According to Professor Jo Brewis, co-author of a Government report on menopause, “menopausal women are the fastest-growing workforce demographic”. The most common difficulties that menopausal women report at work include poor concentration, tiredness, poor memory, feeling low/depressed and lowered confidence. Problematic hot flushes at work have also been linked to women having a higher intention to leave the workforce. However, thanks to its recent empowering makeover, women are gaining a deeper understanding of this stage of their life and gaining control of menopause.
As well as a range of products that can be used at home, beauty brands are now turning their attention to the workplace and creating products that are handbag ready and discreet, to help you power through your day.
PRAI Beauty is one of these brands and in partnership with trusted UK retailer M&S, they have created an award-winning range of skincare designed specifically for perimenopause and menopause.
Cathy Kangas, CEO & Founder of PRAI Beauty and MenoGlow explained: “For many years women have felt the need to try and cover up menopausal symptoms in the workplace, due to the stigma surrounding it. However, thankfully times are changing and we’re doing everything we can as a brand to help break down the barriers.
“Some of the key physical symptoms women can experience are hot flushes and sweating as well as feeling tired from lack of sleep.
“This can also show on the skin, so we’ve spent time formulating a range of skincare for perimenopause and menopause, MenoGlow, which addresses the key changes to skin during this time as well as instantly addressing some of the physical symptoms.”
Portability is a key issue here. We already have handbags packed full of “essentials”, will we have space for adding bulky products to this?
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Tips for helping your workplace to be menopause friendly:
Menopause is no longer a taboo topic. Talk to your work colleagues about the symptoms you are experiencing and let them know how they can support you throughout the day.
Many women who experience sleep difficulties due to menopause, find concentration can be affected due to tiredness. You may need to ask for deadlines to be adjusted to allow for a longer time to be spent on a task. This will allow you to still feel that you are giving your best and achieving.
If hot flushes are a nuisance to you during your working day, more regular bathroom breaks may be required. Like supporting women during pregnancy, employers should easily be able to adapt to allow for this.
Whilst there is no legal requirement, any decent company should have a menopause policy at work? A menopause policy at work is a workplace policy setting out an organisation’s approach to female, trans and non-binary members of staff experiencing menopausal symptoms, and what support those employees can expect to receive during this time. Check you know what your policy is.
Ensure you have your menopause survival kit in your handbag. You may want to include MenoGlow’s hot flush system for instant relief, along with a cooling mini–ice pack and some calming essential oils. I would also recommend the beautifully natural range from Scentered.me or Sakrid.
Although menopause is not a disability, more than ever before, menopause symptoms are being acknowledged as having a long-term and substantial adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
This dramatic rise in the number of employment tribunals citing menopause shows that mistreatment of people due to their symptoms is no longer being tolerated in the workplace.
Managers with little understanding of the condition are increasingly being called out for inappropriate behaviour when it comes to managing staff suffering from the symptoms of menopause.
We’re an ageing population, with fewer new entrants from education joining the workforce, I believe organisations need to look after their ‘older’ workers to have the talent they need to run their businesses.
However, it’s a two-way street. Work is good for menopausal women. It contributes far more than just a salary, it can provide fulfilment, self-esteem and identity and social needs too.
But working environments like those with lack of temperature control, cramped conditions, some uniforms, and stress can also make menopause symptoms worse. If you’re an employer I urge you to instigate a menopause policy and consider the conditions in which we women are working.
About the author:
Natalie Elliott hosts The Natural Beauty Radio Show weekly on UK Health Radio, and is a clean beauty expert and the founder of award-winning beauty brand Sakrid.
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