Menopause invites itself to the British parliament.
This Tuesday, June 28, Labor MP Carolyn Harris had her male colleagues fitted with vests imitating hot flashes, as reported by several English media this week.
The goal?
Raise awareness in society and public authorities about this well-known symptom of menopausal women, characterized by an increase in skin temperature with redness on the upper body and sometimes sweating attacks.
A major health problem since the drug solution to relieve these hot flashes, hormone replacement therapy (HRT), is currently the subject of a shortage in the United Kingdom.
Read alsoBrain fog, fatigue… Nearly 45% of women suffer from the first effects of menopause at work
A “volcanic” sensation
A few seconds after putting on the jacket, the impressions are not long in coming.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting calls the experience "deeply unpleasant".
Assailed by the comings and goings of "an enveloping heat", he does not hide his haste to remove the device.
“If [men] had that, we would complain a lot,” concludes the politician.
Same feeling on the side of Stephen Kinnock, Minister of Immigration, describing an "almost volcanic" interior sensation.
“Welcome to my world,” replies ironically MP Carolyn Harris, also co-chair of the menopause task force and sponsor of the event.
"It was a great opportunity to be able to make my colleagues experience what 51% of the population does, or will face one day," she adds on her Twitter account.
In video, "Menopause", the trailer
Supported by the counseling company for menopausal women Over the Bloody Moon and the Theramex laboratory, the politician is asking the government to relay the list of HRT treatment drugs approved by the health authorities, to allow doctors to prescribe them more easily.
Improve working conditions
More than a health issue, the issue is also economic, believe the activists and deputies present during this experience.
In the United Kingdom, according to a report by the Fawcett Society, an association fighting against gender inequality, published in early May, one in ten employees would have terminated their employment contract because of symptoms of menopause.
Speaking to the
BBC
, MP Carolyn Harris hopes to raise awareness in businesses and establish real workplace improvements for women: “We need air conditioning, ventilation, fresh air, cold water.
They're not huge things, but they're enough to make the difference between surviving the day and getting through it."
