Written by Amy Beecham
As male MP’s are filmed trying out ‘menopause vests,’ Stylist’s Amy Beecham asks why women’s pain has to be experienced to be believed?
“It’s deeply unpleasant and an enveloping heat,” shadow health secretary Wes Streeting tells the camera. “How you would crack on with life I don’t know. I can’t wait to take this off.”
This morning, at an event raising awareness of the shortage of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products in the UK, Streeting and a host of other male MPs tried out a vestthat simulates menopause hot flushes.
“Hot flushes are one of top three symptoms that impact on the lives of menopausal women – disrupting sleep, increasing levels of anxiety and often affecting women’s performance at work,” explained Lesley Salem, founder of Over the Bloody Moon, who developed the vest.
This awareness is absolutely crucial. According to Menopause Support UK, one in four women will experience severe debilitating symptoms and 38% of women seek help from a GP.
The demand for HRT has increased dramatically in recent years,with around 512,000 prescriptions for HRT issued in February 2022, up from about 324,000 in February 2020.
However, the UK has seen widespread shortages of the product, and according to the Menopause and the Workplace report by the Fawcett Society, one in 10 women have left work because their symptoms have become so debilitating.
“Imagine making a speech in the House of Commons and suddenly getting a hot flush. If [men] had this, we’d be complaining a lot,” former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith said during his turn in the vest.
But here’s the thing: why do men have to experience our pain themselves in order to legitimise it?
Campaigners have long been calling for increased support for people experiencing menopausal symptoms, from NHS funding to a greater understanding of early menopause. Why isn’t that enough?
Why can men only seem to understand the agony of labour or period cramps once they’ve had a one kilo belly strapped to them, or electric shocks delivered to their abdomen?
Instead, viral videos of men experiencing pregnancy simulators rack up millions of views. In 2021, a group of TikTokers called for menstrual cramp simulator to be a “mandatory” part of health classes.
These stunts can absolutely be important for raising awareness, but do little to address the root of the problem – just why are we so quick to underestimate the intensity and impact of the very real health impacts women face on a daily basis?
We know that, across a myriad of health issues, women have to fight for their pain to be believed, particularly women of colour. Damning report after damning report tells us so.
Black women are routinely having their pain “dismissed” by sexual health services. Asian and mixed ethnicity women are twice as likely to suffer maternal death than white women, while Black women are more than four times more likely.
But what is being done about it?
“It’s a very intense kind of heat and an internal feeling, not like being warmed by the sun, but almost volcanic inside,” remarked shadow minister for immigration, Stephen Kinnock.
Undoubtedly, the experience will make Kinnock and co. more aware of the most overpowering symptoms of menopause. But the people experiencing them can’t just conveniently unzip themselves when it all gets too much.
With millions of women suffering daily, we need more than mopped foreheads and performative male sympathy. We need action.
Add your name to the Menopause Workplace Pledge campaign to encourage employers to become supportive and understanding of colleagues affected by menopause.
Images: Getty
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