Post-menopausal ZEST – Embrace the new you!

Once shrouded in mystery, the menopause has come out of the closet at last, as Janet Sawyer MBE BEM, the founder and Managing Director of LittlePod, writes.

Like many businesses, LittlePod outsources its HR department. With the constant updating of legislation and new legal rulings, we must make sure we’re reliably informed.

Health and Safety is a top priority in any organisation. Since COVID, however, the idea of wellbeing has heralded in a new enlightened era. The word has taken on a more rounded expression of health. Just today, I received an alert from our HR team asking how we support workers’ wellbeing under the title Managing the menopause in the workplace.

It is a tribute to women today, who refuse to be silenced or be told to ‘get on with it’. These women are confident, and want to lead generative, fulfilling lives.

During the menopause, women are often laden with lots of responsibilities. Perhaps there are elderly relatives to care for, or truculent teenagers to deal with. Finding the right work-life balance, therefore, is crucial during this period – no pun intended.

I hit the menopause at 50. I was quite fortunate that I had a classic menopause and I don’t remember too many uncomfortable stages. It simply stopped. I was a mother and a teacher at the time. I did develop late-onset asthma and, looking back, I was probably more tired than I was willing to admit. I decided to retire from teaching, had a brilliant three-day birthday celebration, and was determined to have my own DOE – a decade of ease. 

That lasted for about six months until I became involved in village affairs here in Farringdon, first raising funds to repair the village hall, and then starting a not-for-profit community arts society, the Farringdon Society of the Arts,  which will celebrate its 20^th anniversary in 2024. I was even recognised with the British Empire Medal for my contribution to Arts and Culture in East Devon.

Thanks to Davina McCall and other campaigners, the menopause is a public conversation these days. Women feel empowered to talk openly in the workplace rather than trying to disguise their symptoms. This is long overdue.

I remember turning to the herbs in the garden. I ate sage in everything and I religiously made an amazing ‘hormone cake’ that I found in a book by Linda Kearns called Eat to beat the menopause. Not only did I eat it in an abundance, but so did the whole family! It keeps for 10 days in a tin so could easily be eaten day after day, whether out for a walk or a round on the local golf course. Nowadays, of course, I’d add a squeeze of LittlePod’s calm and uplifting vanilla paste to the mix!

In 2010, aged 57, I found myself re-energised and able to begin the next chapter of my life, launching LittlePod, which this April won the King’s Award for Enterprise (Sustainable Development). This is the secret that I want to share with all peri-menopausal and menopausal women: there is such a thing as post-menopausal ZEST.

You no longer have to go through ‘the change’ in secret. Embrace the new you. Change career, start a business or take up golf. Times have changed – and the options are endless.

To find out more and explore the world of LittlePod visit littlepod.co.uk, follow @little_pod on Instagram or give the team a call on 01395 232022.