I feel like no one talks about this but… how do women in this industry deal with going through menopause and still stay on their game and perform at high levels as expected? I was just promoted to a managerial role at a big firm and I almost want to say “no thank you”.

I’m in the throes of meno now. My one and only goal: to meet expectations. That’s it. I could not care less about promotions or “new opportunities”. For me, personally- I just want to survive without losing my job. Meno is brutal and I am happy we are starting to talk about it more.

Same with pregnancies. It’s wild that we are all expected to just truck through, must be nice to be a man with no worries

Thanks for sharing. I'm in the midst of perimenopause and I just feel tired, moody, angry and totally unlike myself. I thought I was going crazy! It took some research for me to figure out what I am going through. The fatigue was so bad I thought I was getting mono! I wish more people talked about this on the open. I'm going to look into hormone replacement and read up on what else I can should change to accommodate this phase.

Definitely caring less helps! As does HRT.

I daydream of a workplace where I don’t get looked at impatiently when I don’t have the answer at my fingertips to something I did 2 weeks ago!!! lol

I’m with you. I currently have no ambitions and I just hope I can make it in my job until the end of the year and then with that hits I hope I make it the next six months.

HRT

Agree. I'm two years post and my brain just doesn't work as well as it used to. My memory is not what it used to be. Certainly not as fast because I have to take more notes. Takes longer to draft, etc., so my bills are too high. Starting to wonder how long I can keep doing this job. I'm 54 and don't have nearly enough money to retire.

I understand where you’re coming from and for me, it points out one of the ironies of the traditional feminist movement, as do the other posts about women having difficulty working during their periods. The women who fought for us to have to job opportunities did so under the premise that women were equal to men and that the bio-health-related differences between the sexes didn’t limit women’s ability to perform. Now when women fight for the health differences to be acknowledged/accommodated, the original feminist movement followers push back against it and the men use it as rationale for not advancing women to senior roles.

I did this differently. I set boundaries and matched expectations. I lost a ton of weight and learned to turn my brain off when I turned the laptop off. I said no, and gave a credible reason why. I didn’t fib on performance reviews or employee surveys. I acknowledged that I wasn’t the hot and sexy jolly dancing girl, and instead embraced my seasoned professional.

It all came to a head and became clear when I had to work on a hella nasty file with multiple personalities. And when it was all said and done, the client told the name on the door that I WAS THE STABLE ONE.

Yeah. That was the day things started to go smoothly.

I was completely not myself motivationally or otherwise. I fought against HRT for a while because of the side effects but ultimately caved and went on bioidentical HRT. It takes about a month to feel a difference but when it does it is almost miraculous.