pdf