00:00Hello, Valdis here, age 61 and post-menopause.
00:04But when I was in my early 50s, and going through the perimenopause, as we mainly do,
00:11I didn't have any of the normal symptoms. I didn't have night sweats, I didn't have hot flushes like my
00:16friends did,
00:17and I thought, gosh, I'm one of the lucky ones.
00:21But then it hit me, and there was one particular year, I think it was 2015,
00:27when I started to become anxious, and then a deep depression overwhelmed me for about four months.
00:35And there was nothing going wrong in my life at all. I love my life, I love life.
00:41So I couldn't quite work out what it was. Eventually, I realised that it was kind of tied into the
00:46menstrual cycle.
00:48I am shocked, to be honest, that an estimated one million women have given up work because of these feelings
00:58that they have in the workplace,
01:00or have reduced their hours at work and given up, you know, promotion at a time, you know, in their
01:08late 40s and in their 50s,
01:09when they should just be reaching the pinnacle of their careers.
01:13It has to stop. And I'm delighted to be an ambassador for the fantastic charity Wellbeing of Women,
01:20who have campaigned for this and work with many employers and are planning on working with many more,
01:26with the Menopause Workplace Pledge.
01:29So I am giving my full support to that, lots of details at the charity's website,
01:34and I hope that you can give your support too. Get your employer going on this one.
01:39All the best.
Comments