Understanding the Menopause – event follow up

Understanding the Menopause – event follow up

Last week we (WISH Yorkshire and Humberside) hosted the first of our 2-part national event series about the menopause, and what an event it was! The focus was ‘Understanding the Menopause’ and we were joined by over 200 guests and four brilliant speakers: Sharon Macarthur (Miss Menopause), Debi Marriott-Lavery (Group Executive Director – Places for People), DI Steph Fox (West Yorkshire Police) and Jeannette Jackson (Director - Manchester Stress Institute).

The honesty, generosity and experiences shared by our speakers blew us away and we were both heartened by the response from those attending, and energised by the clear need there is for this work. As Sharon mentioned, whilst the symptoms of the menopause varies for individuals, everyone deserves to find the solution for their experience. We hope that you were able to find some answers, inspiration, and solidarity through the session and the stories that were shared. And if you’re looking for more support there’s lots of blogs and resources on Sharron’s website - this post focuses on ‘How to talk to your doctor about the menopause’.

As promised, you can re-watch the event back here.

And here’s another reminder of Debi’s powerful artwork - a piece she created to represent her experiences after surgical menopause. We love it. Thank you for sharing Debi.

Jeannette from Manchester Stress Institute focused on the impact nutrition can have in helping manage symptoms of the menopause. Here are Jeannette’s slides, meal plans, and a link to access her organisations’ training support. (Jeannette also mentioned that chia seeds are a great source of nutrients and you can get 200g for £1.35 from Aldi and add them to smoothies, cereal, and baking etc). For her recipes and slides click here.

There is still much to be done to change the stigma and misunderstanding around the menopause (in all professions) which Steph talked about brilliantly, and we are really looking forward to our next event which will be addressing this. Join us during WISH’s International Women’s Day week-long celebrations to focus on how organisations can become menopause diverse employers. Please encourage your colleagues, managers, CEOs, HR professionals and any other housing colleagues to join us as we work to make change for women in housing, and beyond.

We’d like to end by saying another huge thank you to our speakers, to everyone who attended and to those who shared their experiences and advice in the live chat. You made it a really brilliant event and we look forward to seeing you again soon.