Twenty years after losing her eight-year-old son in a road traffic accident, Carolyn started struggling with severe depression which she attributed to unprocessed grief and exhaustion from work. After intense research and a 12-year stint on anti-depressants, she realised she was eight years into the menopause and had no idea.

© UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor – Carolyn Harris secures victory with her menopause

support and services campaign.

Twenty years after losing her eight-year-old son in a road traffic accident, Carolyn started struggling with severe depression which she attributed to unprocessed grief and exhaustion from work. After intense research and a 12-year stint on anti-depressants, she realised she was eight years into the menopause and had no idea.

Leading the task force for the menopause revolution, Carolyn lobbies for change and support for women going through the menopause, so no woman has to feel as low and alone as she did for so long.

A Labour MP for Swansea East, Carolyn secured her first big victory in October 2021, when the UK government announced new policies relating to menopause support, including a reduction in the cost of hormone replacement therapy prescriptions.

Chaired by Carolyn, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Menopause leads conversations about menopause education and mitigations or procedures that would be beneficial to menopausal women. It has begun to change the narrative over the willingness of people in the UK to support women going through the menopause.

Employers are slowly becoming aware of the impact that the menopause has on their employees, and their obligation to provide support to their staff.

One in ten women leave their jobs because of the menopause, and some never return. This doesn’t just have a financial impact, but for many careers, once someone leaves work it can be very difficult to get back in, and the working day holds structure and stability for people. Providing a routine and regular social interaction can make a huge impact for women going through the menopause, which is why having policies in place within the workplace would create such a significant impact.

“Businesses need to think about the women they employ and the women they’d like to employ, and just because a woman is of a certain age, it doesn’t mean to say that she hasn’t got any value,” she said.

“Think about the women you have at work. You could ask them if there’s anything that you can do, or that they would like you to do to make that environment easier for them.”

Until recent years, many women had never spoken the word ’menopause’, let alone understood the impact it could have on their lives and those around them. It was known that women would simply go through ‘the change’ – whether that be physically, mentally or emotionally – and some just never returned to themselves following that.

When Carolyn started experiencing her symptoms, she thought that she was having a nervous breakdown. The depression and exhaustion she was feeling meant her self-confidence was next-to-none and she didn’t think that anyone wanted her around. At one point she was signed off from work for six months and she did not leave the house. Carolyn may not have needed to take anti-depressants for so long if she or her doctor had spotted the signs of the menopause. After making the decision to start HRT, she felt that she had gained back her life.

She believes that it is not the fault of individual doctors, but the entire system. Medical sexism and a lack of menopause training leave many women suffering and feeling alone. Thousands of GPs qualify and enter the workforce each year without being educated on the menopause, and many UK medical schools do not have mandatory menopause education.

Some women have reported being denied a diagnosis and prescribed anti-depressants instead of HRT to combat their symptoms.

“Unfortunately, a lot of females, as well as males, haven’t been educated about the menopause and any private healthcare cover provided by their company often doesn’t cover it,” said Carolyn.

“I would encourage women to get together and talk with each other about their symptoms and not be embarrassed, as the likelihood is that their friends and colleagues will be going through something similar.

“It needs people to talk, it needs a simple fact sheet that asks questions such as: Have you got any of these symptoms? Have you ever thought you might be menopausal?”

The menopause will affect all women at some point in their lives, and since publicly educating and campaigning for change, Carolyn has been thanked by partners of many women going through the menopause, as her work has allowed them to understand what their partner is going through, why they are going through it and how they can support them.

Many women across the country have joined the revolution, sharing their stories and experiences.

Carolyn’s passion is creating menopause awareness globally, and the UK is already seen to be a leading country worldwide due to its openness of conversation thanks to Carolyn opening the opportunity for an improved pathway dedicated to supporting women going through the menopause.

Facts you may not know about the Menopause

1. The average age for a woman to go through menopause in the UK is 51, but some start to see the symptoms before the age of 30. Women go through the menopause when their ovaries stop producing eggs, causing their levels of oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone hormones to rapidly decline.
2. Perimenopause is the period of time when a woman is experiencing menopause symptoms, but her period has not yet stopped. Menopause is named as the time when a woman has not had a period for 12 months.
3. The first sign of perimenopause is usually a change in the regular pattern of periods. They will be once irregular and then eventually stop altogether.
4. Many women experience mental health symptoms with their menopause, such as low mood, anxiety and low self-esteem, as well as problems with memory and concentration.
5. Physical symptoms include hot flushes, palpitations, headaches, difficulty sleeping and changes in weight and body shape.
6. There are many different symptoms, and each woman is different. Symptoms can last for months or years and change over time. If gone untreated, they can affect people’s relationships and careers.
7. The main treatment is hormone replacement therapy, which uses oestrogen to replace the body’s levels which are dropping due to the menopause. HRT not only relieves the symptoms but can reduce the risk of hormone-related illnesses such as osteoporosis and heart disease.
8. Anyone experiencing menopausal symptoms or who has any concerns should contact their GP.