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1 – 10 of 157Carol Atkinson, Fiona Carmichael and Jo Duberley
In this chapter, we discuss menopause transition in the workplace and its implications for workplace well-being. This is an important work-life interface topic, given the…
Abstract
In this chapter, we discuss menopause transition in the workplace and its implications for workplace well-being. This is an important work-life interface topic, given the increasing number of women who will work during transition. It is also a topic that we currently know relatively little about, particularly in relation to well-being. We present findings that demonstrate both that many women experience symptoms that are bothersome at work and that these frequently have negative effects for two elements of workplace well-being, job satisfaction and health well-being. We evidence that individual/job characteristics and workplace context can either improve or worsen experiences of transition symptoms and make recommendations on how organization and HR practice can be designed to support women in menopause transition. We argue that working with line managers to create a more supportive context is one of the most important strategies to implement. Our research is situated in the UK police service and has wider relevance across the Global North, where similar demographic patterns are experienced, and in other male-dominated organizations and sectors.
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Vanessa Beck, Jo Brewis and Andrea Davies
The purpose of this paper is to consider the impact of these experiences on the authors’ work and on the authors.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consider the impact of these experiences on the authors’ work and on the authors.
Design/methodology/approach
Following the publication of the report, the authors undertook collective, autoethnographic memory work that forms the empirical body of the argument. This is presented in 13 vignettes.
Findings
The authors found themselves continually traversing.
Research limitations/implications
The paper analyses the challenges of researching what is a universal experience for women yet also a taboo subject. It discusses the relevant implications for and possible effects on researchers who investigate such topics in organisation and work studies and elsewhere.
Originality/value
Menopause experiences as they connect to work are under-researched per se. The paper extends knowledge of how this research area is not only shaped by researchers but has an impact on those researchers.
Elana Jaffe, David Rosen, Aunchalee Palmquist and Andrea K. Knittel
This study aims to estimate the prevalence of individuals receiving hormone therapy for menopause management and the prevalence of underlying conditions that may constrain options…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to estimate the prevalence of individuals receiving hormone therapy for menopause management and the prevalence of underlying conditions that may constrain options for pharmacologic menopause management in the prison context.
Design/methodology/approach
This study reviewed all prescriptions dispensed by the North Carolina Department of Public Safety between July 1, 2015, and June 30, 2016, for relevance to menopause management. Relevant medications were those either recommended for menopause management or those indicated for management of conditions that may complicate menopause management, as per the 2015 clinical decision-support algorithm tool developed by the North American Menopause Society. Analysis was restricted to women between the ages of 45 and 75.
Findings
Of 1,120 women, a majority (77.8%) were between the ages of 45 and 54. Less than 5% of individuals in this study were prescribed estrogen-containing therapy. The most commonly prescribed medications that may constrain options for menopause treatment were related to hypertension and other cardiovascular disease or mental health conditions.
Research limitations/implications
The retrospective nature of this data set limits the findings, given that researchers did not have access to diagnoses or data on polypharmacy. Still, this study indicates that many women over 45 experiencing incarceration are living with health conditions that may complicate menopause symptom management with hormone therapy. Future research in carceral settings must examine the prevalence of menopause-related symptoms as well as access to and quality of comprehensive menopause management.
Originality/value
There is a paucity of literature around the menopause-related needs of individuals experiencing incarceration. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other research has examined prevalence of pharmacologic menopause management among women who are incarcerated.
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Ana Isabel Córdoba Iñesta, Pilar Ortí Notari and Barbara M. Gfellner
Attitudes, experiences and knowledge about menopause are relevant, especially when menopause starts earlier than expected. This study aims to examine women who underwent this…
Abstract
Purpose
Attitudes, experiences and knowledge about menopause are relevant, especially when menopause starts earlier than expected. This study aims to examine women who underwent this transition “early” and “on-time” according to these factors.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample included 117 women, 69 with “on-time” and 48 with premature menopause. Participants completed three questionnaires.
Findings
Women with premature menopause had a better understanding of it but more negative attitudes and a higher incidence of physical and psychological symptoms, although they indicated greater feelings of control over their symptoms. Moreover, “early” menopause women appeared to exhibit greater anxiety.
Practical implications
Results underscore the need to inform women about menopause as a natural developmental process.
Originality/value
This paper shows the menopause as a difficult transition especially for women with early menopause.
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Claire Hardy, Amanda Griffiths, Eleanor Thorne and Myra Hunter
Women are typically reluctant to disclose menopause-related problems that may affect their working lives to line managers. Consequently, support may not be offered nor potential…
Abstract
Purpose
Women are typically reluctant to disclose menopause-related problems that may affect their working lives to line managers. Consequently, support may not be offered nor potential solutions explored. The purpose of this paper is to examine how working menopausal women would prefer to have conversations about the menopause at work.
Design/methodology/approach
Using semi-structured telephone interviews working menopausal women (aged 45–60 years) were asked about their experiencing of talking about their menopause at work, and how helpful conversations might be initiated and conducted. Transcripts were analyzed thematically to identify factors that may facilitate or hinder such conversations.
Findings
Two themes emerged: first, organizational context. Facilitators included an open culture with friendly relationships, a knowledgeable and proactive manager, organization-wide awareness of the menopause and aging, and access to a nominated woman to discuss problems. Barriers included male-dominated workplaces, male line managers, fear of negative responses, stigma, discrimination, embarrassment or believing menopause is inappropriate to discuss at work; second, the nature of the discussion. Facilitators included managers demonstrating an understanding and acceptance of a woman’s experience, jointly seeking acceptable solutions, respecting privacy and confidentiality, and appropriate use of humor, as opposed to being dismissive and using inappropriate body language. Discussions with suitable persons at work were preferred and being prepared was advised. The women in the sample advised having discussions with appropriate persons and being prepared.
Practical implications
These findings could inform training programs, workplace policies and practice.
Originality/value
This study provides insights to help women and their managers discuss menopause-related difficulties at work and seek solutions together.
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Kara Lee Daly, Gemma Pike, Victoria Clarke and Vanessa Beck
This qualitative study aims to explore general perceptions of a woman experiencing negative menopausal symptoms in the workplace. It examines the socio-cultural understandings…
Abstract
Purpose
This qualitative study aims to explore general perceptions of a woman experiencing negative menopausal symptoms in the workplace. It examines the socio-cultural understandings informing the responses of a mixed participant group, including those unlikely to have experienced menopause, to a hypothetical scenario involving a woman disclosing negative menopausal symptoms in the workplace – to either a female or male manager.
Design/methodology/approach
Using an innovative hybrid vignette-story completion (SC) technique, data were generated from 48 employees of a single UK-based organisation. Participants were presented with a vignette featuring a protagonist (Julie) experiencing negative menopausal symptoms, asked questions about their imaginings of Julie and how she might be perceived by others in the workplace, then presented with a story stem and asked to continue the story in the third person. The stem depicted Julie preparing to tell her manager about her symptoms and featured either a male or female manager, with one variation randomly presented to each participant. Responses were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.
Findings
This study reports four themes: (1) the burden of menopause; (2) managing menopause at work; (3) menopause as not belonging in the workplace; and (4) menopause as unlocking new life potential? Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.
Originality/value
Using the innovative hybrid vignette-SC technique, this study contributes to the current discourse on menopause in the workplace by providing insight into how menopausal employees experiencing negative symptoms are perceived by others and the social understandings that shape these perceptions.
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Menopause discourse plays a powerful cultural role in the west, serving to mark a (negative) shift in women's social status, shaping both social norms and women's self-appraisals…
Abstract
Menopause discourse plays a powerful cultural role in the west, serving to mark a (negative) shift in women's social status, shaping both social norms and women's self-appraisals and dividing women's lifecourse into two: fertile and post-fertile, with value attributed only to the former. However, in 2019 a new ‘solution’ to the problem of menopause entered public discourse in the form of a new surgical technology, offered by the private health provider ProFam, to delay menopause via ovarian freezing techniques. Aimed in the first instance at women seeking to avoid the disruptions of severe symptoms, it also quickly became framed as a way in which (especially childless) women might extend their fertility. In this chapter I explore menopause discourse as it appears in medical and popular sources associated with this new technology, looking at the continuities and discontinuities with earlier forms of menopause discourse. I also take a broader view in placing technologies for delaying menopause in the context of reproductive technologies used by women at all stages of the lifecourse, critically examining the claims that they give women choice, freedom and control over time. I suggest that in fact they are implicated with rather more complex temporal structures, captured in the concept of ‘ambivalence’ and characterised by a mixture of gendered expectation, anticipation and suspension of agency. Finally, I explore whether it is menopause itself, rather than its delay, that, in serving to disrupt such temporal ambivalence among other things, can in fact introduce the possibility of freedom.
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Gloria Guidetti, Sara Viotti, Daniela Converso and Ilaria Sottimano
Building on prior studies on the role of health-related and job-related issues in affecting presenteeism, the present study tested a mediation model of the relationship between…
Abstract
Purpose
Building on prior studies on the role of health-related and job-related issues in affecting presenteeism, the present study tested a mediation model of the relationship between job demands and presenteeism by exploring the mediation effect of menopausal symptoms.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through a self-report questionnaire involving social service menopausal employees (N = 204) from a public municipal organization. The survey was cross-sectional and non-randomized.
Findings
Results revealed that job demands, namely emotional, cognitive and physical demands, were significantly and positively associated with presenteeism. Furthermore, mediation analysis evidenced that physical job demands were also associated with higher levels of menopausal physical symptom bothersomeness, which in turn serves as a condition to increase the act of presenteeism.
Originality/value
The findings of this study widen the perspective on presenteeism research by evidencing the role of an overlooked health-related factor in relation to the act of presenteeism, that is the menopausal transition. Insights for the development of targeted preventive measures of the act of presenteeism and menopausal symptom management in the workplace may also be derived from these results.
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