Mastering menopause: the founder of Ireland’s first menopause clinic on speaking out

The menopause is one of the biggest events in any woman’s life and yet it is also one of the least talked about.

Most women cope with this confusing rite of passage by keeping quiet or making a joke of it. It doesn’t help, of course, that it occurs at one of the busiest stretches of a woman’s life. According to Annemarie Byrne, a nutritional therapist and coach, “Most of the women who come to me have the foot on the pedal. They have young kids, a career, ageing parents who need care. Stress levels are high. They are slow to realise they are in this period of change because they are last on their own list.”

Loretta Dignam is the founder of The Menopause Hub, a clinic for women going through the menopause that offers, among other things, GP assessments, nutritional guidance, physio and acupuncture. “I give menopause education and awareness training in the workplace and when I present the 40-odd symptoms women can get during the menopause, I see women connect the dots often for the first time. Because most know about hot sweats and loss of periods, but how many of us know about anxiety, panic attacks, joint pain, brain fog and memory loss? They are hugely relieved when they understand what’s going on because many of them thought they were going mad.”

Why do we know so little? “We are simply not educated about it,” says sexologist Emily Power Smith. “It should be taught in schools. This is a huge event in a woman’s life. It’s also inevitable. It will happen to you. Why don’t we know more?” In her experience, women don’t seek help until the symptoms have become overwhelming. This is why Annemarie likes to catch women in their late thirties. “Catch them later, and they tell me they don’t have time for self-care. And then I have to tell them that getting out of the downward spiral is going to take a lot more time than the self-care ever would have done.”

But attitudes are changing. In 2020, Vodafone announced its own employee commitment on the menopause, providing awareness training, sick leave and flexible hours. And there was the Joe Duffy show. Since it covered the menopause over five days last May, menopause clinics and mentors around the country found themselves inundated with calls. And last September 25th saw The Menopause Success Summit, a live online event featuring some of the top menopause experts (menopausesuccesssummit.com).

So what do you need to know? “Don’t suffer in silence,” says Loretta. “Get the right help from the right people.” With this in mind, we’ve assembled some of Ireland’s leading voices – meet Loretta Dignam, who says to;

Speak out

By Loretta Dignam, founder of The Menopause Hub, Ireland’s first menopause clinic – a multi-disciplinary practice with doctors, gynaecologists, acupuncturists and psychologists (themenopausehub.ie). Loretta also advises on menopause in the workplace, giving education and awareness training.

“Twenty-five per cent of women have debilitating menopausal symptoms. I say to women, never suffer in silence. Go to HR or speak out amongst colleagues in the same age group. Go together to HR. Say there is an issue in the organisation. Request awareness training. If you have an unsympathetic boss, judge the culture and its individuals, look for support in empathetic areas. This is a recruitment issue – in the UK, ten per cent of women leave the workplace because of menopausal symptoms and even more consider it. Employers don’t want to lose female employees they have invested in, and increasingly I find they want to offer support. They might have a wife in a similar position or a mother that went through it – they want to get it. They know they need to start being menopause-friendly. I’d like to see flexible hours, lunch and learns, menopause champions in the workplace women can reach out to, access to cold water, rest rooms. People don’t realise what a big economic issue we are facing. Women are now living a third of their lives without oestrogen. They are more at risk of low bone density, dementia and heart disease and their health is declining. It’s time to take control.”

For more from Ireland’s leading experts on mastering menopause, see Sallyanne Brady on finding a community of support here, Annemarie Byrne, nutritional therapist and coach on nourishing yourself here, sexologist Emily Power Smith on loving yourself here, gynaecologist and women’s health doctor Dr Shayi Dezayi on seeking an expert medical opinion here, stylist and personal shopper Michelle Kilroy on feeling confident here, Dr Nina Bing Liu of AcuPlus on rebalancing here, physiotherapist Christine Gioia on getting moving here or see the full series here.

Illustration by  Anne O’Hara. This article originally appeared in the Autumn 2021 issue of IMAGE Magazine.