Menopause and wellbeing with Catherine O'Keeffe, AKA The Wellness Warrior
Through my work as a speaker I get invited to present at a lot of company wellbeing weeks and events. A topic that I’ve noticed an increasing number of organisations have been including on their agendas lately is the menopause. The more people I spoke to about this the more I came to realise how important it is for all of us - men and women - to understand the menopause and how we can have more constructive and supportive conversations about it, both at home and in the workplace. I’m delighted today to have on the podcast a guest who is a world class expert on the subject, Catherine O’Keeffe - AKA the Wellness Warrior. She is Ireland’s first menopause coach and founder of the Menopause Success Summit being held later this year, and in our conversation today I asked her to lay out the ‘menopause basics’. We talk about the difference between menopause and peri menopause, some of the common symptoms and how these can affect confidence, performance and mental health. We discuss the various treatment pathways and also how men can support women at home and in work who are going through the menopause. I was fascinated to learn that in some languages the equivalent word translates as 'renewal', and Catherine looks at the more empowering aspects of the journey. Of course we also had to briefly discus the male menopause which it turns out it is a real thing and in fact something that 30% of men will go through. You can find out more about Catherine's work here: https://wellnesswarrior.ie https://www.menopausesuccesssummit.com In the interview Catherine references a number of resources, the links to which are here: Symptom checker: https://menopausesupport.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/MENOPAUSE-SYMPTOM-CHECKER-Nov-20.pdf CBT https://www.womens-health-concern.org/help-and-advice/factsheets/cognitive-behaviour-therapy-cbt-menopausal-symptoms Understanding menopause for partners https://menopausesupport.co.uk/?page_id=13696