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I count my blessings that menopause was basically a non-event for me. I had one incident early on where I had a short time where I would have a sudden burst of heavy period and once it happened right as I was giving a grant presentation. That was pre-menopausal, I had a quick D&C (sometimes ? if that needed to be done, my doc at that moment was a bit of a quack) and no symptoms after that.
Empathy for women who have many symptoms, little sleep and still have to get through a 40 hour work week. Do employers have empathy?
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Guess I was fabulously lucky. I never skipped a beat when I hit menopause. I did have some tough times during peri menopause, but even that was far, far easier than my horrible, painful teenage periods.
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Me too. A few months of night sweats, and that was about it.
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Thankfully I was lucky. I had fairly painful periods until I had kids. I don’t even remember night sweats really. My doctor occasionally asks me when I went through menopause and I can’t tell her. I just remember the length between periods got longer and then one day there wasn’t a next one. I can’t believe it isn’t in my charts somewhere.
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Biggest non-story least credible blather of the year. Typical. And misogynist at the same time.
I’m writing one about how males get a cold and whine in bed for two weeks while women push forward through actual hardship.
Quote:
Researchers surveyed more than 4,000 participants at four Mayo Clinic sites in Minnesota, Arizona, Florida and Wisconsin. Roughly 15 percent said they had either missed work or cut back on hours because of their menopause symptoms,
“We took that data and extrapolated it based on the work force in the U.S.,
Oh yeah, that tracks…4000 women who actually showed up at Mayo Clinic BECAUSE of symptoms and then 15 percent! (600!) said they missed work (they checked a box–of course–they’re at a clinic because they have problems or cut back hours (another good reason to seek help) are the group to extrapolate to the entire work force.
Give me a break.
I’m not downplaying menopause symptoms–but this is an article that does women a big
disservice. Throw it in the “don’t hire women because they get pregnant” category. And also it puts menopause in the category of “horrible things that need to be fixed by medicine” category rather than a fact of life.
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Well, I am a believer but I’m not sure if anything with menopause is easily quantifiable. I’m on the other side now, but perimenopause and menopause were not great for me. Weird aches and pains, lack of sleep, brain fog, and some fun episodes of anxiety and rage! Not all at once, but for a year or two it felt like I’d deal with one symptom and then the next would pop up.
I think it’s hard to pin things on menopause because we are going through other things at the same time. Did the woman in the article quit because of menopause? Or because she had to deal with her aging parents and probably teenagers on top of menopause and…suddenly life becomes too much.
I quit my job heading a small NYC office of a larger European company, which I had loved - but then during the pandemic (and my meno-time) the job became very frustrating. I quit and received a few job offers shortly after - less senior positions at much larger US companies. I took one and I am happy and less stressed now. I’m also taking a ton of vitamins and have a whole wellness routine that seems to be working.
One thing that made me furious at my old job was that my male boss, in his 60s, was out for at least a month to get a hip replacement. But I couldn’t say - hey, I’m menopausal, my hormones are going nuts. I need some time to get this under control. I’d love to see that converstion normalized.
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It says 4,000 participants,at Mayo Clinics, but doesn’t say that was WHY they were at the clinics. I read that as the women were at Mayo Clinics for a variety of reasons and happened to participate in a survey.
The article should have specified whether or not that was the primary reason the women were seeking medical help at Mayo.
That said, I tend to agree with you. I remember working during pregnancies and people assuming I was a mass of hormones if I showed any emotions. There was no way on earth I was going to announce menopause in the office. I was fortunate enough to have mild symptoms, though.
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I may be assuming too much…but I doubt they included in their study the 85 year old woman who came into the clinic on her walker. Or the 25 year old with other problems. Or anybody outside the demographic who wasn’t seeking help.
On one hand it’s easy to roll my eyes and say I don’t see why I’d have to quit my job because of menopause symptoms. I went back to work after 1 week post partum and went through 3 years averaging 4 hours sleep/night in 1-2 hour increments and never missed an hour due to my fatigue. Nor did I miss with monthly bouts of mastitis. It wasn’t contagious - carry on. I couldn’t afford not to.
But then again, I work at a desk all day and don’t deal with life or death decisions. If I was a brain surgeon, I think it might have been a different story. So I think the type of job one has plays a role in addition to the symptoms.
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I think they maybe asked all women in a certain age group to participate regardless of why she was at the clinic. But the article should have made that clear.
In addition I sure as heck would not discuss my menopause symptoms in the office. There are a lot of other things I would not discuss either. If I had needed to take time off because of menopause symptoms, I would have just called in sick, no deep explanation.
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I do think women are discriminated against for being pregnant though.
It’s been a nightmare at my firm where some of the portfolio managers are on maternity leave.
An employer with fewer morals may just choose to avoid hiring women for senior positions in the first place.
I personally don’t understand it.
Why would you choose to work in such a competitive career if you know you’re just going to get pregnant half way in?
Do men who work in such competitive careers ever become parents and take parental leave?
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To help you understand it, because someone is pregnant, doesn’t mean the end of their career. It might just mean a short leave and then back to work. For example, I only had six weeks maternity leave, then back to work when I was in the military. I think I had three months in the airlines.
I’ll bet you didn’t realize that men end needing more sick time overall than women do, because of health problems and accidents. So I guess it’s worse because women are planning on a pregnancy? I do get the frustration for a company if someone keeps getting pregnant again and again, and they need to preserve their position. But are many young women at your company actually competing for senior positions?
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There are some older women (late 30s+/early 40s) who have gotten pregnant and are in relatively senior roles.
It’s just annoying.
And over the past few years, the company is trying to increase gender diversity in senior leadership because most of the senior employees are of the same demographic.
And I say, how can women expect to be in senior roles if they keep on taking breaks to become pregnant?
Many companies these days (mine included) offer parental leave. So men whose partners have a child take several weeks off. Would the same analysis apply? Anyone who wants to have a child should forego senior leadership? Or, would leadership just accomodate, since it involves both men & women?
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The ones who think like this don’t. I’ve worked for one and was offered a job with another.
My husband’s boss thinks like this, too. There are three men and two women in senior roles. The three men and one woman have families with spouses who don’t work outside of the home or work remotely part time. The other woman is single. All of them are 39-44.
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Thread is drifting from the OP. Debate about pregnancy in the work place can be a new thread or taken to PM since is likely to devolve in debate which is against ToS.
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This is one of the most sexist posts I’ve ever read on CC.
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