If media images are anything to go by, menopause happens to older women, who are nearing the end of their career. This is a damaging and limiting perception, that is based on outdated stereotypes.
It’s damaging because the images generally used are of women in their 60s and older. Most women will be in their mid-40s when they start to experience their symptoms. That’s two decades younger than the women in most images used. It also means that for most, when they start their menopause, there are at least 20 years of career left to go. That’s long enough to push for that Executive role or to start and succeed in a completely new career.
It’s limiting because women fear what others will think about them when they reveal that they are menopausal. Fear drives many to remain silent. This is a disempowering and exhausting place to be.
Commonly women fear that they will age before people’s eyes. That they will be perceived as old, irrelevant and past it. Lastly, they fear that their current and future career prospects will be irrevocably damaged. This drives many to burn out, trying to overcompensate for a wide array of symptoms, including memory lapses, loss of verbal recall, difficulty concentrating, anxiety and mood swings to name a small selection. Many often choose to leave employment or downgrade their careers, rather than be labelled as the stereotypical menopausal woman.
All this sounds desperate, considering it is a life phase that all women will experience. But there are some very simple steps that can be taken to break the stereotypes and create a modern and empowering perspective.
Awareness changes everything
This is for everyone, not just women. Everyone knows someone of menopausal age and therefore needs to understand what it is, when it occurs and how it might impact them. It also breaks the bias and assumptions that are knitted into this phase.
Identify Whats Going On
Many women take months if not years to recognise they are menopausal. They are often waiting for a hot flush, which may never arrive or occur years into their experience. If a woman is in her late 30s or early 40s and is starting to have trouble sleeping, forgetting things or increasingly anxious, it is time to consider that it might be the early signs of perimenopause.
Start Talking
While it can feel counter intuitive, in being open women are defining how others speak about both them and their menopause. By staying silent they invite gossip and assumption which are never a good combination. There is a caveat here, women need to learn how to speak confidently about menopause. Apologies are disempowering and help neither you nor others to manage the situation.
Encourage Allyship
This is where menopause and society’s response to it will change. Allyship is not just for men it’s for everyone. It is an opportunity to actively support colleagues and loved ones and be a role model for others. Ultimately this will break stereotypes faster.
Demand change
It is time the media accurately represented women during this phase of life, not diminishing them by ageing them 20 years. Insist on being accurately represented or alternatively don’t use the products they are trying to sell.
Women need to change their view of menopause, educate themselves and ensure that should they need to, they can access effective support quickly. Equally everyone needs to get comfortable with this phase in life because it’s coming and it’s coming sooner than most of think.
