Generation Exceptional

Ep 85 - Meno Chat No 1 with Sue Ladbrook - Celebrating Menopause Awareness Month

Welcome to the first of my Meno Chats where, in celebration of World Menopause Awareness Month, I'm going to be joined by some of the lovely women from my Facebook group, Your Best Midlife, as they share with me their personal menopause journey.

There's something hugely inspiring and reassuring about hearing the stories of normal, everyday women, sharing their personal experience of the menopause. We all have a different story to tell, but knowing we're not alone in this is enormously comforting.

Today I'm joined by Sue Ladbrook. We're discussing how difficult it can be to know what to expect when you don't have your mum or any female relatives to ask. Having lost my own mum in my early 20s, I can totally relate to Sue's experience.

October has been designated menopause awareness month with the 18th October designated by the International Menopause Society as World Menopause Day.

Menopause should be a time to be celebrated. A time when women move into a new and exciting season in their lives. So often we get bogged down in all the negative messaging about menopause (and let's face it, for many of us it can be a pretty messy time) but there is most certainly life after menopause and I would even go as far as to say, ladies - THIS IS OUR TIME.

So I'd love to invite all the women listening to come and join our amazing community in Your Best Midlife over on Facebook where we cheer each other on and build each other up so we can all thrive through midlife and beyond.

Ep 84 - GENX Shorts - Staying Visible through the Menopause Transition

How do you deal with the feeling of becoming invisible as you move through the midlife transition?

It's a story I hear all the time from women who feel they're withdrawing, stepping back, shrinking into themselves.

Looking back I think I tried to combat it by losing a load of weight and becoming obsessive about exercise. I went back to teaching exercise classes and trained to be a personal trainer and a nutrition coach.

I think I was inadvertently trying to over compensate for feeling like I was past my prime. So I was outwardly looking confident and in control but it was a cover for feeling incredibly lost.

But I'm so glad I didn't allow myself to shrink away.

I'm glad that whatever it was inside me that pushed me forward (even if I did feel like a fake at times, especially being the oldest PT on my course!) was strong enough to overcome the inner voice telling me I was too old.

Those feelings of becoming invisible are a narrative of our own making.

We can listen to them and act on them or we can stick a middle finger up to them and push through anyway.

Maybe we won't be seen in the same way as we were when we were younger and maybe we have to make ourselves shout a bit louder to be heard but we can always choose whether to shrink or shine.

You have to step into the new you and be seen for the amazing, talented, unique, beautiful woman you are.

For more support for women over 40, around menopause and thriving through midlife, come and join my Facebook Group Your Best Midlife

https://www.facebook.com/groups/yourb...

For more resources head over to https://linktr.ee/Bev_Thorogood

Ep 83 - GENX Shorts -Summary of the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee Report Menopause and the Workplace

The Women and Equalities Committee was appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Government Equalities Committee.

The Committee has just published it's First Report of Session 2022-23 in July this year, and I'm joined today by my colleague Helen Hutchings who has summarised the report for us today.

You can also read Helen's summary HERE

The report focuses on 3 key areas that need to be addressed to ensure that those experiencing perimenopause/menopause are not lost from the workplace and are looked after appropriately both from a health and legal perspective.

You can check out the full report from the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee HERE

Ep 82 - Using the Vaginal Microbiome to Diagnose Perimenopause

We're all pretty familiar with the idea that we have bacteria in our gut called the microbiome and that a healthy gut leads to better health.

But did you know that we also have a vaginal microbiome and that it's possible to detect changes in hormone levels by monitoring the relative number of different microbes in the vagina?

My guest on the podcast today is the Joint CEO of Agile Life Sciences, Jan Rogers.

Jan is a scientist and, along with her colleagues, has developed a test that uses the vaginal microbiome, rather than the traditional measuring of hormones, to diagnose and manage the perimenopause/menopause transition.

In this fascinating episode Jan explains how the test works, how it can be used and why it is so much more reliable than current testing protocols.

Jan is currently (as of July 2022) looking for 1000 volunteers to help with their trials. To be eligible to help you must have been assigned female at birth and be over 38 years of age. You'll simply be asked to provide a urine sample using their testing and sampling kit, and a small number of volunteers may be asked to continue with the trial.

For further details of how to apply to be a volunteer visit https://www.menoguide.co.uk/

You can find out more about the work of Agile Life Sciences at www.agilelifesciences.com or follow Jan's work on LinkedIn

And don't forget if you're looking for support and help during your menopause/midlife transition come and join me in my lovely Facebook Group Your Best Midlife

Ep 81 - Life After the NHS with Helen Hutchings

I can't think of a more challenging place to work while trying to navigate the emotional and cognitive symptoms associated with perimenopause than a busy hospital as a front-line nurse.

Knowing how hard I found the brain fog, anxiety and sheer lack of energy when I was working a full time job, I at least had the benefit of being behind a desk and other people's lives weren't at risk if I made an error.

Today I'm joined by my friend and now work colleague Helen Hutchings.

Helen gave up her long and successful career as a senior nurse within the NHS earlier this year following an extended period of sick absence due, as she can now see, to the impact of menopause.

Helen is candid in sharing her sense of failing, imposterism and self doubt but also shares how the pressure of the last couple of years turned out to be the impetus she needed to find the courage to change career and explore her rediscovered passion for creating unique pieces of art.

Check out her stunning artwork at Little Bits of Wire on Facebook and Instagram as well as on her Etsy store.

And don't forget if you're looking for a supportive community of women ready to help you navigate your midlife transition through menopause, come join us in Your Best Midlife over on Facebook.

To find out how Floresco Training can support your employees through their menopause transition, through manager and colleague training, visit www.florescotraining.co.uk or get in touch at admin@florescotraining.co.uk

Ep 80 - Menopause and Employment Law with Emma Swan

The number of employment tribunals relating to discrimination where menopause is the reason being cited are on the rise.

But where does menopause sit in terms of UK employment law?

What should employers being doing to ensure they don't fall foul of the law?

What protection do those experiencing menopause have under UK employment law?

These are just some of the questions I put to my guest on today's episode, Emma Swan.

Emma is a Partner at Forbes and Head of Commercial Employment.

She has a wealth of experience in areas such as providing strategic level advice on employment aspects of restructures, transfers, mergers and acquisitions, advising on TUPE, conducting advocacy in Employment Tribunal cases, supporting with daily HR issues particularly discrimination issues, providing practical and strategic training and employment tribunal litigation across the country.

Emma is a Legal 500 recommended lawyer.

So I was keen to exploit that experience and expertise to help us all understand the law better when it comes to menopause and the workplace.

You can contact Emma at www.forbessolicitors.co.uk or find her on LinkedIn

You can download a copy of our Workplace Menopause Checklist HERE and do a quick and dirty audit of how menopause friendly your workplace is.

And finally, if you're a woman over 40 looking for support and a friendly community of other midlife women navigating their midlife transition, come and join me in Your Best Midlife over on Facebook.

Ep 79 - ADHD in Women and the link with low Oestrogen with Hayley Brackley

I've recently discovered that I almost certainly have ADHD which has come as a bit of a surprise at the ripe old age of 56, but it definitely answers a lot of questions for me.

It would also appear that my ADHD symptoms have become much more pronounced with the onset of peri-menopause, which got me wondering if there's a link between ADHD and low oestrogen.

Turns out there almost certainly is.

I'm joined in this episode by my good friend and my neurodiversity coach Hayley Brackley.

Hayley is a therapeutic coach and trainer and the owner of Great Minds Don't, offering impactful development, leadership and therapeutic coaching to allow individuals to let go of the strings holding them back, both professionally and personally.

In 2020, Hayley was nominated for an ITV National Diversity Award, under the category of Positive Role Model, this followed her work with individuals who considered themselves to be from a minority group, and Hayley embracing being herself - Hayley has ADHD and Dyslexia and will often be found sharing her story to help others to do the same.

Diagnosed with ADHD as a teenager she is also starting to recognise that she has many autistic traits too.

I love Hayley's no nonsense approach to neurodiversity and the way she's able to make complex things understandable. She has been an inspiration to me as we've worked together through my own journey of discovery around undiagnosed ADHD.

I believe there are very many women who have undiagnosed neurodivergence who would benefit greatly from knowing how conditions such as ADHD manifest in women, since currently diagnosis and information is still biased towards the male norm.

To find out more about Hayley you can find her active on LinkedIn or check out her website Great Minds Don't

Links to additional help and support throughout menopause and beyond:

Your Best Midlife Facebook Group

The Business of Menopause - A Guide For Working Women

The Menopause Mini-Makeover Self Guided Learning Programme

Ep 78 - Making Your Social Media Look Amazing with Nicky Pasquier

Whether you're a business owner or just someone who loves to share on Social Media, great looking graphics are going to entice your friends, followers and potential clients to engage with your content.

And it has never been easier to create professional looking graphics, even for those of us with the creative skills of a shovel.

My guest today has built her business around helping others to stand out with gorgeous looking graphics and video.

Nicky Pasquier left her job as a senior legal PA in Civil Litigation in 2013 and started her business without any previous experience and with no financial safety net. Yes another Gen X'er who made the jump from the corporate world into doing what she loves for herself, you're going to love Nicky's 'throw caution to the wind' story of reaching her midlife turning point..

She is now a Canva Expert, Canva Creator and Canva Champion and loves teaching small businesses how to successfully market their brands on line using branded visual content.

Check out the many ways Nicky can help you look amazing through her range of done for you graphics and customisable templates at https://www.virtuosoassistant.co.uk/

You can also get a free 45 day trial of Canva Pro, rather than the usual 30 days, using Nicky's link here https://bit.ly/Nicky45 which will give you plenty of time to really get to know Canva and play around.

And to help you learn what to do, Nicky has a fantastic YouTube channel packed with loads of 'how to' videos so you can learn all the tricks and tools during your trial. https://www.virtuosoassistant.co.uk/free-canva-tutorials