It’s time to normalise menopause

What do you do if you’re about to deliver a very important business presentation and suddenly your body doesn’t want to cooperate like you’d expect it to?

“Talking about menopause can be difficult. Women have to judge how uncomfortable to make people with every conversation.”

This might be a frightening prospect for most people, but for woman undergoing menopause it adds a whole other layer of complexity.

This happened to me a while back when I was asked to address a group of senior leaders from ANZ and Suncorp Bank.

We had recently announced our intention to acquire Suncorp Bank and I was about to present to 200 people across both Suncorp Bank and ANZ who would be leading the acquisition. We were excited about the transaction and wanted to build confidence within the Suncorp Bank team.

But right as I was about to speak, I felt a massive hot flush coming on. It was overwhelming – but I decided to tackle it head on.

I stopped my presentation and said: “OK, for those of you who don't know what's going on, I'm a woman of a certain age and if you haven't seen it before, this is called a hot flush.”

I can still remember the moment. A number of middle-aged women in the group stood up and started clapping. And afterwards we had great feedback from the Suncorp Bank team.

They had been worried ANZ people would be stuffy and boring. But my openness helped show people at ANZ were real and human too.

And it helped illustrate something I’m really passionate about – helping to normalise discussion of menopause in the workplace.

Economic impact

The reality is menopause affects the experience of so many women in the workplace – and yet it is not discussed anywhere near as much as it should be.

Around a third of Australian women in midlife say menopause symptoms make it hard to do daily activities, according to the Australian Medical Association.

This can be due to the symptoms which – in addition to hot flushes – can include anxiety, depression, mood swings, forgetfulness and brain fog.

Any of these would make it hard to do your job, let alone a combination. Research from the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) showed 45 per cent of women retiring under the age of 55 did so due to sicknesses, injury or disability. Also, that women retired, on average, 7.4 years earlier than their male counterparts

As a result, menopause costs female workers in Australia about $17 billion each year in lost earnings and superannuation, according to the AIST research.

In my experience there are three groups of women who go through menopause. There's about 20 per cent of women who wake up one day and their periods have stopped.

There's the 20 per cent at the other end who have quite debilitating symptoms. And then there's the 60 per cent in the middle who have milder symptoms.

I'm in the 60 per cent who had classic, mild symptoms. I had night sweats, hot flushes and the one that's affecting me at the moment – my body hurts everywhere, including in my joints.

I work out several times a week and as my estrogen levels drop, I'm achy all over. I've been on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for about two and a half years now. The night sweats went away quickly and the hot flashes reduced significantly.

As women experience this, only about one third are comfortable raising the topic at all. This has to change.

Just think about the progress made in mental health. The openness around that issue has accelerated in the last decade, including normalisation of the topic and education about its impacts. The number of adult Australians with a mental health condition in any 12-month period is about 20 per cent.

This corresponds with the roughly 20 per cent of women with significant menopause symptoms. But arguably there is more understanding of the impacts of mental health compared to menopause.

Support networks

Talking about menopause can be difficult. Women have to judge how uncomfortable to make people with every conversation. In truth, you have to get to the point where you're making them a bit uncomfortable, without being offensive. It can be tricky, especially in a wider forum.

Many women also fear it could be career-limiting to acknowledge what’s happening to their bodies and have colleagues assume they may not be able to do their job effectively.

Women can often find informal networks for support with colleagues, but the conversation must be broader than that.

In recent years I’ve leant on my relationship with Antonia Watson, who runs ANZ’s New Zealand business. Our birthdays are three days apart, so we’re at a similar stage of life.

Antonia was already talking about menopause in New Zealand and I was struck by how comfortable and confident she was when discussing it.

There probably aren’t too many companies where two women run significant divisions – and they’re both practically the same age and both comfortable talking about menopause.

It’s something Antonia and I have laughed about and it's pretty unique. We both decided we wanted to champion the issue and help normalise it – both within ANZ but also across society more broadly.

One aspect which can make it difficult for workplaces to adapt is the diversity of experience and how workplaces should repsond. It's not a one size fits all experience.

Consumer products company Dove did research recently asking what women wanted their workplaces to offer. The number one ask was flexibility and the second highest request was to have control over the room temperature. One way to deal with those hot flushes.

Increased flexibility

At ANZ we’re working on the flexibility issue, which will be aided by greater understanding of menopause across our entire workforce. We’ve had a flexible working policy since 2015 which supports our people to choose what flexibility means for their teams.

We have ‘My Days’ which aren’t labeled for a specific purpose and can give people the flexibility to take time off to deal with whatever they need they’re facing.

We’re also educating staff on how to have the conversations, both for employees, but also for the managers.

Recently I was in a one-on-one meeting with a board members and I could feel a hot flush coming on. It was an important conversation, so I was attempting to power through.

The female director noticed my discomfort and, mistaking my symptoms, asked why I was so nervous. I quickly responded: “I’m not nervous. I’m having a hot flush.”

She rocked back in her chair and started laughing and apologised for not recognising my menopausal symptoms.

It highlighted perfectly how menopause can impact women in the workplace. I’m not a nervous person and I wouldn’t want my symptoms to be misconstrued as nerves or lack of confidence in my work.

Should women in those situations respond honestly and explain what’s happening? Would I have reacted in the same way if it was a male director? The answer to these questions is yes – but we need to help normalise the topic so women feel comfortable doing so.

We are still in the early days of this discussion as a community on how to manage it sympathetically and effectively.

But I'm confident we can help build awareness and normalisation of menopause and its effects on women.

Maile Carnegie is Group Executive, Australia Retail at ANZ.