How often have you heard the expression “don’t worry about her, she is going through the menopause” for different behaviours being exhibited?   Or, have you heard the term “It’s the change” used about you or some of your female colleagues?  Is it any wonder women feel self-conscious and get embarrassed about owning up to menopause?

Some of us manage to talk about matters we feel uncomfortable about, but others bottle it, not even speaking to their best friends about their fears or concerns about menopause.  Two of the women on my most recent Boot Camp cried as they had never said the words vaginal dryness out loud and yet, according to several surveys, this well-kept secret symptom is experienced by more than half of all women of a certain age as they journey through their menopause.

Many women I have talked to over the years have told me that the menopause made them feel inferior or invisible, that they were made to feel uncomfortable and less confident than normal. In many instances, at both work and home, they reported that menopause became a badge of failure, of confusion, of feeling irrelevant and challenging to their self-esteem.

It is time to change the conversation about menopause and reframe both our understanding of it, our terminology, how we deal with it and, most importantly, our attitudes.  To do so, we need to know from where we are starting, and that means finding out (confidentially) how you perceive your relationship with menopause, what you understand about it, how you feel while going through it and how it fits, or not, into your life.

With conversation skills in mind, so we manage to communicate about what’s going on in both our mind and body without shame or embarrassment,  I’ve put together my top tips to help you ‘Communicate about Menopause’.  In exchange for you completing the few questions I’m asking in my new Change the Conversation about Menopause Survey you will be able to download my new publication, plus you will enter a draw to win one of my 14 Day Menopause Empowerment Programme.

The results of the new survey will help us to raise awareness of the challenges that women face at this life-stage.  They will enable women to express themselves more freely, opening the door to increased support and workable solutions. The information gathered through this new survey will allow us to make the Campaign to Change Attitudes more powerful, bringing the hearts and minds of those around us in line with reality.  Become an active sister and help the Campaign for Change!