9 minute read
menopause awareness
IT’S TIME TO TALK ABOUT MENOPAUSE
THIS PAGE: TALKING ABOUT MENOPAUSE IN THE WORKPLACE CAN REDUCE STIGMA AND ENCOURAGE WOMEN TO SPEAK UP ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCES.
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Many women will experience menopause while they are in the workforce. How can businesses start the conversation to provide better support?
Words: Lauren Lefever
According to researchers at the Australian Menopause Society, the symptoms of menopause are becoming worse and worse, which directly affects menopausal women while they are at work. These symptoms can be often misdiagnosed as mental illness or other conditions, and can severely impact attendance and productivity.
As many women will experience menopause while they are of working age, it is vital to acknowledge the challenges they face in the workplace due to their menopausal symptoms.
STARTING THE CONVERSATION
Menopause is the end of a woman’s menstrual cycle, and happens to every woman at some point in her life. In Australia, more than 80 per cent of women experience mild to harsh menopause symptoms.
A quarter of women going through menopause endure debilitating symptoms, including but not limited to irregular periods, hot flashes, chills, mood changes, irregular sleep patterns and more. These symptoms can last up to 10 years, with many women cutting down their hours, only working part-time or retiring early to cope with their symptoms.
As a result of the severity of these symptoms, women can become discouraged at work, which results in a decrease in job satisfaction and reduced working hours. According to the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST), menopause costs women upwards of $17 billion annually in lost revenue and superannuation. Many women have difficulty identifying their symptoms, which leads them to avoid seeking help. Having colleagues who do not understand menopause or don’t have enough information about it makes it even harder for them to discuss or ask for help.
Researchers have found that early diagnosis and education is an important preventative measure for menopause and its related illnesses. When the necessary actions are taken to educate others, it reduces absenteeism in the workplace
BELOW: JANET MICHELMORE IS THE CEO OF JEAN HAILES, A NOTFOR-PROFIT ORGANISATION THAT ADVOCATES FOR WOMEN'S HEALTH. IMAGE: JEANHAILES.ORG.AU
and encourages women to speak up about their experiences.
ENDING THE STIGMA
Janet Michelmore AO, CEO of Jean Hailes for Women’s Health, stresses the importance of ending the stigma in regards to menopause in the workplace and finding women the necessary treatment.
“We need to break taboos around the topic of menopause and encourage women, their partners and families, and workplaces to acknowledge this life stage and talk more openly about it. We need to find options and uncover more ways to keep women in the workplace so they can management and HR can implement that will help women feel more comfortable talking about their symptoms and asking for assistance. Some of them include: – Encouraging support groups to discuss perceptions of menopause. – Providing HR managers and other employees with the necessary training and information on what menopause is and how it can impact work conditions. – Understanding that each woman experiences menopause differently. – Creating new HR policies that promote menopause-friendly ideas. – Assisting in awareness campaigns that acknowledge menopause and work to remove the stigma behind it.
Managing symptoms and understanding them better can greatly contribute to women’s wellbeing at work. It’s time we take the necessary steps to make women feel comfortable and heard at their workplace.
contribute to society and the economy as they wish to,” says Janet.
Jean Hailes for Women’s Health is a national not-for-profit organisation that advocates for women’s health education. The organisation honours the work of Jean Hailes, who opened the nation’s first women’s health clinic dedicated to
menopause. In 2022, the Jean Hailes organisation opened two clinics in Victoria specialising in women's health issues.
Janet encourages women everywhere to check out the Jean Hailes for Women’s Health website for updated information, booklets, video and podcasts on how to manage menopausal symptoms.
“Important conversations and increased education for women and their health practitioners around menopause have to become the norm,” says Janet.
It’s essential that workplaces today recognise the negative impact menopause has on the many women at work.
There are many different strategies
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SHELLING OUT FOR OYSTERS
Oyster farmers come up against many different challenges in their work, including waves, wind, tides, disease and climate change. However, one of the biggest hurdles they face is finance. Oceanfarmr’s Farm to Buy program hopes to provide a solution.
Words: Emily Riches
OPPOSITE AND RIGHT:
THE OYSTER INDUSTRY IS WORTH BILLIONS OF DOLLARS GLOBALLY. OCEANFARMR IS IN A UNIQUE POSITION TO FINANCE THE GROWTH OF THIS SUSTAINABLE AQUACULTURE INDUSTRY.
Ewan McAsh is a game-changer. A marine biologist turned oyster farmer, Ewan founded the farm management app Oceanfarmr (previously SmartOysters) in 2017, which turned the regenerative aquaculture industry on its head.
Oceanfarmr allowed oyster farmers to accurately record the activity of their farm using GPS-enabled technology, rather than just relying on their own memory, skill, experience and grit.
Now, following the success of Oceanfarmr, Ewan is back at it again with Farm to Buy, a program that aims to continue supporting ocean farmers and the expansion of Australia’s aquaculture industry.
OVERVIEW OF THE OYSTER INDUSTRY
The oyster industry is worth US$150$300 billion globally – and growing. As Ewan says, “Over the past 10 years we have seen an increased appreciation and awareness of the health benefits of eating seafood as well as the environmental benefits of ocean farming of oysters, mussels, and seaweed. Demand and prices have significantly increased but growing conditions have become more challenging. The end result is that farmers have had to rapidly change cultivation methods, adopting new technology and growing methods to meet the market.”
Oceanfarmr’s Farm to Buy program has been designed with this in mind. As the only company dedicated to the ocean farming sectors of oysters, mussels and seaweed, Oceanfarmr is in a unique position to finance the growth of the sustainable ocean farming industry.
HOW DOES FARM TO BUY WORK?
While land-based agricultural farms often have the option to use their land as an asset to secure financing, ocean farmers have traditionally found it more difficult to access capital. As Ewan explains, “They simply cannot use marine leases as security for traditional bank loans, and with the farms being underwater, they are perceived as high risk.”
The Farm to Buy program is enabling farmers to expand their production by providing initial crops and infrastructure. For example, the oyster farmer will receive a crop that can be grown over a 12-month cycle as well as the infrastructure to grow it (oyster baskets). The farmer makes no upfront or ongoing payments. They then farm the crop for the 12-month cycle, and when it is harvested and sold, use the funds to pay out the finance. The farmer will then have ownership over the new baskets and farming system outright.
Not only does this alternative allow farmers to expand their production, it also eliminates the fear of debt from traditional financing options.
As Ewan says, “Farm to Buy is tailored specifically for ocean farmers. It’s not finance in the traditional sense, more an innovative combination of crop financing, share farming and asset management. [It] enables
LEFT TO RIGHT: SUE AND GREG MCINTYRE, PAMBULA, NSW; OYSTER FARM IN EAGLEHAWK NECK, TASMANIA.
farmers to leverage their expertise and farm data to fund new gear and grow their farm’s production. It does not require security. It does not require monthly cash repayments. Instead, it enables farmers to invest in the newest, most robust farming technology.”
To access Farm to Buy, the farmer must be an existing farmer and Oceanfarmr subscriber, with at least three months of farm data tracked with Oceanfarmr.
WHAT WILL IT ACHIEVE?
This farm data is an important aspect of the program. Oceanfarmr constantly captures hundreds of data points over time across crops, assets and activities. The Oceanfarmr team then work closely with the farmer to provide insights on their business and infrastructure.
The Farm to Buy program uses that data to show that these farmers have better farm practices, efficiency and scalability, to maximise crop value and de-risk the farm.
Oceanfarmr has shown that shellfish and seaweed farmers who most actively use the Oceanfarmr app can typically manage more stock, have lower mortality rates and are grown, more jobs for local regional areas – for both young and old farmers and staff – and more opportunities for young farmers to come into the industry.”
frequently more profitable. Not only that, but finance providers can also benefit by using Oceanfarmr to more effectively measure the risks associated with aquaculture farming.
The importance of sustainable aquaculture for the environment can also not be overstated. As Ewan notes, “Sustainable aquaculture needs no inputs so uses little to no natural resources. It draws nutrients out of the ocean currents thus improving water quality. The farms provide habitat and shelter for other sea animals. The world has a growing need for healthy protein which shellfish provide without damaging the environment.”
As climate change has a wider effect on ocean life and landscapes, the technology will also allow farmers to increase the quality and quantity of their yields. Ewan is looking forward to the changes this will bring to the industry. “This means more sustainable, quality seafood can be
WHAT’S NEXT FOR OCEANFARMR?
Ewan was blown away by the initial response to Farm To Buy. “We had a huge response to the Farm to Buy with now more than $60 million in farm finance enquiries. So, our focus at Oceanfarmr is getting farmers set up to take advantage of this new program, with mussel and seaweed farms to be added next.”
They have just had a massive investment from Katapult VC, which will be used to accelerate and expand the Farm to Buy program, allowing more farmers to access much needed resources to grow their farms sustainably.
Visit oceanfarmr.com
