Highlighting menopause support available this Menopause Awareness Month | Primary care latest updates

This month (October) is Menopause Awareness Month and on Wednesday 18 October 2023, Integrated Care Northamptonshire is celebrating World Menopause Day. This is a chance to raise awareness of menopause, the impact it can have and the support options available for improving health and wellbeing.

The menopause is experienced by those born with ovaries, usually between the ages of 45-55, though some can experience it earlier than this for natural reasons and others may experience it earlier through medical interventions or surgery.

Menopause is a very personal experience and can affect people at work in various ways. To help people stay well at work, it is so important for us all to understand menopause better, whether that is with regard to our own menopause, or to understand menopause in others. We all have an important role to play in ensuring that anyone experiencing menopausal symptoms gets the same support and understanding as if they had any other health issue.

Why is raising awareness so important?

According to research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), 59% of women who experienced menopausal symptoms said it had a negative effect on their work and around one in six people (17%) have considered leaving work due to a lack of support in relation to their menopause symptoms. The easier you make it for someone to open up to you, the easier it will be to identify the support they need.

Each person will be affected in different ways and to different degrees over different periods of time, and symptoms can often indirectly affect their partners, families and colleagues as well. Menopause can affect people’s confidence and it can be very daunting talking to someone who has no knowledge/ or awareness of the menopause.

Integrated Care Northamptonshire is committed to providing an inclusive and supportive working environment for everyone and we recognise that people experiencing the perimenopause or menopause, whether before, during or after this time of hormonal change and associated symptoms, may need additional consideration, support and adjustments.

What can you do to help?

Becoming menopause aware for yourself and your colleagues is one of the easiest things that you can do to support yourself, your team and your colleagues – and the following resources and information are available to help with this:

• Menopause awareness e-learning for healthcare module for all health and care colleagues. Get support with registration to access the training.
• Menopause information on the NHS website

Available support

• NHS Northamptonshire Talking Therapies offers interactive support with a menopause webinar and workshop available to help anyone who thinks that they might be going through any stage of the menopause (perimenopause, menopause or postmenopause) and experiencing low mood or anxiety. The workshop will help you to help yourself in managing your symptoms that are impacting your mood. If you are interested in joining this workshop, the first step is to register for support by completing the online registration form
• The Midlands Menopause Community of Practice is a group that helps NHS colleagues deal with menopause. The agenda is led by the network and often will include shared lived experiences from members and time for questions and answers. NHS colleagues are invited to register online if they wish to join
• National menopause guidance has been developed by NHS England for line managers and colleagues experiencing the menopause
• The NHS Menopause Hub, in partnership with Joined Up Derbyshire, has developed a series of menopause support sessions for colleagues across health and social care, starting 16 October – find out more and book online on Eventbrite

Additional support offered by Northamptonshire NHS organisations

• Kettering General Hospital – menopause information on the KGH intranet (accessible to KGH staff only)
• NHS Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board – ICB menopause policy (accessible to ICB staff only)
• Northampton General Hospital – menopause information available on The Street health and wellbeing pages (accessible to NGH staff only)
• Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust – menopause information available on the Staff Room health and wellbeing pages and menopause guidance for staff, including a menopause passport and a symptom checker (accessible to NHFT staff only)

Your menopause experience at work

Integrated Care Northamptonshire is working to increase the awareness of menopause and highlight the support available for the NHS and social care workforce across Northamptonshire, alongside creating a menopause-friendly culture, retaining valuable skills and talent with our workforce, and improving the health and wellbeing of our teams.

Please help us understand how our staff experience menopause in the workplace and tell what else we can do to raise awareness and improve the working lives of our workforce by completing this short questionnaire.

You don’t need to be someone with experience of menopause personally to take part.