Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to 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.

Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm proud to contribute to this debate and indeed to do so as cosignatory to the motion at hand, and I want to thank and acknowledge Senator Waters for her initiative here and her genuine commitment to improving women's health outcomes. I have been working on some of these issues since I was elected to the Senate, and the fact is that, when it comes to women's health, the deeper you dig, the more you find instances where women's voices have at best gone unheard and at worst been silenced. For too many women this has meant a substandard level of care. From maternal health to menopause women's experiences too often get ignored and too often women aren't believed, so their pain and their experience in their own health journey can be dismissed and their concerns get shooed away. The problem with all of that is it impacts their care, and the broader problem with that is that it impacts the health responses we have in a policy sense and the economic responses we have in a policy sense as well.

Menopause is one of the areas in women's health where women's voices have been ignored and where stigma and discrimination have kept the issue in the dark. Of course, not every woman will experience menopause in the same way, but we know from recent statistics for menopause and perimenopause, as asked about in the Women's Health Survey, that most respondents aged between 45 and 64 have been bothered by symptoms in the last five years and 27 per cent needed to take an extended break from work or study or exercise.

We know menopause can impact a woman's physical, mental and sexual health. It can impact their relationships, their workforce participation and many other aspects of their lives. As a consequence, this can lead to women having unwanted career breaks. It can lead to women having to revert to part-time work, forgoing those leadership opportunities which come at the peak of a woman's career in those years. It can lead to women having to step back from exercise and other things they enjoy and from caring responsibilities. It really can impact their finances and their superannuation. It impacts employers. It impacts our communities. It has impacts right across our economy.

Senator Waters spoke about Sonya Lovell. I was going to share some of her story, but I think Senator Waters had it well covered. Advocates like Sonya have been trying to bring this issue into the light, talking about the economic experience of their symptoms and of their experience in our healthcare system. I want us to hear more of those voices. We have some really powerful advocates in this space, but I also know that there are a lot of women who are suffering in silence, and I think it's really important that we hear their voices and that we hear their experiences, both in our healthcare system and in terms of economic consequence. I want us to have a big, public conversation on menopause because, if we don't bring this issue out of the dark, we're never going to get the right community and policy responses to it. That's really important.

That's why a Senate inquiry can make a real difference. It's an opportunity for us to bring out the lived experience of women and to talk about where some of the challenges and problems are so that we can respond to them and make recommendations which cut across not just federal government but different layers of government and also employers and our communities and other ways in which we can seek to respond to the challenges we know that many women experience.

Of course, this isn't the only work that we're a part of in our government. We support this Senate inquiry. We're really looking forward to hearing the lived experience of women. It builds upon the other work we're doing in women's health. We as a government are absolutely determined to bring out women's voices and their experiences in our healthcare system because we know there's a gendered element to their experiences. We know you don't have to dig deep to find instances and examples where women haven't been heard, where they've been silenced and where their experiences or pain or other issues have been dismissed, ignored or not adequately prioritised. We have our National Women's Health Strategy. We've created the National Women's Health Advisory Council, which is doing a really important piece of work around lived experience and women's experience of the healthcare system too.

But this Senate inquiry will be important as well. I think the real power and potential in it is that opportunity to bring in lived experience and bring in women who may not otherwise be well engaged in formal government processes. It can bring them in to a forum and a platform on which we can have these conversations in a way which is comfortable and honest and really gets to the heart of their experiences, where they've suffered and where things have and have not gone well. It really has the potential to be very powerful. We've seen in the Community Affairs References Committee in other reports, particularly our recent report into reproductive health care, that, if we work together to get out there and listen to women and work together constructively as a committee, we can come to recommendations which have the potential to really make a big difference.

I have very high hopes for this inquiry, given the level of support across the chamber for it. I hope that we can really do something significant with it and do something significant for the women in our community who feel like their experiences haven't been heard and haven't been validated. I want to make sure that we get their voices into government but also elevate and raise their voices so that as a community we can think about how we deal with some of the issues which can surround menopause and some of the challenges that women experience and face. A big, open, honest, public conversation is a really good thing when it comes to menopause. I'm really looking forward to this inquiry. I thank Senator Waters for her initiative in moving it and for allowing me to co-sign it. Watch this space.

Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of this reference to the Community Affairs References Committee—a committee which I sit on. The coalition supports this referral and the importance of investigating the economic, social and health impacts of menopause in the Australian community. Around one in five women experience severe or prolonged menopause symptoms. I'm a 53-year-old woman. I've been in menopause for two years, and I suffered for many, many years prior with perimenopause. This goes to the comments by Senator Marielle Smith about open and honest conversations. We shouldn't be afraid to talk about our experiences.

Recently, in an ADHD inquiry in Melbourne, we were discussing the theme around the way women are diagnosed and misdiagnosed when they go to a GP or any particular type of doctor. At that hearing, I said that, as a woman going through menopause, I know exactly what that feels like. A different lens is placed on you as a result. Given that half the planet will go through menopause, we should be talking about it rather than pretending that it doesn't exist. But that's perhaps another, different inquiry. Little did I know that it was already afoot. I would really like to thank Senators Waters and Marielle Smith for bringing forward this motion. I think it will be some very important work. I'm personally grateful for it, and I think there will be many, many women who will also be grateful for that.

Most women in Australia over the age of 51 will experience menopause. That means over 4.5 million Australian women are currently experiencing or have experienced menopause. The coalition understands that working to achieve gender equality in all areas—from health to financial security, safety and wellbeing—is the best way to achieve real outcomes. The former coalition government provided significant funding to initiatives supporting the maternal, sexual and reproductive health of Australian women and girls to support the National Women's Health Strategy 2020-2030. That strategy recognises that menopause transition can affect women's physical and mental health. In addition to that, menopause increases risks for future cardiometabolic health and is one of the critical life points experienced by women. We need to have a think about that. Women going through menopausal transition are at higher risk of mood changes and symptoms of depression and anxiety, which is why they are commonly and incorrectly prescribed antidepressants. They also experience hot flushes, joint and muscular pain, insomnia, brain fog, fatigue—and the list goes on. This can last up to 10 years.

I took a moment earlier today to have a look at what kind of information is out there. On the Australian government's Healthdirect website, there's a helpful guide that explains to those 4.5 million of us living with menopause how we can alleviate our symptoms. It recommends lifestyle changes to help ease symptoms of menopause, such as avoiding caffeine, alcohol and spicy foods, because they help reduce hot flushes—good to know! It recommends having a fan or air conditioning on where possible, because we can control that everywhere we go! It recommends dressing in layers that can you can easily remove if you're feeling hot and getting regular exercise, since this will help with your feelings and low mood. These are all things that we can control, every single day—as we are primary carers and as we go to work! In all our spare time, for 10 years, women are expected not only to manage their symptoms but to ensure that the spaces they enter are air conditioned, that the clothes they wear can be removed easily, that the foods they eat are appropriate and that they go for a run if they're feeling depressed. This is why it's important that we start discussing this issue. This information, while attempting to be helpful, is grossly inadequate. Because half the world's population is going to experience this problem, we must talk about it, and we must deal with it. Frankly, telling women to just suffer through it and take off their jacket is not enough. We need to understand that we require a conversation and further investment in women's health.

The former coalition government launched the Jean Hailes National Women's Health Survey, which found, amongst other key challenges in the healthcare needs of women and girls, that women want more information on menopause. They want better information on menopause. They want constructive information on menopause. We also note that there are examples of current investments into this important area that the committee could consider, including the New South Wales government model for supporting menopause services, towards which the Liberal government there committed more than $40 million funding in their 2022-23 budget.

As a member of the Community Affairs References Community, I anticipate this inquiry with great interest, and I look forward to speaking with a range of interested stakeholders, including women who are affected and who want better outcomes for their own health care and for that of their daughters as they grow in a country that should and can offer better outcomes for women.

Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will contribute briefly on this motion today. I congratulate Senator Waters for this initiative. This is what getting more women elected to parliament can deliver. We wouldn't be having this debate if we didn't have women in this place putting these issues on the agenda, working across party lines and delivering better outcomes for the whole community but, in particular, women. I've sat in this place for a long, long time and never heard a debate about menopause, and that's a shame. That is an absolute disgrace. So what a wonderful thing that we can now openly discuss this issue across the chamber and have such a commitment from all sides to deal with this issue, because it is, as my fellow senators in the room today have already mentioned, an issue that impacts half the population yet too often is put in the 'don't talk about it' cringeworthy bucket.

But it starts for women not when they are in menopause or the lead-up to it. The cringeworthiness, the ickiness and the attitude of not wanting to talk about it start when you are a girl. They start when you're a child. They start when girls are taught not to talk about the fact that their period is coming and are taught to tie their jumpers around their waists at school because they might show the spots on the back of their school dress. It's the shame that comes from telling your schoolmates that you've got your period that day. It comes when you go to the supermarket and they ask whether you want the packet of tampons in a paper bag, because we can't possibly talk about the fact that we might have our period. This is shutting down of a discussion of something that impacts every single one of us as women—half the population. It's 2023, and we still have this inability to talk openly about period blood and cramps. In fact, when it does get discussed—whether it's about the period or whether it's about menopause or the issues that come from these moments and this period that we're going through as women—it gets put in terms of, 'Oh, how is it affecting her feelings or her mood?' It's not actually about what's going on with our bodies.

I am a patron of the Ovarian Cancer Australia association, and the reason I am is that I am sick and tired of women's health being put in the too-icky, too-hard basket. The reason we have one of the deadliest cancer rates amongst women when it comes to ovarian cancer is that people don't want to talk about it. The symptoms that come from it are considered to be just normal things, so they're overlooked, yet it is one of the deadliest cancers on earth. There is no cure, and the death rate is horribly high. You're more likely to die than survive ovarian cancer if you've got it, and a big part of that is our inability as a society to talk about women's health in a meaningful, upfront way. It starts right from the beginning, when we tell young girls not to talk about their periods. It is about our reproductive health and how it impacts on the rest of our lives, on the rest of our days, on the rest of our body, and it is nothing to be ashamed of. I really hope this inquiry can start to break that cringe, lift and wipe away the taboo, and allow women to talk about what is happening with our bodies in a way that is normal, normalised and shows there is nothing to be ashamed of.

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to respond to this motion about menopause. From listening to Senator Hanson-Young and her comments with regard to this, I think that would have been the case probably about 50 or 60 years ago. I don't think it's so much the case these days that it's taboo or it's icky to talk about it. I think it's far from that. When we see television commercials about women having periods and going through it or buying the requirements that they need to deal with it, it goes back—I understand what the senator was saying with regard to how it used to be, but I think that's not the case these days. If we have issues and problems out there, it's the people themselves who need to go to the doctors and discuss it with the doctors. There is help out there if they want it.

You talked about women and their problems. Did you know that my doctor told me men also go through menopause? Men face this as well. Do we talk about men's health issues? No, we don't. Men face menopause as well—and that's from a professional doctor who deals with hormones. So it's not just women but also men and the impact that menopause does have on women when they go through that period of time in their life. I think that needs to be spoken about. Women need to be made aware of it and that, if they are having emotional issues or other problems, it is due to the changing hormones. It's what menopause is all about.

But to say that it's icky and people don't want to talk about it—I think that's a load of rubbish. I think they do. Women are more aware of it. We have our doctors. We're more aware today of what's going on with our bodies and what's happening than we ever were before.

Ovarian cancer, yes. It is horrific, and the problem is that it gets to that stage because women don't go and have check-ups. It's the same with men with prostate cancer. They don't go and have their check-ups. It's people themselves who are a lot to blame if they don't go and have their check-ups. But it's their choice. It's everyone's choice how they want to deal with their health issues.

If you're going to have an inquiry into this, by all means do. Let's open it up. Let's talk about men's health as well, right across the board. Too many times I hear it's all about women. We forget about the other half of our population, the men in this country, and what they are going through, what they're dealing with. We have a minister for women. Is there a minister for men? No, there isn't. Everyone completely forget all about them, and I hear about it all the time. You have your own sons. The Greens can make their comments and denigrate men as if they're man-haters, the fact is that a lot of them are married to men. A lot of them have sons. They are all there, but they laugh at the fact that I'm talking about men. But I will stand up and I will support anyone that needs that help and that support.

In relation to this motion, I think it's again fearmongering that's going on here, saying it's icky to talk about it, girls aren't allowed to talk about it and there is fear of periods. What a load of rubbish. It's a fact of life. They teach it at schools. We know what's going on. To think that it's taboo—it's not taboo at all. It's quite common out there for girls to talk about it.

Question agreed to.