The OSiT Menopause Policy

At some point in their life, the Menopause will affect all women. The symptoms for each woman vary but there is no doubt that the peri-menopause and the menopause have a significant impact on all areas of a woman's life. 

One of those areas being work. Yet there is still a big stigma hanging over this subject and many workplaces still don’t have clear policies around how to support women in their team who are menopausal. 

Here at OSiT we didn’t want that to be the case. After all, our workforce is more than 70% female. 

So, two of our lovely OSiTeer’s, Amelia Woolley and Jamie Stuart have been working together over the last few months to draft a Menopause Policy for us and are currently the faces a new awareness campaign we have launched, “Let’s talk about the ‘M’ word”.

Facts about the Menopause

• In its simplest of terms, The Menopause is a hormonal inbalance, which causes a womans periods to stop.

• Typical symptoms of Peri Menopause and Menopause include anxiety, mood swings, brain fog, hot flushes, irregular periods, reduced libido, joint pain, low mood, and weight gain.

• Peri Menopause is when a woman experiences symptoms before her periods have stopped. A woman reaches Menopause when she hasn’t had a period for 12 months.

• It is estimated that there are around 13 million women in the UK who are currently Peri Menopausal or Menopausal. That is the equivalent of one third of the entire UK female population. 

• The average age of a woman reaching Menopause in the UK is 51. But, roughly 1 in 100 women in the UK experience the Menopause before the age of 40.

According to the recent Menopause and the Workplace report from the Women and Equalities Committee, there are currently around 4.5 million women aged 50–64 in employment. However, BUPA have found via their research that 900,000 women have left their job over an unspecified period because of menopausal symptoms.

The Menopause and Me

Everybody’s experience with and understand of The Menopause is different. We’ve reached out to some of our team and our friends who have kindly agreed to share their stories with you. Jamie has also shared his perspective on everything he’s learnt over the last few months. 

The truth is, the stigma around The Menopause has gone on for too long. Now is the time to raise our awareness, strengthen our knowledge and support one another. 

It’s time to talk about the ‘M’ word.