In attendance are Dr Ala Farah - GP holistic medicine, Carmen van Straalen - reiki master, Rae MacDonald - workplace and life coach, Felicity Campbell - Buteyko breathing practitioner, Lesley Egglestone - radiographer and health coach, Anneka Kilroy - pelvic and women’s health physiotherapist, Rochelle Panting - functional nutritional therapy practitioner and Bronwyn Bulwer - change and transition facilitator.
“For this event, we are taking a holistic approach in raising awareness, not just for women through their menopause phase, but also for women who have not yet reached that time in life, and how much of a difference a few lifestyle changes could make,” says Rae MacDonald.
Whilst the average age is 51, 1 in 1000 women will go through menopause in their 30s and 1 in 100 in their 40s.
Menopause symptoms are vast and affect all areas of life. Some physical symptoms are hot flushes, headaches or migraines, bloating, dizziness, body aches in both muscles and joints, itchy or dry skin, hair thinning, weight gain, feeling of ants crawling on the skin, numbness or tingling in parts of the body, tinnitus, and digestive problems
Some psychological symptoms are mood swings, memory, and concentration problems, depression, lack of confidence in their body, anxiety and panic attacks, fatigue, and sleeping issues.
There are also more symptoms that affect women with their vaginal health.
Rae adds that her work is specifically around going into workplaces to discuss menopause in the workplace as it is not talked about. “We make allowances for pregnant women but it comes down to that being a choice. However, every single woman will experience menopause - there is no choice in the matter and it lasts a lot longer than a pregnancy.
“There are things that can be done in the workplace to support women going through menopause. It’s sad that so many women think about leaving the workforce due to their symptoms,” says Rae.
Dr Linda Dear’s survey found 84 per cent of the more than 4000 Kiwi respondents said their menopause symptoms impact their work.
It also found that 14 per cent of participants felt well supported at work, one in six said they thought about quitting and 12 per cent did quit.
This event will be run differently from other events as it is interactive and attendees get to look at their personal standing of where they are on the journey. Then each of the hostesses will go around every single table to have a 10-minute chat with the ladies at that table.
“This is an information evening with a difference, we have attended other events where it was just someone talking. Once they finish talking, a few women got to ask their questions without much interaction. We didn’t want that for our event, so we limited the tickets so that we can get around every table and person,” says Rae.
There will be a waitlist for this event as there is potential to host more in the future. “We want to be able to offer support and information to these women, we don’t want them feeling like they haven’t been heard or any questions left unanswered. There is also a plan to host in Cambridge and Hamilton in the future if this is successful,” says Rae.
Rae will also be running other one-hour workshops: One for partners. “I have had a lot of husbands say that ‘we don’t talk about it we just go through the motions.’ They often just want to know how to support their partner during this time. A lot of the men don’t know some of the personal things that occur with menopause - sometimes women themselves don’t know,” says Rae.
The other workshop is for team leaders and management, to understand how they can support their team members during this time and how to have a conversation with someone in the workplace about their needs.
Whilst these workshops won’t have the other well-being practitioners to talk to, they will help a wider audience understand menopause more in-depth.
You can reach out to Rae at rae@raemac.co.nz for more details.
Tickets to Menopause and Mocktails are on sale now, get yours now at events.humanitix.com/menopause-and-mocktails?fbclid=IwAR2t6VytftOMribSxV9YHM82e7w0Lf3Je-RbiU4r4698FoQl6ioMPLCfoZU or follow their Facebook page “Menopause & Mocktails”.
