Organisations need to embrace menopause awareness to stop talented women leaving work - Dr Lindsey Thomas

Today we think that around 25 per cent of women find it very debilitating. There are well-known physical symptoms, hot flushes and night sweats. But, as a menopause specialist, the patients I help say the cognitive or psychological symptoms are even more significant.

Anxiety, low mood, feeling overwhelmed, losing confidence, not having clarity of thought and the effects of not sleeping all make women feel they cannot cope with working. They are also a cause of increased absences from work.

In fact, evidence has shown that there are 14 million working days lost in the UK to menopause a year. And six in ten women say that menopause has had a negative impact on their work. All of these statistics from the Menopause in the Workplace report by The Fawcett Society are eye-opening. They often come as a complete surprise to the business and organisational leaders which I work with as part of specialist clinic Myla Health.

As a society, we can’t afford for women at the height of their careers, with lots of skills and who are often mentors to others, to be lost from the workforce.

In the workplace, this age group - of women generally aged in their 40s and 50s but not always - is also the fastest-growing demographic. Organisations supporting women during this transition have better staff retention, and fewer absences. It is also a pull when it comes to recruiting, so it is a win-win situation.

So what more can we all do to help women cope with menopause while at work?

Organisations must embrace menopause awareness as they have other well-being issues, such as mental health.

Having a menopause policy is vital - but this can’t just be a tick-box exercise. It needs to have strategies that can be acted on.

Some companies I’ve worked with to develop menopause-friendly workplaces have appointed dedicated menopause champions among their staff. These people have a passion for helping women and signposting them to the right resources. In the workplace, having HR departments that are well-informed is also important. Menopause training sessions should be there for all employees, but especially managers.

Unless organisations raise awareness of and acknowledge menopause, it will remain an unspoken subject.

There are two key reasons for that. One of the reasons is that women still feel someone else will not understand what they are going through.

But secondly, nobody wants to be viewed as though they are not capable of doing their job anymore. Nobody wants to be overlooked for a promotion they have been working towards.

Sometimes people hold back from talking about menopause because of that stereotyping.

You may have seen menopause in the news more recently, with celebrities like Davina McCall and Drew Barrymore talking about their experience. This is a step in the right direction and helps more people to open up about menopause. However there is still so much to do.

Dr Lindsey Thomas works for the NHS Menopause Service in Leeds and has helped hundreds of menopausal women through specialist clinic Myla Health.