Take control of your menopause symptoms at work successfully
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Menopause, a natural phase in a woman’s life. While some women experience symptoms more intensely than others, they continue to fulfil their work responsibilities. There is an abundance of advice on how to reduce these symptoms in the comfort of our own homes but none that tackle how you can hold down a job and manage these symptoms simultaneously.
So, if your menopause symptoms disrupt your work routine or you know someone impacted by this, read on. We’ll tackle each of the common symptoms that are likely to impact your wellbeing and performance at work, offering practical guidance to empower you. We believe that it is possible to manage both the wellbeing and career during this new chapter of women’s lives without being forced to choose one over the other. Do share this article with anyone that you think would benefit from the below practical steps.
Feeling isolated and alone with your symptoms at work
It’s no surprise that when experiencing a pivotal biological change in your life you’ll feel as though you’re going through this alone. As hormone levels change, this has a direct impact on mood leaving you less likely to want to be your usual self. However, having managed open conversations at work with others that may be experiencing the menopause where you can freely talking about each other’s experiences will help you feeling less isolated and alone. Check whether your employer has a menopause policy and see what further can be done to inform your coworkers and management on menopause awareness. It’ll help them personally too given they’re likely to know friends and family that will or have experienced the menopause. Education and open conversations at work encourages empathy and should leave you feeling less isolated and alone.Fatigue at work
Feeling drained when we’ve not had sufficient sleep or have been eating well is hard enough but imagine constantly feeling this way due to a fluctuation in hormones, combined with potential sleep issues. Not great. It’s worth highlighting that employers have a duty of care to ensure your wellbeing is looked after during your working hours. So, don’t be afraid to request some workplace flexibility/adjustments to ask for shorter, frequent breaks to help recuperate and hydrate. Going too long with an adequate break is only going to compound your feeling of fatigue. Do consider getting a medical note to back your request of workplace adjustments in case you’re going to be met with some resistance by your boss. A medical opinion cannot be ignored by an employer. Avoid attempting to counter feelings of fatigue with caffeine. Excess caffeine is only going to increase your cortisol levels and impact your sleep quality. The same goes for refined sugar and carbs. While they may momentarily give you a burst of energy, this will leave you feeling energy depleted once the boosted energy dissipates. Focus on a diet that’s rich in nutrients, wholegrain carbs, healthy proteins and fats. Increasing your water consumption will also help if you’re not already sufficiently hydrated. Balance is key.Experiencing insomnia and other sleep disturbances during the menopause
Your sleep patterns and quality may be disrupted during the menopause, resulting in insomnia. This may look like difficulty in falling asleep, staying asleep or feeling unrested after sleeping for an adequate number of hours. It could also be as a result of suffering from hot flushes/night sweats at night. Naturally, insufficient sleep will leave you feeling tired, unable to cognitively and physically function at your usual best at work. Regarding your working situation, you should think about and discuss with your boss the possibility of adjusting your working hours to start earlier or later, depending on what works best to manage your sleeping patterns. Given the current ways of work, if your job enables you to work from home, consider temporarily increasing the number of work from home days with the backing of your doctor. If you’re experiencing a lot of stress at work, do ensure that you have an open conversation with your boss to address and manage this for your wellbeing. The last thing an employer would want is for you to go off on sick leave as a first resort. Limiting caffeine intake should also help manage your sleep issues. However, do speak to your doctor to see what options are available to you to manage your sleep issues. This could range from, but not limited to, cognitive behavioural therapy to hormone replacement therapy.Difficulty concentrating at work
This could be due to a combination of the other perimenopausal/menopausal symptoms listed in this article. It also could be due to the change in your hormone levels. In any case, what one our of Job Honesty admin team members has found is the following: 1) Shifting more mentally and physically demanding tasks to the time of day where she functioned at her best (of course, limited to the nature of the job and degree of autonomy). 2)Taking regular breaks to clear the mind, active mindfulness – where she felt her mind was drifting or zoning out she actively reminded herself to zone in again. 3) Being unafraid to ask colleagues and bosses to repeat something and for her to confirm her understanding of a task by writing it in an email or verbally repeating it to ensure nothing was misunderstood.Memory lapses at work
Memory lapses happens to the best of us when we’re not experiencing any biological change. However, during the perimenopause and menopause, some may suffer from memory lapses more than others. The way to manage this at work is to write notes and set reminders in your phone or work calendars. Create a colour coded scheme to help manage important information and tasks to take the burden of expecting your memory to serve you 100% of the time. If you tend to forget names and can’t recall a name in the middle of a conversation, feel free to gloss over this and say you need a cup of coffee. While we don’t condone masking your memory lapses, sometimes it’s needed if you don’t want to come across as unreliable at work in front of someone that does not need to know about your menopausal symptoms. The easier option would be to disclose it to your boss. We recommend choosing an approach that best suits your personal needs.Migraines at work
There are a number of options available to manage migraines at work not everyone is the same and therefore not one option will address this menopause symptom for all. Monitor what triggers your migraines during your working hours and note these over the course of a week to identify patterns. Then use this information to proactively pre-empt future migraines. Ensure that you are active during your working hours, manage your stress levels and caffeine consumption as well as how hydrated you are. Speak to your doctor for longer term migraine relief and whether migraine medication is a temporary solution.Dizzy spells at work
Similar to the above symptom, migraines at work, observe how often your dizzy spells occur and note patterns and triggers. Ensure that you take regular breaks and let your boss know about your symptom so that they make appropriate workplace adjustments for your safety. For example, if you were operating machinery your employer has a duty of care to protect the safety of you and others.Low moods, lower stress tolerance and anxiety
We recommend that you speak to your doctor about managing these symptoms in general in the first instance. However, there are other actions you can take to manage low moods, lowered stress tolerance and anxiety in the workplace. Adequate quality sleep is essential prior to and after work, as well as a nutrient dense diet, hydration, regular breaks, a reduction of caffeine and alcohol, speaking with your employer to receive support from them as well as others in your workplace that may be experiencing similar symptoms. Knowing that you’re going to be less forgiving with others at work due to the change in your moods will allow you to proactively manage and assess whether your response to coworkers aligns with how you would have responded before these symptoms. For example, if “Jane from accounting” hasn’t provided you with the information you requested a week ago to do your work, this naturally will disgruntle someone who isn’t experiencing a change in moods and they may send a short and to the point email requesting this information again. However, with a change in moods, you may feel triggered at Jane’s lack of responsiveness resulting in you sending a really direct and abrupt email. This is likely to impact your working relationship with Jane and be the start of a back and forth altercation.Increased appetite and weight gain at work
With the changes in hormones during the menopause and even during the perimenopause, some women may notice an increase in their hunger levels. An increase in caloric intake combined with a lowered desire to be active plus a decline in metabolism is a recipe for weight gain. If you’re hungrier than usual, then you should satiate your hunger with healthier, higher volume lower calorie meals. This could mean packing a side salad with your lunch, incorporating healthier snacks such as fruit with nuts. Be mindful of high glycaemic foods as this is likely to trigger sugar highs and lows which will leave you feeling even hungrier. Hydration is key to ensure that you’re not mistaking thirst for hunger, as it’s a well known fact that the cues for both can often be misinterpreted. Ensure that regular breaks are taken where possible, even if this is a simple stand up and stretch if you’re desk based. Incorporate as much activity as possible such as taking the stairs instead of the lift/elevator to get moving. If your job doesn’t permit your to snack throughout the day, speak with your manager/boss to schedule comfort breaks where you can snack to help manage this key change in your life. Do not be afraid to raise your personal needs at work so that your employer can make reasonable workplace adjustments for you.Hot flushes at work
Consider asking your boss/manager to move you to a cooler, more ventilated part of your workplace. If this isn’t possible or doesn’t work for you, consider a portable mini personal fan.Overactive bladder at work
Assuming that you’ve spoken with your doctor about this, do speak with your boss to ensure that you receive appropriate workplace adjustments such as being seated nearer the toilets. Packing spare work clothing, incontinence pads and knickers will help remove the worry that you have an accident and you have nothing to get changed into.Muscle tension and aches at work
Regular breaks and stretching will help with muscle tension and aches during your working day. So will having a hot water bottle, heat pads and cushions if you’re seated. Do speak with your boss to review what health and safety adjustments can be made to ensure you won’t put yourself and others at risk during your working hours.Any references to specific genders are purely for illustrative purposes and do not imply any assumptions about an individual’s identity.
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