Menopause: Why it’s time for change in the workplace
A rethink on hormone therapy and fresh openness in the workplace are helping to make menopause less disruptive for many women. By Nicky Pellegrino.
Early last year, entirely unexpectedly, Julie Stafford lost herself. She went from being a confident, capable person to someone who often felt as if her job was beyond her.
"I was having panic attacks and heart palpitations," says Stafford, who is operations and projects manager at the University of Canterbury's College of Engineering. "I was so crippled by anxiety that I'd look at emails coming in and freeze, thinking I didn't know how to answer them. It was horrific. I've never experienced anything like it."
Trying to look competent when she felt anything but was exhausting. Previously a high performer at work, Stafford was battling brain fog, struggling to concentrate, and she feared she was letting her colleagues down.
"I have an amazing boss, but for months I couldn't tell her what I was experiencing because I'd got into a state where I felt paranoid and worthless."
She visited her GP several times and was prescribed medication for anxiety and depression, but nothing helped. By then, Stafford, 51, was post-menopause so it was a while before she began to suspect that the hormonal changes of midlife might be responsible.
"Everyone hears about the physical side of menopause, like the hot flushes and the sweats, but the psychological side is hardly talked about," she says.
There was a three-month wait to see an endocrinologist, but once Stafford described her symptoms, she was reassured very quickly that she wasn't losing her mind. The specialist prescribed what used to be known as HRT (hormone replacement therapy) but we are now meant to call MHT (menopausal hormone therapy), and, taking a combination of oestrogen and progesterone, Stafford found herself again.
"Within two weeks, I was less anxious, and after four to six weeks, everything started settling down and I was back to normal."
Stafford has turned her very negative experience into a more positive one for other women. She initiated and led the university's Ruahinetanga: Menopause at Work Programme, launched on World Menopause Day (October 18, 2021). There is now training for managers to help them hold sensitive conversations with staff, a website with resources, educational seminars with experts, a group of women who have been designated as menopause supporters, and plans for a monthly menopause cafe, so people can chat casually over coffee.