Menopause Matters program aims to make menopause part of workplace wellness

Like many women, Amy Kellestine, an organizational development consultant with Covenant Health, didn’t know much about menopause when she first started having symptoms. She wasn’t able to gather information from her mother and older aunts, and she found it difficult to find reliable facts online.

“There is a lot of information available, and it’s difficult to determine what truly reflects current research.” Amy says. “As a female who is in the demographic of experiencing perimenopause, I’m just at the beginning of my journey to understand all the different ways this hormonal shift can affect us.”

That need for understanding motivated Amy to attend a webinar offered through Covenant Health’s Menopause Matters program. The program was launched last year to support employees across the organization, 84 per cent of whom identify as female and 65 per cent of whom are over the age of 40. Beginning with a communications campaign to raise awareness of the importance of women’s health and of the need to destigmatize menopause, the program to date has included guest speakers and educational sessions held last fall as well as evidence-based resources distributed every month.

The idea for Menopause Matters came from Sarah Cameron, Covenant Health’s chief people, strategy and technology officer, says Trisha Tallon, manager of organizational development and effectiveness. She recognized the need to make support for people experiencing menopause part of workplace wellness.  

“The program is part of the organization’s strategy to ensure employees are comfortable in the workplace and feel valued, heard and cared for,” Trisha says.

Given that the menopause journey is marked by hormonal changes across three stages — perimenopause, menopause and postmenopause — it can affect a woman's physical, mental and emotional well-being for many years. Common physical symptoms can range from hot flashes to brain fog, fatigue, insomnia, headaches and muscle or joint pain, while mental and emotional effects can include depression, low self-confidence and decreased self-esteem, often due to cognitive changes.

According to a report from the Menopause Foundation of Canada, menopause is “taking a steep toll” on the Canadian workplace: one in three working women in Canada say that menopause symptoms negatively affect their work performance, while one in four hide their symptoms at work, two in three would not feel comfortable speaking to their supervisor about what they are experiencing  and one in 10 leave their job because of their symptoms. The result is $3.3B in lost income for women due to a reduction in hours and/or pay or to leaving the workforce.

In creating the Menopause Matters program for Covenant Health, it was important to Trisha and her colleague Pam Kollross, psychological health and wellness advisor, to empower employees by sharing up-to-date, evidence-based information.  

“That was really crucial because certainly things like hormone replacement therapy have gotten bad press in the past, and we wanted to provide the latest medical information about best practices to help women when they're challenged,” says Pam.

Along with providing good, reliable health information through Covenant Health’s employee intranet, the program has hosted two webinars, which have been well attended by female employees as well as some male colleagues, says Pam. In the first webinar, Lume Women + Health, a group of female physicians who specialize in female hormonal health, perimenopause and menopause, debunked 10 myths about menopause and women’s health.  

“It was really eye-opening for me,” says Amy, who attended the webinar hoping to learn more about symptoms and get information about treatment options. “Learning about the different treatment options was incredibly reassuring and empowering.”  

The second webinar, presented by Shelly Hagen, the women’s health educator with the menopause clinic at the Covenant Community Health Centre, focused on symptoms, management options and what women can expect at different points of their menopause journey.  

“One thing I like to do when I’m talking to women is to frame menopause as a transition,” says Shelly. “There are specific points along the transition, and your body is going to change and evolve to something new over a period of eight to 15 years. It’s going to be an individual journey for every woman.”

Shelly, who has been the educator with Covenant Health’s menopause clinic since 1999, has seen a shift in emphasis in women’s concerns about menopause over the years. Until recently, most of the patients she’s encountered have focused on hormonal changes happening around the time of their final menstrual period, she says. Now they are noticing changes in their body years earlier, sometimes while their menstrual cycle is still fairly intact. “There’s quite a bit of emphasis now on understanding what perimenopause looks like and how we can best support.”  

The Menopause Matters program is guiding Covenant Health employees to some of that support. For example, Trisha and Pam have shared resources about Covenant Health’s Employee Family Assistance Program, which provides confidential and free services such as cognitive behavioural therapy for hot flashes, mental health counseling and nutritional coaching.

They’ve also compiled and shared a list of products and services covered by Covenant Health’s benefit plans, such as prescription drug therapy, incontinence support, massage therapy, personal cooling devices, gym memberships, weight management programs and more.  

So far, the response to the program has been very positive, says Trisha. “There’s been some amazing feedback. We’re hearing comments about how people feel seen and valued because of the menopause program.”  

The next step is to develop education for leaders, Trisha says. She and Pam are exploring ways to adapt the training Covenant Health leaders currently receive in talking about mental health, another stigmatized area, to empower them to have conversations with employees who might be experiencing menopause.  

The two are also looking to host more webinars and share more resources based on feedback from employees about what they want and need. And they will continue to help ensure menopause is part of the conversation about coverage in the organization’s rewards and benefits program.    

“At the end of the day, every time we say the word ‘menopause’ in every resource, every webinar and every employee communication, I believe we’re making a difference,” says Pam. “I know when my mother told me about menopause, she whispered that it was ‘the change.’ The only other word my mother would whisper about was cancer. It’s exciting that we’re starting to trample down that stigma and say, Let’s talk about this.”    

As an employee who has participated in one of the program’s first webinars, Amy says she appreciates the impact that sharing knowledge and building awareness can have on reducing stigma.  

“I have a lot of gratitude that I work in an organization that is open to having these types of educational sessions,” says Amy. “I’m happy to be part of any conversation that helps to normalize this experience. I think it’s quite progressive and visionary, and I hope more folks have an opportunity to attend and to learn in the future.”