“Millions of women are walking into the menopause, essentially, blind,” says TV broadcaster and best-selling author Davina McCall. Because while menopause is a reality that more than half of the population will experience, so much remains unknown—but business leaders are in a unique position to help change the status quo.In her documentary, Sex, Myths and Menopause, Davina highlights that while nine in ten women feel menopause is negatively affecting their lives at work, only one in ten companies has a policy in place to support employees experiencing symptoms.But in an era where people are realising the business consequences of ignoring this topic, more and more people leaders are trying to swap silence and stigma for understanding and action.In a conversation with YuLife’s Head of Wellbeing, Kate Whitelock, Davina reflects on her own menopause experience and shares advice on what employers can do to help other women going through it, from inspiring quotes to a menopause checklist. You can watch the full conversation here.Why aren’t we talking about menopause? It’s common for people to ignore menopause symptoms and, often, for both sexes to simply avoid the topic all-together. “I am vain. I want to seem attractive. I thought that nobody was going to think I'm attractive if I'm perimenopausal. It’s going to age me,” reflects Davina. Davina says she was scared about talking to people about being perimenopausal, even her younger partner. It can be a challenging topic to bring up in conversation, especially for those dating. In the workplace, a reluctance to discuss menopause can also stem from concerns about ageism. “I’ve got to my mid-fifties and I'm like, ‘I know what I'm doing.’ It would be sad if I left my job because I know I'm really good at it, and I'm enjoying it, and now menopause is going to stop all of that.”Davina highlights the myths and fears that people face when they hit their mid-forties. One of the most common being, “my job's going to chew me up and spit me out if they think I’m perimenopausal”. But this simply isn’t true.“I had so many preconceptions and I thought, ‘I can't tell anybody’. I'd never felt so lonely, isolated, uneducated, in the dark, scared, unable to do my job—feeling like I was going to have to leave.”Recognising menopause symptomsPerimenopause (the transitional period leading up to menopause) usually occurs between the ages of 40 and 50, and is characterised by fluctuating hormone levels, irregular periods, hot flushes and mood swings.Recognising the symptoms is the first step to proper management but many people don’t realise how the menopause is affecting them. Symptoms can have a negative effect on women in their personal lives, as well as in the workplace, yet women often feel like they can’t bring it up, or as if they are expected to just work through it. Davina experienced many symptoms of perimenopause, but had no clue as to what they were or that they could be better managed.“There were so many reasons why I could be tired or my joints were aching or I wasn’t laughing all the time or whatever. But actually when I did start trying to get my hormones back in balance, I thought, ‘My God, I haven't been myself for years’.”That’s why more workplace support is needed to help people navigate this transition—just like the support that is offered for other stages of life, such as parenthood or illness. So what are some of the symptoms of menopause? These are just a few that Davina experienced:1) Increased Anxiety “I’m not an anxious person at all, but I suddenly didn’t want to drive in the dark,” says Davina. “I just thought it was part of getting older. I was trying to get to the supermarket before it got dark because I didn't want to drive home. I thought, ‘What is going on? This isn't me at all’.”Despite not having a history of anxiety, Davina suffered from the nervous feelings that can be a common symptom of menopause. It’s not always the most prevalent symptom, but it can have a big impact on people at work. 2) Joint pain“Something like 84% of women experience joint pain in perimenopause,” says Davina. “This is an unknown symptom. Nobody talks about that. But getting out of bed, exercising, trying to stand up in the morning—it’s like you’ve got to really limber up trying to put your socks on.”3) Memory loss“Something terrible happened to my memory,” says Davina. “I was doing a live TV programme, it's live, you can't go wrong. I'm looking at Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, a TV celebrity I've grown up with. I just said his name five minutes before. I turned around and said, ‘Oh my God, what is your name?’ I couldn't remember it at all. It was a completely blank page.”4) Poor eyesightPoor eyesight can be another sign of menopause. Davina recalls how she “couldn't read the autocue. Something weird happened to my vision, I don't know what it was.”5) Hot flushes Regular hot flushes are one of the main telltale signs that someone is menopausal, but not everybody experiences them to the same degree. Davina recalls having occasional hot flushes and not knowing what they were.“I sat in a chair and I asked the make-up artist if the chair was heated and she looked at me like, ‘No, what are you talking about?’ I had night sweats, but not every night, not even every month. They’d come and go, so I thought I had a fever again. I was so naïve, I had no idea.” How businesses can help make menopause matterWhile women can get help from GPs to manage their symptoms, they are not always told about all the options available. Davina highlights the confusion surrounding Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) and the many myths and misconceptions about what it does and the risks of taking it. “I knew nothing,” she says. “HRT doesn't postpone your menopause. You go through your menopause, you're on HRT and then you're done. There are so many things I wasn't aware of and I thought, ‘This is bad. People have got to know about this stuff… we've got to make a documentary.’”Davina’s goal was to bust some of those myths, and to encourage employers to make support for menopausal women a standard part of their benefits offerings—and, ultimately, to change the whole dialogue around menopause. For example, she says that if she had known more about HRT, she would have taken it much earlier. “There's a classic, extremely British thing of soldiering on with a stiff upper lip,” she says. “I often hear people go, ‘Well, it's not too bad at the moment, so I'm just going to soldier on for a bit. When it gets really bad, I'll look at taking HRT.’ Knowing what I know now, I wish I'd started it much earlier.” Davina makes it clear that while HRT has worked for her, what she’s really pushing is for women to be given accurate information. She advises businesses and HR leaders to collate and collect information, and keep themselves up to date with the latest research so they can pass that on to employees.Supporting women in this way can not only help businesses to retain workers, but is also a powerful recruitment tool. “If I was to choose between two businesses and one said, ‘We've got great care for women's health,’ I would choose the business that had that,” says Davina.So how can you start informing and supporting your employees and make menopause matter at work? Here’s a menopause checklist:Bring in healthcare professionals once a month to inform your employees and give support to people experiencing menopause.Hold weekly podcasts or information sessions on the topic.Compile information on an accessible web page.Provide a list of free resources people can use.Offer a Virtual GP service to help people access the right support.It’s also helpful for male colleagues to be better informed as they will encounter menopause in the workplace, sooner or later. “We can sometimes think, ‘Oh, well, men don't care.’ But I think men want to help,” says Davina. “We need to encourage them to be part of the conversation. Just say, ‘We want you on board’.”For employers, Davina gave some last words of advice for managing menopause in the workplace: “Create a place where you're not turning a blind eye. Women might take sick days because they feel lonely, they feel scared, they don't feel safe to have symptoms in the office. “They need to look at the resources and how they can get help. What can they take? What can they do? And we should have pre-mortems. You are not in it, but you are going to be in it at some point… before you need it, be prepared.”At YuLife, we know that when people thrive, so does business. Which is why companies who partner with us can purchase discounted Stella licences for their employees, to provide information and personalised symptom management programmes for those experiencing menopause. You can find out more about our all-in-one employee insurance and benefits app, here.