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Jun 2021
18 m

Menopause - the last workplace taboo?

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Women across the globe are leaving their jobs and sometimes careers because they are unsupported at work when they go through the menopause. But could mandated menopause leave re-dress the balance?

Ivana Davidovic speaks with Lauren Chiren, who abandoned her high-flying career in finance because her menopause symptoms were so bad she thought she had early onset dementia. Karen Arthur, who also left her job as a teacher due to menopause and now hosts the Menopause While Black podcast, says that women of colour are particularly worried about being sidelined at work.

British MP Carolyn Harris discusses her "menopause revolution", while Emily Mutua, an HR executive from Nairobi, says that menopause conversations in Kenyan workplaces are almost non-existent. Plus Tanuj Kapilashrami from Standard Chartered explains what the big multinational bank has in store to support its staff, and Australian professor Marian Baird asks whether some of the menstrual and menopause policies could actually increase discrimination.

(Picture: Co-workers having a meeting in the lobby; Credit: Getty Images)

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