Managing Menopause in Leadership

Emotional effects of menopause

Aside from the physical signs, you may notice some emotional effects of menopause too.  Effects such as:

• Stress
• Psycho/social stress
• Mood swings or changes (such as feeling depressed or unhappy)
• Fatigue
• Burnout
• Lack of sleep
• Appetite changes
• Anxiety

 Taking all these possible symptoms and effects into account, you can see how managing menopause in leadership is important.

Steps to managing menopause in leadership

Whether you are a leader experiencing menopause or you have women on your team experiencing menopause, the great thing is that the steps to managing menopause can be practiced by anyone for mental health benefits in any workplace.

Here are some of the ways you can lessen the effects of those symptoms and effects:

Minimise stress

No matter who you are, stress can be harmful to your health.  During menopause, our amygdala (the CEO of all emotional content) has a heightened reactivity to situations making us more alert or in a more watchful state of awareness.  The more we operate in a state of stress, the harder our HPA (Hypothalamus Pituitary and Adrenal) axis has to work causing the heart to pump faster, lungs to work harder, brain fog, blood/sugar level imbalances and more.  By minimising stress, you can reduce the likelihood of further symptoms and lessen the severity of existing ones.  For more about the neuroscience of stress and how to minimise it, check out this article.

Get your hormones working for you

There are four happiness hormones/chemicals in the brain that are released when certain things happen – dopamine (the reward chemical), oxytocin (the love hormone), endorphins (the pain killer), and serotonin (the mood stabiliser).  When we focus on doing activities to activate the release of these chemicals, we can counteract some of those menopause symptoms.  For more about these chemicals and some ideas of activities you can do to naturally increase your levels of them, this article is worth a read.

Take care of your brain health

The four main contributors to a healthy brain and body are quality sleep, nutritious food, exercise, and brain relaxation.  A lack of sleep will only exacerbate the situation as you become more triggered, have greater mood swings, and choose less health foods. 

If sleep is proving to be difficult, try creating a sleep routine in the lead up to bedtime – low lighting, dark bedroom, no phones/screens, sleep meditation or relaxing sounds. 

If you are struggling to choose nutritious food choices, food prepping and planning can help reduce the urge to reach for something less healthy and reduce the weight gain symptom of menopause. 

Avoiding CATS (caffeine, alcohol, tobacco, and sweeteners) is another way to minimise the symptoms of menopause as they can impact on sleep and inhibit functions of the brain that result in brain fog, overactive cardiovascular and respiratory system, poor sleep, impaired memory, and poor decision making.

Get moving in a way that you enjoy every day.  It doesn’t have to be at the gym – walking the dog, practicing yoga or tai chi, dancing, or whatever else gets you moving.  There are so many benefits to your physical and mental health that you will experience when you get moving.

Relaxing your brain with meditation and mindfulness can literally change your brain!  Stress and anxiety reduction, higher order brain function, better decision making, increased focus, improved mood and emotion control, and pain reduction are all benefits of brain relaxation which will all help limit those menopause effects and symptoms.  For more about mindfulness and how you can incorporate it into your day, read this article.

Identify your states using ESI

ESI or Executive State Identification is a mapping tool that enables us to better identify the behaviour of an individual by breaking it down into parts or states.  To learn more about ESI and how you can apply it, I recommend reading this article.

Create a dialogue

Creating a safe space and open communication around the topic of menopause in the workplace is a great place to begin creating an inclusive environment for those experiencing menopause symptoms.  Discussing the symptoms that co-workers may recognise in team members navigating menopause and how the team can better support them may be valuable.  Highlighting the importance of creating healthy habits in the workplace not only for those managing menopause but for everyone could generate accountability and support amongst team members.

Summary

Managing Menopause in Leadership is a big topic that I couldn’t possibly cover in a single blog but if I’ve piqued your interest at all, you may like to attend the full day online workshop on the 12^th November 2024.  You can register to attend here.

If you have any questions or would like to share your experience of managing menopause in leadership then I would love to hear from you.