New employment laws at Westminster aim to help women going through the menopause

Dr Wendy Knoops was only in her thirties when cancer treatment resulted in early menopause.

The sudden rush of symptoms severely impacted her work as a doctor.

And she’s not alone as a lack of support can force some women to end their careers early.

“I had breast cancer in my late 30s and as a result of that I had to have chemotherapy, and following that hormone-type therapy,” Dr Knoops told STV News.

“These medications unfortunately put you into immediate menopause, so you’re thrown into a whole range of symptoms, which can be quite severe and quite drastic.

“After that, when you’re on hormone therapy, that can continue. From my point of view, I was in my late 30s and suddenly went into menopause.

“This was quite a shock for me. I am a medical professional but I really was not prepared for what side effects I would have.

“The most challenging symptoms I found were not the hot flushes and night sweats but more around mood changes and swings, so the mental health aspect of it. But also the fatigue, the tiredness, I had quite significant joint aches and pains.

“I was always quite active, on the go, and suddenly I felt my whole body was aching all the time.”

Legislation going through Westminster aims to improve the situation for women going through menopause by banning workplace discrimination and requiring big employers to draw up support plans for staff.

The legislation will also require companies with more than 250 employees to draw up plans to support women experiencing menopause symptoms.

Male MPs got a small taste on Tuesday of what menopause feels like, with the help of vests that mimic one of the symptoms many women deal with day-to-day.

MP Graeme Downie wearing vest that mimics menopause symptoms. STV News

Graeme Downie, the Labour MP for Dunfermline and Dollar, said: “First of all, it was incredibly uncomfortable – feeling a kind of warm hot flush going up and down all the time.

“Then going away again and not knowing when it was going to come back, if it was going to come back.

“What it should teach us is we need a much better societal understanding about issues that women do face in the menopause, I think we need to make sure that employers are more aware of those situations and are responding properly.”

It’s part of a campaign backed by insurance company AXA Health, whose CEO Heather Smith says its something she’s struggled with personally.

She said: “It’s important women feel confident at work, they can be themselves at work, they can be productive.

“And if they can’t, if they haven’t got the right support in work for all the different phases of women’s health – be it periods, infertility and into menopause – then it’s very hard to be at your best.”

New guidance on women’s health issues like menopause will be subject to consultation and may take years to draw up.

But Dr Knoops says employers shouldn’t wait for the law to change to start offering better support.

“It always takes a long time for laws to change,” she said. “If you can support women now, that would be better, rather than saying ‘we’ll just wait until the law tells us what to do.

“I think because your friends and those of the same age around you are not always going to be going through the same experiences, it’s very hard to relate to.

“You do feel like you are completely alone and you are the only one affected by it, but you very quickly learn that you are not. I think part of it is because women need to share a little bit more, need to talk a lot a little bit more about their own experiences.”