What do you know about menopause? Join this discussion with Melissa Ashley to learn how there is much more to it than hot flashes!
Guest: Melissa Ashley, Co-Founder Menopause Mandate
On LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-ashley-businessstrategist/
Host: Dr. Deborah Heiser
On ITSPmagazine 👉 https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/deborah-heiser-phd
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Episode Introduction
What do you know about menopause? Join this discussion with Melissa Ashley to learn how there is much more to it than hot flashes! Get the facts and the fiction about menopause and what women can expect as they hit 50.
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Resources
Menopause Mandate: menopausemandate.com
The North American Menopause Society: menopause.org
Meno Channel: menochannel.com
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Hot Flashes and Cool Wisdom: Navigating Menopause | A Conversation with Melissa Ashley | After 40 Podcast with Dr. Deborah Heiser
Unknown Speaker 0:21
Welcome back for those of you who've already, I welcome you back for those of you who are joining us today, I hope you'll take a listen some of our previous episodes, but today I really am so excited to welcome Melissa Ashley. I've known Melissa Ashley for a couple of years through her work with a mentor project. She's been an advisor on our board and has been helpful in moving the mentor project along.
Unknown Speaker 0:51
But what I didn't know when I first met Alyssa was that she has a secret project that she was working on. And it's one that's near and dear to my heart and near and dear to the hearts of millions of women around the world. And it is a company focused on menopause. So I'm not going to introduce this company further. I'm gonna have Melissa talk about it and Melissa, welcome today and please tell us all about your journey with your new company. Oh, thank you. Thanks so much for having me. I'm always in some funny Debbie but I've always had been talking about menopause because I am one of the millions of women that really struggled trying to understand what was happening to my body why I was having different issues and how come nobody can help. So I sort of took that energy and that challenge and tried to start doing research and came across a brilliant woman out of the UK. My business partner, Laura Biggs, who had also had similar struggles and had started to try and share a lot of what she was learning but quickly recognized that there's evidence based information out there so the company that I co founded in partnership for it is called First I hope that it met our channel, which is a webinar series where we interview highly credentialed menopause experts and yes, they are out there. And we give we really opportunity to listen in live and ask questions. So we need to learn more about estrogen does it cost breast cancer, as opposed to going to social media and asking a lot of women out there that may or may not know the right answer. We bring in some of the top doctors who have written all of the scientific journals done all the research and can give you evidence based information from what you can make your own personal decision. The first common business that we started in from there, we launched a nonprofit called menopause mandate. We run that in the UK and we've now launched in the US we've been very lucky to get a few well known within, like Mario frost of the UK Naomi Watts in the US to come in and co chair, the nonprofit with us and what's super exciting about it is aside from collecting the stories sharing women's stories advocate for women's health, we also have free advice line for women. We have it set up now UK for a little over a year where any woman sign up for 15 minutes to talk to a free menopause nurse practitioner in the UK. We do not we do not prescribe her diagnosis specific about that because this is information this is to help you understand how you can move forward in your journey if you're experiencing symptoms and issues and not getting the support you need from your doctor. We are looking to launch your request staff. So I'm super excited to help them in the US have that same access to information. And then as we went forward in educating consumers, educating women educating patients, we very quickly realized that if we didn't start working with companies to recognize that this stage of life is violence, that it's amazing why many women in their time leave their companies and where younger generations are looking for when making a decision about taking a job that if we didn't really start educating companies make sure that sort of resources were available for women once more knowledgeable what was going on that they're going to test another type of glass ceiling we wanted to avoid that so a lot of the women in work summits between one in the US in the UK, leading corporate executives on the fact that this is biological stage, it is real stuff still needs to be done. A lot of different ways you can support your female work population so that you can attract and retain a really strong deductive happy workforce. So those are the three different brands that we've developed in India to support women that were excited about driving forward. That's I did not know before you do this once before the women leave the workforce due to menopause. Completely new information to me, and I want I want to know a little bit more about that. Why is it that they're leaving and they're leaving, are they leaving to go to something else? What's happening? You know, it's a great question. So So let's, let's, I'm gonna put some numbers so there's approximately 1.3 million women that enter menopause, which means that the previous five to seven years, those women a year experiencing perimenopause and impairment a pause is everything is in fluctuation right in the reproductive system starting to fall. Your estrogen levels are causing flooding. For the for the average woman and we're going to talk about the average man or woman we're not going to talk about
Unknown Speaker 5:53
your age, that 5% of them do have early menopause. So I'm talking about the 5051 has been experiencing perimenopause. Really where the hot flashes and night sweats, brain fog, the lack of sleep, all those sensations start to materialize. Probably for about they if you look at some of the estimates out there about 1/3 of women probably will have very late to no symptoms. It's the two thirds of women that have symptoms as the ones that are that have severe symptoms. And then if you look at it by culture and race, certain cultures and races have more severe symptoms others don't. But it's really just thinking 1.3 million a year by the year 25, over 1 billion women worldwide will be experiencing menopause. So the question is, why are they leaving their jobs and some of this that show that one in every five women has either left or considered leaving a job.
Unknown Speaker 6:50
And the reason is, and I'm a perfect example of this is because you're a woman in your prime, you have worked your way.
Unknown Speaker 6:58
However you view growth in your organization or within your career, you've worked your way up that ladder. You're probably performing close to your peak. And all of a sudden you're waking up Chantry night two or three times a night with night sweats or when we're starting to experience hot flashes when you're in meetings. And when most people have these what's called things a motor symptoms first and those are some of the more common systems right? The night sweats that flashes all of that. Well, when that happens and you're waking up it means that you're not actually getting adequate sleep right you're not getting that deep sleep that you need to refresh your brain, right to detoxify your body. So you may be just night sweats, but it's also leading to tiredness. It's leading to brain fog. It's leading to lack of concentration. Right so a lot of women all of a sudden they can't remember what was said and they were just in or they struggle to find a word. Anybody that suffer from migraine knows what it's like when all of a sudden you can't speak. Right? Okay. Yeah, see? Yep. So you start to feel a lot of anxiety. You start to feel I mean, I know for me, I started to become paranoid that I was just using the mind, right? And all of a sudden, you can't perform at that level that you used to, but there's also such a stigma around eating and the symptoms. Nobody wants to acknowledge it. Nobody's talking about it. I remember my CEO telling me one day that he felt like there was just so much more evil. Why was why was he seeing it? And honestly, I couldn't articulate it because I just didn't know what was going on. So a lot of it was even the workforce because they can't compete. They can't cope. They're embarrassed and going to their doctor, unfortunately and they're being put on SSRIs or xiety pills or antidepressants because there's too many doctors that unfortunately have not been educated in medical school, about this late stage that can last up to a third of a woman's life.
Unknown Speaker 8:56
You know, it's so interesting, because I have experienced so many of the symptoms that you're talking about. And I tend to be the sort that all experienced symptoms or whatever it is, you know, if I have a cold or whatever, and I just I'm like oh well I have a cold and I carry on. And these symptoms, the word finding problems. I mean, it's not just obvious to me, I'll sit in the classroom and there's somebody who sits in the front fitness, who as I can't finish my sentence, she's always like, eagerly finishing my sentence.
Unknown Speaker 9:30
For a word, it's pretty hysterical but what you had mentioned, I just kept plowing through it. As you said before, when we spoke, and I'm sure there are plenty more women that do the same because there's not been a conversation about it.
Unknown Speaker 9:49
I don't even know what to complain about. And if you if you look at it, and one of the things that menopause mandate does is we collect stories, and we share them.
Unknown Speaker 10:01
So when we can either submit stories, we can read them and if you go in and they're heartbreaking, and it's the same story over and over, right? You know, I didn't know what to do. Or you know, they dismissed me and they told me I was too young.
Unknown Speaker 10:15
You know, I you know, my boss told me I couldn't take any more time off like, it's just, it's heartbreaking because these are incredibly great, competent women that are going through a natural physiologic that they have not been informed about. We all know what happens when we start to administrate, we all stand right the mood swings, the cramps, we're finally starting to understand it and be justice a little bit but we talk about it right. You now see selling products in the market that were for young girls period bathing suits, right. So and young girls are very open about it as opposed to the things that smell and it's just entitled. And you know, if you look at some University did a study only 15% of US companies right now that they studied offer menopause benefits.
Unknown Speaker 11:05
There are so many different studies about the lack of support. But there's a lot of studies about the loss and the economic impact, right. And that's where we talk to companies as much as we think that there's a moral imperative here. It's also an economic imperative, right because the estimate estimates and I think we have collected the latest survey and everyone who remembered 4.8 billion in lost productivity and then if you layer in all of the health care costs that build it, that number goes up exponentially. So this was an incredible reason to support them because they're going to be around for a very long time. They're incredibly valuable. They're the big
Unknown Speaker 11:50
you know, our company and our customer.
Unknown Speaker 11:54
Good points. I love that. I hope this is the first of many dialogues, we're going to be able to have about because after talking with you, and learning that you are on this journey to found this company, I started to pay more attention to my body and what I was experiencing, and I have experienced the gamut of it all but it wasn't spoken to me about by anyone in my life. No one talks about their menopause experience.
Unknown Speaker 12:24
The only thing I've ever heard were the jokes where people would say I'm having a hot flash, because people don't know that that happens at night. And that can happen anywhere. Correct and most people don't know that women experienced severe hot flashes of a higher propensity to experience cardiac concerns as they age, right. There's a lot of correlations now that we're starting to see between the symptoms that you experienced and things that you experienced as you age. Think about the fact that of all the Alzheimer's patients in the world which is horrible disease. Two thirds are women. Get rarely as injuries are done into why until recently and those of you that are seeing Dr. Lisa, who is just phenomenal. has been doing a ton of work for decades.
Unknown Speaker 13:14
There are so many impacts in a women in women's health and that when you start to lose that estrogen, you have a higher heart disease, osteoporosis.
Unknown Speaker 13:26
And there are very simple things that women can do. To support their bodies in support their health, to not have to suffer from some of those experiences.
Unknown Speaker 13:37
So important to know it's so important for people to be able to have a conversation about this if we can prevent future issues while we're alleviating some of the symptoms that we're currently suffering from. Boy, is that a win win. So Melissa, thank you for talking about menopause today. I hope before we end today, you can give us a couple of ways that we can find out more about MABAS and find out about where we're working right now. Sorry, I'd be happy to I mean, the first thing I would say to women is is the same for training and community building. They're not great for diagnosing and I always want to say that if you are to tap your private social media and asking you know what really should be your doctor, you should see you're getting help. So first thing we say to people is if you're suffering, if you're experiencing symptoms if you're not thrilled to go get help if the doctor too is not a medical issue.
Unknown Speaker 14:47
You know, turns you away tells you to find another doctor, how do you find another doctor? So the North American menopause society, the only society in the US right now that certifies but we do I entered doctors to be certified menopause practitioners if you go to their website, you just menopause.
Unknown Speaker 15:05
They have a directory of certified now, North American menopause. Five practitioners that you can find if you go to metal channel.com which is my website and watch interviews with 40 to 42 Different menopause experts see the directory there to be able to figure out how to connect to them and reach out to the majority of the doctors I interview are still practicing. There's very few that aren't. So the first thing I would say is pasta org but channel.com find a doctor that has been trained to menopause and don't let it document hasn't been been trained in menopause. Scary. That's number one.
Unknown Speaker 15:51
And then number two is take a look at the table for your group's business resource group, whatever. The company that you work for a lot of companies now have ERGs they have a women's erg. They may even have one that's starting to talk a little bit about women's life stages. They are starting to really blossom and have a lot of impact and pull together elaborate information I actually do have them come in and talk to anyone's company are some reasonable on their own. So they can be a great go to your HR professionals working for a company and ask them if there's any resources manual for your health insurance plan that support women with menopause. I think those are some great places to start. And then I always say to people, welcome send me a note Tiwari list you need we'll try and help you we will try and help you find people that can support you.
Unknown Speaker 16:53
This is great advice. So I'm gonna just list those again. That is milan.com.com and menopause.org menopause.org. Is the new is the National Association is a man that the North American menopause society which is now I think we're going to call medical court going forward and they are the body in the US. Wonderful. And if you have questions that you'd like to post here, you can find us on itsp Magazine, and you can leave a question or comments there as well. So, Melissa, thank you for coming. Today. I do hope we can reconnect more about this topic because it's evolving. It's moving, it's changing and how people are receiving the information and what is now available to us. So I want to say one more for today.