More than 1000 delegates signed up for the Police Federation of England and Wales’ Mental Health in Menopause webinar last week which explored the profound impact of menopause on women’s mental health, workplace experience, and career progression.
PFEW Women’s Health Lead Hayley Aley and PFEW Acting National Chair Tiff Lynch were joined by Helen Tomlinson, who was the UK Government’s first-ever Menopause Employment Champion, and Oscar Kilo Service Director Andy Rhodes OBE QPM to discuss this critical stage in life on World Menopause Day [18 October 2024].
Presenting key findings from the 2023 Menopause Survey, Hayley outlined how the first survey in 2018 highlighted more of the expected symptoms, whereas the latest one five years on has provided a more comprehensive view into further issues including career progression.
A shocking 1 in 3 respondents have considered leaving their job while 56 per cent said they were now less likely to consider promotion or progression opportunities as compared to before they began to experience symptoms of the menopause; this increased to 61 per cent of respondents for those who found the symptoms of the menopause to be extremely or moderately problematic at work.
Hayley commented: “It’s the brain fog, it’s the anxiety, it’s the lack of confidence. The scarier side of this situation is it generally targets women at the peak of their career.”
Helen acknowledged how challenging it must be for police officers and staff who have a lack of autonomy because of the reactive nature of the role, adding: “The physical symptoms can be really difficult, but the psychological and cognitive symptoms as well can have a huge impact. That complexity makes it a bigger challenge.
“I imagine if I was in a role with the police where my cognitive ability can mean life or death for somebody. It is such a different situation.”
Helen shared her personal experience of when she went through perimenopause, meaning "around menopause" and referring to the time during which the body makes the natural transition to menopause.
Experiencing extremely heavy and erratic periods, Helen was unable to go to work sometimes and found herself working from home a lot more.
“I became anxious, and I lost confidence. I have never felt like that before, and I started to think ‘I can’t do my job anymore; I need to step down’,” she explained. “This is why I called the Government strategy ‘No Time to Step Back’ because, with the right support, there is absolutely no reason for anyone to step down or step back because it is just a transition and period, but in that period, I completely lost my confidence. It is not always the physical symptoms but the psychological symptoms as well.”
Women over 50 are the fastest growing demographic in the workforce and are working for longer, and support from employers is paramount when it comes to retention, explained Helen.
“Without that support, I wouldn’t have continued. I wouldn’t have reached my full potential,” she added.
The survey found that tiredness (85 per cent) and sleep disturbances (81 per cent) resulting from the menopause were cited as the most problematic menopause symptoms when working by police officers and staff.
This also raised the point of the menopause also impacting partners who may share a bed as it can in turn disturb their sleep.
On flexible working with alterations to start times, Hayley explained: “There are some forces who have really championed this, the ability to have that flexibility sometimes.
“If an officer or a member of the team has had an evening where they have had absolutely no sleep whatsoever and they’re due in on shift at 7am in the morning, there is that flexibility given the number and scale of officers doing those roles, that you could call your sergeant and swap to a late shift.
“Realistically forces must think about the health and safety issues, especially when it comes to driving police vehicles. It is about education and lateral thinking.”
Hayley further outlined how half of managers did not know whether their force had a formal policy regarding management of the menopause in the workplace and only 18 per cent said they had been given training on how to support someone.
“For us as an organisation in the public sector we would expect that to be a lot higher because it’s a key subject,” she said.
Helen, who is the head of talent development and inclusion for The Adecco Group, designed and implemented one of the UK's first corporate menopause policies.
She promoted four pillars of cultural change:
- Education
- Allyship
- Shared and lived experiences
- Leadership support and buy in
“Looking at the survey I would say training and education are really important. To retain that talent, we need to educate managers and leaders to enable them to have these conversations. There is also a lot of sharing best practice that needs to be done across all forces,” continued Helen.
Hayley pressed the need for consistency across forces before bringing in Andy Rhodes to provide his perspective.
He stated how the service can find it challenging to concentrate on promoting change in this area due to it being “such a frenetic operational environment” but championed the need for education.
“The consistency issue is postcode lottery,” he said. “We see this as a top three issue for us moving forward at Oscar Kilo. The consensus is from many senior people within the service is we need to sharpen up accountability about what’s happening around workplace health because it’s not enough just to see the top 10 forces doing great stuff and then someone from another force saying, ‘well why aren’t I getting that?’.”
Andy said they are currently in discussions with National Police Chiefs’ Council as it is becoming a “very critical issue”.
He added: “It is leading to less bums on seats, more people leaving when they shouldn’t be leaving and that puts additional pressure on those that are left, and we end up in this negative downward spiral where we’ve got 10/15/20 per cent of our deployable strength who isn’t actually able to deploy."
Line managers need to be educated, approachable and well-informed, he stated, but highlighted how many may not be suited to having these discussions with. He explained it would be beneficial for line managers to be informed on what is expected of them and how they can best support including through signposting.
Tiff Lynch then shared her experience of going through chemical menopause, following breast cancer treatment after being diagnosed in 2020.
Breast cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, hormone (endocrine) therapy or ovarian suppression can cause menopausal symptoms.
“It is one thing having to go through cancer treatment,” she said. “Once I had got through the cancer treatment there was no treatment I could take as I can’t take HRT.
“What a lot of people don’t realise is that when you have a medical condition creating chemical menopause that is another hurdle to get over. The hardest thing for me is figuring out if it is menopausal symptoms or symptoms of having gone through the cancer.”
From reading the 2023 survey there are some clear improvements, she stated, however stressed there must now be a consistent approach across forces.
“Is now about what are we doing to do. It has now got to a point where enough is enough and people should now be getting the right support”, she added.
Tricia Kershaw from headline sponsor Metfriendly spoke about how the menopause can affect women financially.
She cited how 59 per cent of women take time off due to the menopause and how nearly 1 in 5 (18 per cent) permanently reduce their hours.
Independent research showed a woman who simply reduced their hours until retirement could face a reduction of £32,059 in savings. Taking into account this happening due to menopausal symptoms, the impact on their financial future is hugely damaging, she explained.
Metfriendly has host of services available to help with your finances, including Lifetime ISAs for under 40s.
It actively supports the police services, provides useful financial information and news, holds free educational seminars and webinars, including on pre-retirement and pensions, and distributes regular emails with relevant and timely police-related financial news.
