Women are “suffering in silence” while going through menopause, a Fianna Fáil Senator has said.
Lisa Chambers, along with Catherine Ardagh and Lorraine Clifford-Lee, are calling on the HSE to implement a public awareness campaign for women who are “in the dark” about the changes their bodies will go through.
The trio have applauded Joe Duffy who has spoken to women on Liveline for a number of days about their experiences going through menopause.
Ms Chambers said women are told “to put up with it” and aren’t encouraged to seek help because it’s seen as part of the ageing process.
She said: “The mentality that it’s just part of getting older as a woman and you have to live with these side effects of menopause like the hot flashes, the sweats, lack of sleep and pain.
“I do think the HSE needs to do an information campaign around menopause, what to look out for and how to treat it and that there is treatment and that you don’t have to live with it.
“Women don’t have to suffer in silence.”
Senator Catherine Ardagh said there is a “serious information deficit” and she believes there is a need for young women to be educated about menopause in detail while at school.
She said: “I would like to consider myself as someone who would have a knowledge of the female body and I would have gone through fertility issues but I’d have no idea the menopause and when it’s going to happen and how it’ll feel like and how I’ll recognise it.
“It’s a huge part of women’s lives that none of us talk about until it happens and then it’s too late because you’re caught off guard and can’t prepare.
“It’s something that’s going to affect all of us and we are really in the dark.
“There’s a serious information deficit in terms of what we know so it’s clear there is a huge requirement for a public information campaign on the menopause and a HSE campaign to get women talking about it..when it is spoken about, people get very embarrassed and men definitely don’t speak about it.”
Senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee said women’s reproductive health “has always been taboo” in Ireland and women feel like that haven’t been able to discuss it.
She said the matter can be “daunting and isolating” and that there is a “historic under-investment in female healthcare” in Ireland.
She said: “It needs to be normalised and women need to know what to expect, and where the help is available and to access it.
“There are treatments and supports available and women need to know where to turn to.”
