Watford Borough Council step up efforts to support menopause
Founder of the #MakeMenopauseMatter campaign Diane Danzebrink is on a mission
Menopause is not a “women’s issue” – it’s a natural part of life which men must get used to talking about, campaigners in Hertfordshire have said.
Founder of the #MakeMenopauseMatter campaign Diane Danzebrink is on a mission to stop women, trans men, intersex or non-binary people and their partners from living through menopause with unanswered questions.
Diane, 56, visited Watford on Monday, March 27 after the borough council voted to step up its efforts to support everyone who is directly or indirectly affected by menopause.
“It got to the point where I wouldn’t leave the house, I wouldn’t answer the telephone, as ridiculous as it sounds I wouldn’t open post because I believed in my irrational mind that anything that came into the house was going to be negative,” Diane told the Local Democracy Reporting Service, speaking about her own experience.
“About 10 years ago, I had to have a total hysterectomy.
“I had suspected ovarian cancer and as it turned out, once the pathology had come back, the consultant had removed my ovaries ‘just in time’.
“The only thing that I knew about the surgery was that having my ovaries removed would put me into a surgical menopause, but that was the only information I had about it.
“It wasn’t explained to me what the potential symptoms of that would be, and what the latest information around treatment for that would be.
“All I really knew about menopause was that it was hot flushes and no more periods.
“The only thing I had heard in relation to menopause were the letters HRT and the only thing I correlated with that was stories in the press about breast cancer.
“I concluded: ‘No, that won’t be for me.’
“I recovered, went back to work, and for about three months I thought I was doing ok.
“But things started to go very wrong very quickly.
“My mental health deteriorated hugely.
“I developed crushing anxiety and I wasn’t sleeping at nighttime.
“About seven or eight months after the surgery, by which time I had stopped working, I woke up and thought ‘if this is my life, I don’t want to do this’.
“I became very close to taking my life.
“I told my husband and he took action straight away.
“I was sitting in front of a doctor the very same day and I was lucky – she completely joined the dots between my surgery and what had happened.
“She took the time to explain what had happened, why it had happened, and how to have some treatment called HRT with some evidence-based information.
“It made a huge difference.”
HRT – or hormone replacement therapy – can relieve menopause symptoms such as hot flushes, night sweats and mood swings.
According to the NHS website, “recent evidence says that the risks of HRT are small and are usually outweighed by the benefits”.
A therapist, Diane said she felt like she had to “do something to make fundamental changes” in the way the nation views menopause.
Her campaign Menopause Support, which is behind the #MakeMenopauseMatter campaign, is calling for training for GPs and a sex education curriculum in schools which confidently addresses the menopause.
“We should ensure that every woman receives an information booklet prior to her 40th birthday with a letter similar to the booklet she would receive for her breast screening or cervical screening,” Diane added.
“That wouldn’t cover everybody, because some people go through menopause prematurely under the age of 40, and it doesn’t cover people assigned female at birth who do not identify as women, which is why we need a public information in bars or libraries, on buses, tubes and trains.
“We need factual, evidence-based information not just for women, but for people who will not go through the menopause directly – such as male bosses or partners.
“Watford has made a good start.
“They’re talking about it and the next step is to run public events to interact with the community and really normalise the conversation.”
Diane has teamed up with Liz Cunningham of Letchworth-based Forward Slash Films to develop an immersive virtual reality “empathy and understanding” experience.
Councillor Jennifer Pattinson (LD, Meriden) proposed the council motion to support #MakeMenopauseMatter and took part in the VR experience.
“This is important because 51 per cent of Watford’s population are women and will go or have been through the menopause,” she said.
“We know there is limited support available and there is no real coordination around that support.
“My role as a councillor is to actually bring all of our different communities together, and we can do that around support for people affected by menopause.
“Menopause comes with lots of different symptoms, so there is no one menopause experience.
“It’s important everyone knows this – not just the 51 per cent who are women, but the 49 per cent who are not, because they are the support network.”
Cllr Pattinson added: “The borough council is an employer, and our fantastic managers will make sure they have menopause support in place for staff who need added flexibility or advice.
“Because the council has such a great network across different organisations, businesses, charities and the Chamber of Commerce, we can lead by example on this.
“We can also lobby the government, other councils, schools and the NHS to get that education in place and point everyone with questions in the right direction to get answers.”
As part of Cllr Pattinson’s motion, which received unanimous support from other council members, Watford Borough Council formally recognises menopause “understanding and empathy is so poor that women receive insults and rude comments from colleagues and managers” in the workplace.
A Health and Her survey from 2019 suggests 14 million working days are lost each year, and over half the women surveyed said they worked extra to compensate for lost days.
Lee Pound heads up human resources and organisational development at Watford Borough Council.
He said: “Watford as an organisation is very forward thinking and there’s a big commitment not just towards menopause but mental health in general in the workplace.
“We are always asking ourselves whether we have got the right people in the right places to have those conversations, giving staff the time to talk.
“We have also got to ask the question to staff: what is it you want and need to deliver the best outcomes possible?
“That is a big piece of work, and we are doing a lot more around financial wellbeing, understanding the impact of cost of living and then what we can put in place by way of a support mechanism that people feel empowered to use, and they can get the most out of.
“I have been in HR for the best part of 13 years, and menopause has always been something people are consciously aware of, but a lack of understanding of its impacts.”
Watford FC has pledged to support borough efforts to improve understanding and empathy around menopause.
Hornets equality and diversity lead Dave Messenger said:
“For us, menopause awareness is about learning so we can support our own staff and our own teams.
“Football’s got a lot of ground to cover to get more women in senior positions.
“If we’re doing the right thing to get women to join the club and stay with the club, we need to have a good menopause policy and understand what that means for women.”
You can find out more about Diane's work on her website Menopause Support.