Renfrewshire Council

Ruth Devlin In May, Let's Talk Menopause founder Ruth Devlin was invited to host an info packed RenTalks session on menopause symptoms, exercise, health, nutrition, HRT options and alternative therapies. The popular event, which attracted over 150 attendees, sparked much follow up discussion and interest in similar events throughout the year.  

Don't worry if you missed it. We spoke to Ruth, along with HR advisor Fiona Sinclair, who organised the event, to find out more about the key takeaways from the session.

Ruth said, "There are interesting stats to be noted from the British Menopause Society which state that of the 4.4 million women employed in the UK, who are aged between 45 - 60 years old, 77 per cent felt their symptoms affected their mental health while 47 per cent had to take time off.

"While symptoms of menopause can be very challenging in themselves, there are several factors which contribute to how you experience symptoms and how you can manage to cope with them; namely lifestyle choices, diet, exercise, alcohol, drugs, smoking, family history and genetics.

"Adding lots of phytoestrogens into your diet like green leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds and berries, making sure you eat a good variety of foods, while limiting refined, processed foods is important. Ensuring you make time for relaxation and creating the right environment for a good night's sleep can make a huge difference. Looking after your bone, joint and cardiovascular health is also important.  Ensuring your body gets enough protein (which encourages the natural production of collagen) along with magnesium and calcium, and not forgetting about vitamin D to help process the calcium efficiently can help.

"We had some great questions during the session around perimenopause, diagnosing menopause and talking to your GP.  Perimenopause is the most symptomatic stage of the menopause which can last, on average, between four and seven years prior to becoming fully menopausal. It's common for some women who are experiencing certain symptoms such as lack of motivation, low mood swings, irritability or sudden rage, not to realise that what's happening to them could be related to this stage of menopause. 

"In terms of seeking further healthcare support, it's important to get to know your own body better and keeping a symptom diary to understand the impact on your quality of life can be beneficial. Noting down and recognising changes to your menstrual cycle, hot flushes, what you eat and when, how much exercise you are taking as well as your caffeine and alcohol intake. All of this will be really useful in identifying what makes you feel better or worse and great to have to hand when speaking to your GP."

Fiona Sinclair With colleagues praising the 'excellent' event, Fiona is delighted with the feedback and keen to do more RenTalks soon.

"It was great to have Ruth join us for the session," said Fiona, "as a registered nurse with years of experience in menopause-related health services she had lots of advice and guidance to share.

"We had a brilliant response to the invite and kudos to the men who joined too, I just hope they tell others it was worthwhile and something to look out for in the future.

"I've had quite a few emails from people who couldn't attend for one reason or another so we're definitely looking into arranging more over the next few months. Look out for more details on that coming soon."

Find out more about our approach to supporting menopause on our webpages. 

Published on Friday 9 June 2023