Employers urged to do more for menopausal women in workplace
Ayr MSP Siobhian Brown wants to end the stigma around women's health and start 'important conversations'
Last updated 2nd Jan 2023
There are calls for employers to be more supportive of women going through the menopause
Ayr MSP Siobhian Brown is urging line managers and HR teams to be "more open" to conversations about women's health, and finding new ways to support them.
She is claiming around 14 million working days are lost in the UK due to menopausal symptoms.
What is menopause?
Around 51% of the population will go through menopause, with symptoms occurring between the age of 45-55 when periods stop due to hormone levels dropping.
The phase before that is called Perimenopause, where a woman can experience night sweats, hot flashes, joint pain, migraines and have trouble sleeping.
Davina McCall’s 2021 documentary ‘Sex, Myths and the Menopause’ sparked a conversation and increased the number of women seeking help.
Taboo subject
Siobhian Brown MSP said: “Historically menopause has been a taboo subject. It’s been something that women have just had to put up with.
"Every woman experiences different symptoms so it can be difficult to pinpoint. For me it was joint pain, fatigue and low mood. So it’s important as employers to understand these symptoms and change the way we think about menopause.
“When we think about the age women go through the menopause, we can see it is women of working age. Some of these women will be doing manual and physical work and we need to show some empathy and compassion to those going through this.
'Lets open up this conversation'
“As a mum myself I know we often put our own health needs last. Our families and jobs tend to come first leaving little time for ourselves.
"I want women to put their health at the top of their list for 2023. And I want employers to be open to these conversations about women’s health.
"Let’s open up this conversation in 2023 and lift this taboo.”