Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the following matter be referred to the Community Affairs References Committee for inquiry and report by 10 September 2024:

Issues related to menopause and perimenopause, with particular reference to:

(a) the economic consequences of menopause and perimenopause, including but not limited to, reduced workforce participation, productivity and retirement planning;

(b) the physical health impacts, including menopausal and perimenopausal symptoms, associated medical conditions such as menorrhagia, and access to healthcare services;

(c) the mental and emotional well-being of individuals experiencing menopause and perimenopause, considering issues like mental health, self-esteem, and social support;

(d) the impact of menopause and perimenopause on caregiving responsibilities, family dynamics, and relationships;

(e) the cultural and societal factors influencing perceptions and attitudes toward menopause and perimenopause, including specifically considering culturally and linguistically diverse communities and women's business in First Nations communities;

(f) the level of awareness amongst medical professionals and patients of the symptoms of menopause and perimenopause and the treatments, including the affordability and availability of treatments;

(g) the level of awareness amongst employers and workers of the symptoms of menopause and perimenopause, and the awareness, availability and usage of workplace supports;

(h) existing Commonwealth, state and territory government policies, programs, and healthcare initiatives addressing menopause and perimenopause;

(i) how other jurisdictions support individuals experiencing menopause and perimenopause from a health and workplace policy perspective; and

(j) any other related matter.

I'm really proud to stand and move this motion today for this inquiry, and I acknowledge the support of the co-sponsor of this motion, Senator Marielle Smith. I'm so proud to be establishing, with the support of this chamber, a Senate inquiry into menopause and perimenopause to understand their health impacts and economic impacts on women and people who menstruate, and the impacts on the broader economy. Menopause and perimenopause aren't really spoken about much publicly. In fact the first mention in Hansard of perimenopause was from me about a month ago. But we need to be speaking about these issues, and we need good policy to address the impacts that they're having on women individually, on workplaces and on women's' financial security in particular.

Menopause happens between the ages of 45 and 60, and perimenopause, which precedes it, can last for up to 10 years and begin as early as your 30s. Both can be physically and mentally debilitating, with significant financial and mental health consequences. People experiencing physically and mentally debilitating menopause and perimenopause symptoms have been forced to suffer in silence for far too long. Women are sick of being invisible and having our health needs neglected. We need good policy to address the economic, social and health impacts of perimenopause and menopause. This inquiry would look at the economic, physical, mental and financial impacts of menopause and perimenopause, as well as the cultural perceptions and attitudes about a health issue that's affecting more than half of our population. Eighty per cent of Australian women experience menopausal and perimenopausal symptoms that can range from mild to extremely severe.

The financial impact of that can be profound for women as well as for their employers and the economy, as many women at the peak of their career are leaving the workforce. Menopause can cost Australian businesses more than $10 billion annually, according to the Macquarie Business School. The Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees estimates that even if just 10 per cent of women retired early because of menopausal symptoms, it would equate to a loss of earnings and super of more than $17 billion each year. We already know that women are retiring 7.4 years earlier than men, often at the height of their careers, and that contributes to the 22.8 per cent gender pay gap. Being forced to retire early exacerbates both that pay gap and the superannuation retirement gap. The gendered cost of treatment is yet another financial burden that only women face, on top, of course, of the costs of a lifetime of menstruation.

We need evidence based policies to reduce the impact of menopause and perimenopause on women's participation in the workforce, and we need to be looking at the adequacy of existing leave entitlements. In that vein, I credit a number of unions who, for the last year or so, have been surveying their members already and have started campaigning on this issue, proposing a policy to give employees who have either painful periods or menopausal symptoms paid leave—similar to the family and domestic violence paid leave policy, which is now, thankfully, a legislated one. On the health impacts, we also desperately needed more awareness by GPs and patients of the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause so that people know what's happening to them and know what treatments are available to them. Importantly, we must make those treatments affordable.

Once this inquiry is on foot, we'll be inviting submissions from women, health professionals, employers and experts about what federal funding and what federal policies need to be developed to support women in this phase of life—this very long phase of life. I'm particularly interested not just to hear from the experts, because we know they'll be very useful in guiding our policy development process, but to hear the lived experience of women who've had either a good experience or, conversely, a really terrible experience in a health lens or with their workplace dealing very poorly with what is a perfectly natural part of life.

Many women have already shared their stories with me including Sonya Lovell, who was taken out of work for several years after experiencing induced menopause when she was treated for breast cancer at the age of 47. Sonya experienced many of the lesser-known symptoms associated with menopause: impaired cognitive function, irritability, mood changes—these will sound familiar to many of the women in this chamber—as well as night sweats. But she couldn't find the support that she needed. Instead, her GP put her on antidepressants. It was only after her own research and conversations with other women—because the sisterhood works—that Sonya identified that she was transitioning through menopause. It shouldn't be this hard to identify a health issue affecting half of our population. Many people who transition through menopause don't have the information they need. They don't have the support they need, and they're not prepared. As well as experiencing the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause, not being able to identify what's happening and why is frustrating and can take a huge toll on people's confidence.

A study by Circle In and the Victorian Women's Trust in 2021 found that 73 per cent of women say that stress and anxiety levels are higher than usual for them during perimenopause and menopause, and yet 70 per cent of women who've experienced menopause say they don't feel comfortable talking to their manager about their challenges or their needs. Women have been fighting an uphill battle for equality in the workforce for so long that it's actually hard for us to name these struggles and talk about them. We fear yet another reason to discriminate against us and another barrier in the way to workforce equality for us, but if we don't talk about these issues nothing will ever change, and we are sick of suffering in silence. The study that I mentioned also found that 30 per cent of respondents that have experienced menopause said that they felt disconnected or distracted from their workplace, and 45 per cent of respondents said that they considered retiring or taking a break from work when their symptoms were severe, but the majority of those didn't go through with it because, frankly, they couldn't afford to.

Menopause can impact more than just physical health and financial circumstances. There can be significant impacts on mental health, on personal relationships, in a workplace and on a person's quality of life. We desperately need more awareness by GPs and also by patients of the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause so that people know what treatment is available and what's going to be most appropriate, and ideally we need some policies to make sure that those treatments are actually affordable.

Professor Susan Davis, who is the head of the Monash University Women's Health Research Program and is also past president of the Australasian Menopause Society, is currently recruiting for a study to provide the most up-to-date knowledge of Australian women's experiences of menopause, and I encourage anyone who is interested in participating in that to google Professor Davis and involve themselves in that really important large-data study, which will help guide our decision-making in future. Professor Davis also has the MenoPROMPT project underway, which is to develop a comprehensive practitioner tool to improve the care of women at and after menopause, including the needs of women with early menopause and screenings for conditions influenced by menopause, notably bone health. I might also add that Flinders uni is running a registry called VITAL, led by Associate Professor Erin Morton, which I have mentioned in this chamber before. Likewise, Professor Morton is calling for people to share their menopause and perimenopause experiences to help build that evidence base and to design better policy responses, so please get involved in both of those studies. Those sorts of resources will be invaluable to building our understanding of how menopause and perimenopause impact people who menstruate and increasing the awareness of the symptoms and the treatments that might be available.

Last week the New South Wales government launched the Perimenopause and Menopause Toolkit, a resource to raise awareness in culturally and linguistically diverse communities. I thought they deserved a shout-out as more resources like this are needed very much to improve the awareness of symptoms and the access to treatments and support. Likewise, earlier this year the Western Australian parliament committed to becoming certified as a menopause friendly workplace, quite a new concept in Australia and one that I hope the inquiry will look at and examine further. And last week the Victorian parliament followed suit and also said they would seek certification. Hopefully, this encourages more workplaces, maybe even the federal parliament, to consider itself becoming certified as a menopause friendly workplace—you can always live in hope.

Women are sick of being invisible and their health needs being neglected. We desperately need to develop good policies to address the economic, social and health impacts of perimenopause and menopause, so I'm pleased that in the conversations I have had there has been significant interest in this inquiry from around the chamber. I'm not surprised but am very pleased, and I'm really looking forward to strong participation from everyone out there who is affected by perimenopause and menopause. I expect that there will be lots of folk who engage with this inquiry, and I am particularly hopeful that we can build that evidence base and finally design the policies that we need to make sure that women are being respected and well looked after by our federal health policies.