the payoff of supporting women's health at work
8 minute read
menopause can be "this amazing positive time in your life that you can thrive, and how great it is for companies to support women because there's a massive financial implication in doing so,” says aimee debow of menovate, second from left.
brittany carmichael
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aimee debow worked in the corporate world for 25-plus years in toronto, mostly in telecom, in senior roles and loved everything she did, including the historic merger of rogers communications and shaw communications.
but for the last 10 to 15 years of her corporate career, she “suffered tremendously” from perimenopause and menopause. “i was one of the 25 per cent that had severe impact. so severe brain fog, like i could work on a massive project and know everything about it and then go to present and i could remember nothing. terrifying.”
it wasn’t just the brain fog that sapped her energy and undermined her performance. she also had night sweats, anxiety and alarming heart palpitations. but she had no idea what was happening to her, and she worried that it might be early-onset dementia. she turned to doctors for answers to no avail. “i saw a brain doctor. i saw a joint doctor. i saw heart doctors and nobody, not once, said this could be perimenopause. that was for years, and thankfully, things are changing now,” she says, adding she doesn’t want to see other women feel as uncertain and unsupported as she did.
living with unexplained symptoms of menopause
“i was going to work. i was exhausted. i was a very high performer, so i was working extremely hard on very little sleep with a lot of things going on in my body.”
she started her own research, gathering resources that pointed to hormonal transitions that naturally come with perimenopause and menopause, also clarifying that symptoms can start for women in their 30s. these hormonal transitions don’t equate with misperceptions about aging.
debow, now 57, also had two frozen shoulders that required surgery. when she asked doctors about the issues relating to hormones, “they both told me i was crazy,” she says, adding that research shows how declining estrogen in perimenopause and menopause affects joints, bones, muscles and connective tissue, establishing a link to frozen shoulder. “my arms were completely stuck. they didn’t work at all.”
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while trying to cope at her job, she also recognized the same symptoms in other women executives with very dark eyes, caused by lack of sleep, exhaustion, brain fog, and sweating, because they were taking their sweaters off during meetings. she started approaching them to see if she could have a conversation with them at work about what they were going through.
“they would not have this conversation: ‘do not ask me about this. don’t think that i’m in menopause.’ it’s still extraordinarily stigmatized. and so i was like, wow, half the population is going through this at work, and nobody will talk about it.”
she left her job and took a year to make some lifestyle changes to eat better, get proper sleep and exercise. then she decided to open the conversation about perimenopause and menopause for women in the workplace. she founded menovate, where she gives talks to employers, human resources personnel, women and men about what is going to happen and why it’s happening to women—as a rally cry for change.
breaking down stigma about hormonal transitions
“it can be this amazing positive time in your life that you can thrive, and how great it is for companies to support women because there’s a massive financial implication in doing so,” debow says, noting that 10 per cent of women quit work because of symptoms. “there’s a productivity issue. there’s a sick leave issue. i took two sets of sick leave for my shoulder surgeries plus other sick days because of my symptoms, as do so many other women. with a very little amount of support, you can fundamentally change culture.”
women’s health is becoming recognized as a workforce issue, and employers are starting to respond. the topic was the focus of a vital talks panel on may 14 through the women’s health collective of canada called “the health and wealth imperative: investing in women to power the economy.”
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debow was on the panel, along with jo-anne ryan, vice president of philanthropic advisory services at td wealth, erin griffiths, executive vice president of global wealth solutions at scotiabank, louisa greco, senior partner at mckinsey and company, and helena pagano, executive vice president and chief people and culture officer at sun life.
pagano also spoke with healthing, outlining the historical male culture in the workplace and why making workplaces more supportive of women is a win-win for people and companies.
“think about bringing your whole self to work, whether it’s a health issue, and the openness to have a conversation about it. so, someone coming to the workplace to say, ‘oh, you know, i pulled my shoulder playing tennis. what should i do about it?’ they’ll have a conversation in the workplace,” she says.
“there’s so much stigma with a woman walking into a meeting and saying, ‘i’ve had my period for a month and abdominal pain. does anybody know what to do about this?’ that is not common. you get advice for your shoulder. you sure would not get advice for your women’s health issue. that means people were coming to work covering up issues.”
and when it comes to brain fog, a common symptom of these life transitions, men tend to forget things, too, but they brush them off a lot more easily. pagano points to research that menopause is linked to real, measurable changes in brain structure that may drive memory lapses and brain fog. but new findings reviewed by the menopause society reveal the brain’s ability to adapt and recover after menopause.
“that temporary kind of loss [of memory] during menopause can be followed by a resurgence,” she says. “it’s like your brain rests and then it comes back from the rest with more capability. if you know that, you’ll forgive yourself for that.”
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why women exit the workforce early
she says that even when women recognize their symptoms are impacting their performance, where can they get help and support? without resources in place and someone to turn to at work, women start to step back, no longer putting up their hands for new projects. many decide to step out of the workplace altogether.
“earlier in my career, i remember seeing women who had broken the glass ceiling and achieved these great roles of seniority, and then deciding they were going to retire at an age i’m sure was in their young or mid-50s. and i’m saying, why are women retiring and not men? you’re past the stage of caregiving for your children, and unless it’s a real sandwich [of care for aging parents], why are you stepping away?”
now she recognizes that women experience symptoms of perimenopause and menopause that they can’t discuss at work and don’t know how to get help for. they feel they can no longer deliver in a high-powered job.
so, pagano has worked to create a safe, supportive culture for women at sun life. under her leadership, sun life was the first organization in canada to sign onto the menopause foundation of canada‘s menopause works here campaign , helping to set a precedent for workplace inclusivity. her team hosts employee sessions that open and elevate the conversation around women’s health at work, including topics on menopause and fertility, and brings in expert speakers with resources to distribute.
the company has also launched a menopause navigation program for employees to access virtual care and support.
“through the right kind of support, the opening up of the conversation so they feel supported, reduce the stigma, build some trust, feel they have somewhere to go in an organization. companies can do a lot around that. and it’s a great topic because if you think about, well, what is the cost? there’s a real business case around that.”
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business case for supporting women’s health at work
addressing the loss of talent and productivity has been framed as a $37 billion annual opportunity in canada alone, according to the mckinsey health institute, so that’s a big number.
as pagano says, “keeping your best talent in the workplace for as long as you can is such a win because it’s half your community, it’s half your clients, it’s half your workforce.”
there are actionable tools to make it happen, starting with opening up the dialogue in the workplace, which has the trickledown effect of reducing stigma. she recommends bringing more information to the workplace, for example, and helping employees find available resources beyond the workplace as well, like the menopause foundation of canada.
another avenue is looking at employee health benefit programs to provide coverage for hormone replacement therapy and visits to a menopause specialist. companies can look at their benefits to identify which ones are underutilized and which could be more utilized and switch the dollars for perimenopause and menopause treatment. other workplace policies to consider are flexibility, allowing people to work from home on days when symptoms are debilitating, or adding care days that employees can take so they don’t have to resort to calling in sick.
with menovate, debow has developed six e-learning modules on topics related to perimenopause and menopause for companies to provide to employees “that can be watched at your desk on your own time, in privacy, so that you can understand what’s going on,” debow says.
the more the conversation circulates, the more culture shifts.
“the most common thing that a woman will say in that [perimenopause and menopause] period is, ‘i don’t feel like myself.’ i truly lived that. i knew something was wrong, but i didn’t feel like myself, and it was like everything felt off. and that is the thing that doctors hear and i hear people say when they’re trying to figure this out is ‘i just don’t feel like myself.’”
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now debow is confident about figuring things out for herself and igniting a spark for others to do the same. she is candid about changing her habits to improve her health.
“i spent a year changing everything in my life. so how i ate, how i sleep, how i exercise, how i socialize, every part of my life, day-to-day. and honestly, i feel better now than i did in my 20s because i am fit and healthy and i wake up energized every morning.”
from the corporate perspective, she says, “if you help women, they’re going to give it all back to you. they’re going to show up energized. they’re going to have more productivity; they’re going to have more focus. so it really is less about aging with these symptoms, it’s about how do i get people aware and educated so they get the support they need to be thriving.”
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