News from the menoverse
Thanks for all your comments and kōrero about my last post, the one about Demi and Pamela and the judgments we all make on women’s bodies. It seems to have really struck a chord. You lot are very thoughtful and clever.
There’s been quite a lot happening in the menopause world lately, so I thought it was probably time for a bit of a round-up; a Meno-digest if you will. But first, let’s have a wee reflection on International Women’s Day.
I wrote the below on LinkedIn, which is a weird platform in so many ways (I much prefer Insta), but a place I kind of need to hang out for my work on menopause in the workplace. It got very little attention there… maybe it’s not enough of a rant? Or maybe it’s not uplifting enough? But I thought it was important to check up on these things; to explore the facts. So here you go.
“I wrote this article on why we still need International Women’s Day two years ago.
I thought I’d go back and audit where we are now compared to then, for this year. And guess what - things are not really much better. Pretty much all of the inequities in my 2023 piece still hold.
Here are some bullet points for you:
- The gender pay gap in NZ is still 8.2% overall. It’s still much, much worse for wāhine Māori (15%) and Pacific women (17%). It’s also bad news as we get older - the gap increases with a peak for women aged 55-59 of 13.3%.
Only a small percentage of these gaps can be explained. We are now 53 years on from the Equal Pay Act coming into law.
- Women directors on public sector boards have reached 53.9%, so that’s something. Women directors on publicly listed companies are also increasing… but the NZX Gender Diversity report for 2023 (the most recent data available) shows only 31% of NZX listed boards have female representation.
- Women’s health is still not given the resources it needs. The Women’s Health Strategy has gone quiet; women still have worse outcomes than men after a heart attack, if it is accurately diagnosed at all (I wrote about this for the Listener recently); endometriosis - which affects 1 in 10 women - still takes 8+ years to diagnose. On the menopause front, we have a lot more conversation and awareness now - this is great! - and I’m really, really grateful to be contributing to this in some ways, in workplaces and in my writing. BUT we still have gaps in knowledge in both women and health professionals; ongoing shortages in treatments (eg patches) and question marks over future access to a wider range of treatments (eg patches that work for everyone).
- Finally - the orgasm gap persists! A 2024 study of over 24,000 Americans reported: “Results showed the orgasm gap persists across all age groups: men’s orgasm rates ranged from 70% to 85%, while women’s ranged from 46% to 58%. Men reported orgasm rates between 22% and 30% higher than women’s rates.”
I’m not sure what to make of that, except to say that - like all of the above- this is one problem we can truly work on together. And it might even be fun. :)”
Also… we still need pocket equity!
Menoverse news
Menopause in the spotlight
There have been two big live events in the Meno-world this past weekend. One was an online event featuring some big stars, including Halle Berry and Naomi Watts called ‘The World’s Hottest Menopause Party’ and the other was in Sydney, where a range of experts from Australia and around the world spoke to a sold-out Sydney Opera House crowd at the So Hot Right Now event. Can you imagine this happening even five years ago? I can’t! But it’s a sign, to me, that we have come very far in this conversation.
The Sydney event was not without a bit of (maybe manufactured) controversy - some of the speakers have been criticised for offering advice not based on the body of evidence on menopause.
But honestly, I don’t really care about that.
Experts in any field argue amongst themselves. I’ve seen this all play out in the world of nutrition dozens of times over the years; in a way it’s healthy; though in the bright spotlight of social media it can get a bit confusing to see apparently contradictory advice coming from equally qualified experts. But it doesn’t have much impact on the everyday life of women, imho… as long as we don’t get caught up binary thinking; that you have to be all-in with one person’s approach OR another’s. In the real world, I think we are entirely capable of acknowledging nuance, and accepting that we can take some good things from one expert, and some from another.
And ALSO: most of these experts AGREE on more things than they disagree on. It pays to remember that.
Patch problems - have your say
Pharmac has announced (apparently - the drug funding body did not give the media a heads-up about this) that its public consultation on the oestrogen patch situation will happen this month, some time. To be in the loop on this - and to have your say - sign up to their drug funding decisions email alerts here. We will hopefully get an alert when it’s time. This is about the earlier announcement (now under revision) that Estradot would cease to be the main funded patch, and instead the main supplier would be the alternative Mylan product. We do not have clarity on this yet; I guess that will come after the public consultation.
An interesting menopause article
This morning I read this from the New Yorker. I do feel a bit like the US is maybe a tad behind other countries (even Aotearoa) on the Meno-conversation, but they are maybe being the loudest about it now. This piece has an interesting take on the history of this conversation, and asks: why is every generation somehow ‘discovering’ menopause anew? This last para resonated with me. Though I am not crazy about the death comparison, I did tend to think, before I got here, that this was something that happened to old ladies, and was irrelevant to me!
Popular discussion has flared and receded during the past sixty-odd years like a series of cultural hot flashes, each time presented as if nobody had talked about menopause before. And perhaps that’s no wonder. As with the thrilling adolescent discovery of sex or the earth-shattering destabilization of childbirth, the experience of undergoing menopause can be so disorienting that it’s impossible to conceive of its creeping but relentless onslaught until it’s your own body that’s combusting and your own psyche that’s been scrambled. It’s not that there’s a conspiracy of silence around menopause; rather, it’s that, like death, menopause is a thing that happens to other people, until it happens to you.
And in case you missed it….
Australian women will soon be eligible for a menopause health check as part of a $64.5 million package designed to improve health care for women experiencing perimenopause and menopause
The awesome Sarah Connor and a group of colleagues are raising money to send posters on menopause to every GP surgery in the country (yes, this is the government’s job but these wāhine got sick of waiting!) You can donate to the cause.
Some of my recent writing in the Listener:
Why diagnosing heart disease in women is dangerously off the pace
Boosting testosterone in women - the benefits and the risks
BTW… if you think either or both of these stories is worthy, I’d love you to consider nominating it for the Science Journalism Awards. I think it would be so awesome if a women’s health story was in the running for this. It’s free and not time-consuming to enter. Have a look here.
AND LASTLY….
Tickets are selling fast for the Hot Mess tour! Come along and listen, laugh and share on all things menopause and midlife with me and Petra Bagust. Our Auckland event is sold out BUT we have added another date! So get in there and book now. Tickets are still available for Christchurch, Queenstown and Rotorua. We would love love love to see you.