Digging into the Government's Response to the Menopause Proposals

It's disappointing. Of course it is. But I wanted to dig into the reports and see what's behind the headlines. If you want to check it out yourself, here's the government response to the proposals and and the British Menopause Society's response to that response.

The government has accepted a number of recommendations on the Women and Equalities Commission report into menopause.

1. They have accepted the need for the dissemination of good quality accurate information about menopause and that the government should lead on this. This includes improving education in schools about menopause and perimenopause - something which many of the people I work with have been keen to see. This will include resources and training for the teachers who will teach it. I'm disappointed that it's not included in the Biology curriculum as well as RHSE - but perhaps I'm biased. As an ex-Biology teacher I do believe in the value of having that scientific understanding of how our bodies work.
2. The government partly accepts the need for better training of GPs. They don't accept that just one doctor in a practice takes responsibility but they feel that all GPs should have appropriate knowledge and training. They believe that the training is already available and that it is the responsibility of GPs to access it. The Women's Health Commissioner will be focussing first on menopause and will be working with key bodies in health care to ensure better healthcare professional education and training.
3. The government partly accepts the need for lower cost HRT. There will be a lower cost prepayment option for HRT. I personally have reservations about this recommendation in any case. HRT is not the only medication that women use to manage menopause symptoms - what about clonidine, gabapentin, mefenamic acid, tranexamic acid? I know of women who use all of these - are they not entitled to the same support in managing their menopause symptoms? Truthfully no-one should find themselves in a position where they are choosing between food and medicine, regardless of their sex or age. This is part of a bigger societal problem.
4. Although this recommendation about improving HRT available was not accepted in full there are a number of things in place to improve HRT availability and the government has already accepted the recommendations of the HRT Availability Task force. We'll see!
5. The government will appoint a Menopause Employment Champion to work with businesses, unions and advisory bodies on workplace menopause issues.
6. The government has accepted a recommendation to make requesting flexible working a day-one right for all employees. This is always slightly trickier for those working in schools than in some other environments. But in the government and Ofsted are supportive of flexible working in schools. There is government guidance around flexible working in schools and there are a number of schools leading on this. It's going to be a tough nut to crack - but time will tell!

These are the recommendations that have not been accepted - of course they are the ones that steal the headlines because that's how journalism works!

1. The menopause leave trial has not been approved. The comment about it discriminating against men is of course ridiculous! But to look deeper. Many of the symptoms of menopause are shared by women with endometriosis, problem menstrual periods, and those undergoing fertility treatment. There are significant numbers of people suffering from chronic illness - the majority of whom are female - and their numbers have swollen by those with Long Covid. It is true that, as a society we need to look at how we support people with long term and chronic illnesses. Am I optimistic that the government is going to do that? Well....
2. The government has not accepted the need to produce a model menopause policy as they believe it's not needed. I have to say there are a lot of model menopause policies available - including that from the NEU.
3. Menopause won't specifically be covered under the Equalities Act. The argument is that it is a dual characteristic already covered by age and sex and to start acknowledging dual characteristics would open the door to a lot of further complication. I'm not a lawyer. I do know that the Health and Safety at work legislation applies here too. I also know that once you get to the point where people are bringing in lawyers there's already a whole load of misery created and we need to avoid getting to that point. It's the work that many of us do, in changing the culture of organisations to increase understanding and acceptance of menopause that avoids that.

Perhaps I'm just sickeningly optimistic (that's a joke, I have my cynical side), but I'm not unduly upset by this news. It's slow progress, but it's progress and progress is always slow.

Perhaps that's because over my considerable years I've noticed that bigger changes are made by people doing things than by governments doing things. And there are so many of us doing that work - raising awareness, challenging cultures, supporting those in menopause and helping them support each other.

And the more of us who work to change the world piece by piece the more the world changes. Even if it doesn't happen the way we hope.

I've also noticed that 'menopause' has trended on just about every social media platform I'm on - and that's helping to raise awareness and understanding too.

Every time any single one of us starts a conversation about menopause it changes things. It breaks a taboo, reduces stigma, challenges the way people think. Everytime I go into schools to talk about menopause it sparks many conversations, many of which leads to action.

There's a chain reaction at play here. The government may not be behind it. They're certainly not in front of it. But they will catch up!