“In the face of desperation, unknowns and taboos, quackery and miracle toxins look oh-so-appealing to women who struggle. Menopause is no joke. This too shall pass, but when you’re in it you’re in it.”
~ Dr Emma Ross, CSO @ The Well HQ
Menopause has been in the news. Not just ‘cos it’s Menopause month — and eye-roll because if you’re in or near it then every month is menopause month — but BBC Panorama sure did stir up a hornet’s nest.
Sigh. For all the progress in menopause, and there has been progress, there’s still so much mysticism around symptoms, HRT and the whole menopause ecosystem. Given menopause has been undersold for generations, confusion and mistrust have filled the voids where education and acceptance should live.
A stone cold fact is that some 75% of women in menopause will experience symptoms and, of those, some 25% will experience extreme symptoms. And in the desperate hunt for options and solutions, a key controllable is often overlooked …
Menopause is everyone’s business
A year or two back we were soapboxin’ big to push NGBs, brands and organisations to acknowledge and better support women in menopause.
Because it’s in everyone’s interests. For one, dropout stats among menopausal women in the workplace are ridiculous. Given the professional seniority of many midlife women, replacement costs can be eyewatering.
Oh and for two … whether you’re male, female, a horse or a house rabbit all of us will, at some point, go through menopause or stand beside a loved one in the thick of it. Without decent support there’s bound to be struggle and no one wants that.
Menopause is everyone’s business.
Another piece in recent menopause discourse came via our own Dr Bella and last month’s Medical BS column. We had a great response as Bella called out the multidirectional struggle of women who can’t take HRT and feel overlooked. Abandoned. Dejected.
A key issue in the HRT discussion is that it’s loud. Good, bad or indifferent HRT can dominate menopause and drown out a fundamental facet in the solution.
Lifestyle. HRT can be a hugely important piece of the puzzle but that’s it. It’s one piece. Lifestyle however is a point where women, employers, trainers and anyone who cares can rally around. All of us have relative agency in how we live.
By the time we reach midlife, all of the lifestyle components which comprise our wellbeing play together – not one lives in its own air.
Knowledge + integration = positive change
A year ago we released The Menopause Edition of The Female Body Course.
We’re not so arrogant to think we’re the only ones who know how to treat and condition the midlife female body, but there’s a huge but in here. When in menopause a woman isn’t just a body: she’s not bones and muscles in isolation.
Health and wellbeing are holistic. That’s a truism all through life, but in menopause / midlife it’s inescapable. There’s so much going on physiologically, emotionally and socially and the interplay of all of the above really matters.
A major leisure firm recently told us that their menopause specialists are trainers who’ve completed a two-hour course on body parts. As is, the bar is not high.
So where we differ (CIMSPA accreditation aside) is looking beyond the obvious. It’s connecting sports bra fit with posture and pain. It’s connecting pelvic floor health with strength training and then to injury risk reduction. We have to factor in mindset, nutrition, stress; her social and psychological state all so midlife women have what they need to stay positive and healthy. In life and doing what they love.
Take the course, tell us what you think
Menopause. By and large awareness isn’t where it needs to be. HRT can be a sideshow distracting from the one thing all have in common. It doesn’t matter whether you are her, help her or love her. HRT or no – lifestyle matters.
Armed with more / deeper knowledge, lifestyle components can be put to work, pulling women away from snake-oil-despair, towards hope, power and autonomy.
TWHQ offer four groundbreaking, evidence-based courses on the female body across her different lifestages.
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