Healthwatch Rochdale publish findings on information and support available to local people going through the menopause

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Menopause

Healthwatch Rochdale has published its findings on what local people said about their experience of going through the menopause in the Rochdale borough.

135 local people spoke to Healthwatch Rochdale about the symptoms they experienced and the information and support available to them locally.

Key findings of the report were:

• Some people experiencing perimenopause/menopause weren’t aware of all the symptoms associated with this period of life and put their symptoms down to other issues
• Perimenopause/menopause affected areas of life including family life, intimate relationships, work life and mental health
• Not all health professionals were knowledgeable about perimenopause/menopause and HRT and information provided was often generic and not personalised

In response to these findings Healthwatch Rochdale has made three recommendations to the Integrated Health and Social Care System. Recommendations included.

• Production of an information leaflet
• For local services to sign up to the Wellbeing of Women Menopause Workplace Pledge to support employees who are experiencing perimenopause/menopause
• For GPs to receive training to raise awareness of perimenopause/menopause.

This report is phase one of the findings and Healthwatch Rochdale is now going to carry out additional in depth work speaking to communities who are often unheard.

Kate Jones, chief executive officer of Healthwatch Rochdale, said: “We carried out this piece of work after Healthwatch Rochdale’s Advisory Group’s decision to try and gain a better understanding of local people’s experience of menopause/perimenopause following feedback we had received. Our initial findings correspond with what people had been telling us and our follow up work will now focus on speaking with people from communities who don’t always have a voice, this is to ensure our findings are representative of the diverse communities of the Rochdale borough”.

You can read all the findings in the Healthwatch Rochdale Menopause Matters Phase 1 report on the Healthwatch web site.