Mindful menopause: making moments matter

I write this on October 31^st, Halloween, and the historical links between menopause and witches is apt. Check out this positive pause post if you want to know more about this.  However, that is not the reason for me taking a moment to reflect on my activities around menopause awareness, over the last month. October is, amongst many other things, Menopause awareness month, with World Menopause Day being October 18^th. This year’s theme and focus was around raising awareness about the benefits and risks of hormone therapy for managing menopause symptoms. This directly is not something I have personal experience of, but this topic is something that crops up at most, if not all, menopause café’s that I’ve been involved with.

This month I had the pleasure of facilitating an in-person menopause café as part of the Healthy Lives event being held in Trowbridge community centre, organised by colleagues in Cardiff and Vale University health board. It was refreshingly nice to facilitate an in-person café with a different group of people, as my experience of this role has been firmly embedded online for the Cardiff University café’s.  Yet despite the differences, the topics of conversation were surprisingly familiar, and the peer support reassuringly strong. It is worth taking a moment to acknowledge the common themes, and topics of conversation, that repeatedly crop up.

First off, I want to acknowledge the impact of brain fog on day-to-day life. Brain fog is real. There is no dispute about the impact of menopause on memory, and this is often discussed at cafe’s. There are many who recommend practices like mindfulness and meditation that help one slow down in life, to help deal with menopause. Next up are discussions around the impact of menopause on mental health, the impact on careers and the impact on relationships (both with work colleagues, friends and partners). i acknowledge that there is so much grouped into a single sentence, but strategies for coping and managing work with the breadth of symptoms that accompany menopause are freely shared at menopause cafes. These can range from small tips to grand plans, but all are underpinned by understanding and care. At the recent cafe, there was agreement that we all appreciated employers who offer more flexible working, who provide appropriate adjustments and support, and regular information sessions. Someone highlighted the usefulness of tick sheets (such as this symptom checker) to track menopause symptoms, particularly in relation to support conversations with healthcare providers, to gain appropriate medical support. The frustration of not being heard or believed was as ever, sadly, very real for some. HRT featured in these discussions. In addition to all that, we also talked about the need to get male colleagues on board and advocating on the topic too. As you can see, there’s much to talk about in a menopause cafe.

Beyond the café’s, this month I have worked with some medical students to put together personal project proposals for their “student selected component (SSC)” projects that will run early next year. To help spark inspiration for these projects, I shared the list of questions that we gathered from a previous healthy lives event. This list included: Why don’t men accept the impact of the (Peri)menopause? Why don’t the young and/or males interact with the topic? How do we get male colleagues on board and get them to interact and take this topic seriously?  I’m pleased to say, at least one student has built on these prompt questions gathered at a public event, for their project proposal. I’m looking forward to seeing how their work pans out, so watch this space for future updates on this discussion point.  I’m very open to working with others, and collaborations, so if you are interested in any of this, please get in touch.