has the performance of your colleague dipped or changed somehow are they different it could be
that you've noticed that they're taking more absences from work perhaps they're being late
when they were always so punctual perhaps they're more forgetful or even that attitude to to work
where it's been previously good is not as good as it once was and it could even be that previously
good relationships with work colleagues aren't as good as they once were now there are many things
responsible for changes in your colleagues we're all human beings menopause is just
one of those things so we need to be aware of what it is and how it can impact our colleagues because
almost 8 out of 10 of menopausal women are in work the fastest growing demographic in the workforce
are menopausal women and it's estimated that currently around 13 million women in the uk are
either perimenopausal or menopausal this is equal to one third of the entire uk female population
so in this video i'm going to explain menopause perimenopause and post-menopause
the symptoms that your colleague could experience during these stages and how they can affect your
colleague and what you can do to create a more menopause aware organization what is menopause
the menopause is when a woman stops having periods and is no longer able to get pregnant naturally
periods usually start to become less frequent over a few months or years before they stop
together and sometimes periods can just stop suddenly and an important thing to know about
menopause is that it's one day it's that moment that you haven't had a period for 12 months
so what's the time before menopause this is perimenopause
perimenopause means around menopause and it's the time that bodies start to change
and it's at this time when it's possible to start to have a range of symptoms all women
get severe and debilitating symptoms those going through perimenopause may have mild symptoms
no symptoms symptoms at different times or symptoms all at the same time now for some
the perimenopause and menopause will happen and they'll easily be able to manage their symptoms
for some their symptoms range from moderate to extremely problematic everyone has a different
experience of menopause so what are the symptoms that your colleague could go through
there's a list of about 40. now that's a lot of symptoms so rather than going into every single
one of them in this video we can break them down into two types so symptoms can be psychological or
physical so let's look at what the most common psychological symptoms are first
so what are the most common psychological symptoms they can be irritability feelings of sadness
a lack of motivation anxiety worry aggressiveness a difficulty concentrating and fatigue so what
about the most common physical symptoms these can be hot flushes cold flushes night sweats
insomnia heavy periods or flooding vaginal dryness headaches heart palpitations joint stiffness
aches and pains recurring urinary tract infections and low libido is there an age
when these changes most commonly start to happen the average age for menopause is 51.
the symptoms can begin from the age of 40 but they can happen earlier so what can cause them
to happen earlier well it can happen naturally but menopause can be triggered surgically
or medically too so how long can the symptoms last well the average length of time for perimenopause
to menopause can be four years but many women will still have symptoms for longer than 10 years
so what is post menopause postmenopause is the name given to the time after a woman has not bled
for an entire year so it's the the day after that one day that she's not had a bleed for 12 months
so really it's the rest of your life that you're going to go through after menopause now during
this stage symptoms such as hot flushes they may ease for so many women however for some the
symptoms can continue for as long as a decade or even longer after they've gone through menopause
so why is it important to know about menopause in the workplace in 2018 there was a menopause
survey this survey highlighted that 76 said their symptoms were moderately or extremely problematic
at work 20 said that they had considered leaving work because of their symptoms
and this increased to 44 for whose symptoms were extremely problematic
so how can the workplace help then those that are going through perimenopause menopause and
are post-menopausal learn about menopause learn about its symptoms and how they can impact your
colleagues talk about menopause as an organization talk to your colleagues about it introduce
menopause hubs or meeting places or meeting times put in place support and help let me help you have
comfortable conversations about menopause without the worry of saying or doing the wrong thing
remember to subscribe and click for notifications of my new videos and to click the like button too
if you found this video useful and helpful please share it and tell others about it too