Lara Quentrall-Thomas: Support women going through menopause in the workplace

LARA QUENTRALL-THOMAS, Regency Recruitment and Resources Ltd founder, is hoping to develop policy guidelines and recommendations for employers to support women with menopause in the workplace.

The idea, she told Newsday during an interview on October 24, began when she started her PhD at UTT in September 2023.

Quentrall-Thomas, 55, said, she was thinking of doing her PhD around the topic of women in leadership or entrepreneurship when she became aware of her menopause experience. She was going through perimenopause, which usually happened ten-15 years before menopause, without realising it.

“It’s not a topic really talked about much. When you get symptoms you tend to think, ‘I’m getting hot flashes but the planet is on fire so it’s probably global warming. My back hurts, I’m not sleeping very well, maybe I’m just getting old. I’m putting on weight but that’s middle age.’ You attribute a lot of the symptoms to getting older.”

One day, to her confusion, one of her female friends made a comment about perimenopause being a “nightmare.” The friend explained it to her and she was relieved there was a name for what she was going through.

She started looking into it and realised how big of an issue it was, as menopause was treated as a national health issue in some countries.

“Essentially it impacts half the population at some point in their lives. Globally, something like 47 million women are in menopause or perimenopause every year.

“And the thing about it is, every woman’s journey is so different because there are over 200 symptoms. And every woman has a different combination, from nothing much to debilitating symptoms, to the point where some women have committed suicide because of the anxiety and depression that comes with it.”

Because symptoms were so varied, menopause and perimenopause could be difficult for doctors to treat, or they were not knowledgeable enough to do so. Also, for years they have been taboo subjects, spoken of quietly, if at all, as if they were shameful things.

She believed women did not want to talk about it because it could lead to contempt, prejudice or discrimination. But, she said, her generation, Gen X, was currently going through menopause and it was more vocal about their bodies, sex and wellness than previous generations. They were pushing the conversation forward.

She said the topic was even more taboo than menstruation because it signalled the end of a woman’s fertility.

“In a lot of cultures, particularly I think in Latin America and even in Caribbean in certain instances, for many women being fertile is part of their identity.

“A lot of women also suffer with sexual problems and we’re in a very sexualised culture. Women are accustomed to being very sexy and sexual, and menopause can completely disrupt that.

“Although for a lot of women, it’s a freedom and not having periods is amazing – being able to have sex without the worry about getting pregnant or the cramps or the money saved. But then you’ve got all the other symptoms that come with it.”

Quentrall-Thomas’ research was on productivity, wellness and what employers in Trinidad and Tobago could put in place to support those women.

A few symptoms of menopause and perimenopause included insomnia or interrupted sleep, anxiety, brain fog, imposter syndrome, hot flashes, trouble concentrating or with memory, joint or muscle aches, diarrhoea and sexual problems.

She found that, worldwide, about 30 per cent of women with menopause stop taking on extra work, about 25 per cent consider resigning and about ten per cent actually leave their jobs due to menopause symptoms.

She said the age at which women start perimenopause was generally in their 40s when they were already in or were moving into leadership roles in their organisations.

The World Bank said in 2022, about 43 per cent of TT’s working population, around 249,601, were women.

Meanwhile, a study in Canada said by 2040 about a third of the female workforce would be in perimenopause or menopause. If the one third average from Canada was applied to TT, that meant about 83,200 working women would be in menopause by 2040.

Also, a UK study said 69 per cent of women with perimenopause or menopause had difficulties with anxiety or depression, 84 per cent had difficulty sleeping and 73 per cent experienced brain fog.

All this could contribute to irritability and erratic moods, mistakes, inability to concentrate, forgetfulness and more. For some women, the symptoms were so bad they believed they were getting dementia.

“If you think about those things, it will affect your work. What is that doing to the productivity of our women in this country? And nobody is acknowledging this is an issue or putting things in place to help them.”

She said a significant part of the workforce was not at peak productivity but no one was discussing it and employers were not supporting them.

“But this is not a scientific study yet, as I still have a lot of research to do and there is no data for TT.”

Her plan was to study five different organisations with a large female workforce in the fields of banking, health care, manufacturing and hospitality.

Some of her recommendations included flexi-time and hybrid work policies, offering counselling, having hormone replacement therapy on their health plans, and having information available and training people, especially managers, so they could understand and empathise with employees.

She said she had already approached some employers and they were receptive to educating their employees.

“Some firms are picking this up and running with it, which is amazing. Hopefully they will inspire other firms to do the same.”