The 10th September is World Suicide Prevention Day and undiagnosed depression is a major challenge for working menopausal women.

Why are senior women at higher risk?

Senior and high performing female leaders often have to keep their menopausal symptoms under wraps and ‘power through.’

Why?

Many fear being ousted or excited by shareholders, and often many are the only female leader in an organisation, function or department. Most don’t have other female leaders to discuss matters with internally in a discreet or exclusive way. Which in turn increases the risk of depression and anxiety.

Should HRT and anti-depressants be prescribed together?

When a woman of menopausal age presents to a GP with signs of depression, hormone replacement therapy should be on the list of treatments alongside antidepressants, says an Australian expert.

Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, Director of the HER Centre Australia at Monash University, told InSight+ that menopausal depression was underdiagnosed, underfunded and under-researched, but was a significant factor in the mental health of women of menopausal age.

“Hormone replacement therapy should definitely be considered an option,” she said.

Writing in Nature last week, Professor Kulkarni said that “depression caused by menopause can be more severe than that experienced by pre- and post-menopausal women (or by men of any age)”.

“Not coincidentally, suicide rates for women also are highest in the 45–64 age group,” she wrote, citing US research by Curtin and colleagues. The time when perimenopause and menopause arrive.

Professor Kulkarni wrote that there were several reasons why menopausal depression had not received enough attention, including the fact that it is not recognised as a specific condition in any of the standard diagnostic manuals.

“As with many aspects of women’s mental health, menopausal depression is down the bottom of the barrel when it comes to research funding and clinical trials,” she told InSight+.

“Patients in this group are caught between two hard rocks.

“On the one hand, there is the misogynistic far right wing which has no interest in women’s health generally. On the other hand are the far left-wing feminists who don’t want to talk about hormones, because they don’t want women in leadership positions to be seen as being at the whim of their hormones,” said Professor Kulkarni.

Where does that leave GPs with patients presenting with menopausal depression?

“GPs are the cornerstone in terms of management of these patients,” she told InSight+. “They know the patient best and are in the perfect position to diagnose and treat menopausal depression.”

One barrier treating doctors must overcome, however, is a reluctance to prescribe hormone replacement therapy.

“The good news is that hormone treatments such as oestrogen therapy can be an effective way to treat the condition — either as an adjunct to antidepressants or as a solo first-line treatment,” Professor Kulkarni wrote in Nature.

“Yet there remains considerable reluctance to use them; in many cases, a diagnosis of any form of depression still leads to an automatic prescription of an antidepressant.”

That reluctance stems from the 2002 trial from Rossouw and colleagues from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) which received headline media attention. The study was halted early because “the test statistic for invasive breast cancer exceeded the stopping boundary for this adverse effect and the global index statistic supported risks exceeding benefits”. The authors reported increased risk of breast cancer, heart disease, stroke, and blood clots.

“The WHI study has been refuted since, but once things like that hit the media headlines, it is very difficult to turn things around,” Professor Kulkarni told InSight+.

Meanwhile attempts are being made to have menopausal depression considered as a specific condition as part of clinical guidelines.

How can senior female leaders keep their health and careers as they move through menopause?

Businesses need to invest in specific expertise for their senior women.

Just as you are sourcing advice and investing for women’s menopausal health you need expert menopause career coaches who are also experts in business leadership too. The team that know what it takes and the unique challenges these women in senior roles face.

How would you answer these key questions?

Do you want your senior woman to achieve more and not less from their careers as they move through menopause?
Are you a female founder or do you have female leaders who are central to the growth strategy of your company?
Do you suspect many of your top senior female leaders are considering leaving the corporate world behind because of menopause?
Do you actually know what your senior menopausal women want and need?

If you are concerned with the answers, then our sister company, The Menopause Maze ™ can help you.

How can the menopause maze ™ help?

Through The Menopause Maze ™ programme we work exclusively with high performing women to keep their careers and employers to retain their talent through all stages of menopause. Employers who want to equip women to grow their careers, using menopause as a springboard to move forward not step back.

If you want to maximise the biggest human capital opportunity from the fastest growing demographic in the workplace, then we are just the fit for you.

Book in a discovery discussion call now and see how we retain your top talent, change cultures and improve your commercials.

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