We were excited to hold our first virtual Menopause Café on Tuesday (14 Dec), aimed at offering our colleagues an opportunity to talk about the menopause and share information and experiences.

Rachel Weiss had the idea for Menopause Cafe in 2017, inspired by Kirsty Wark’s BBC programme “Menopause and Me” and the Death Cafe model she had already been part of  www.menopausecafe.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Yours-314-menoapuse-cafe.pdf

Menopause Cafes are run across the UK, with no pre-set agenda, to discuss topics chosen by the participants on the day.  

The principles of the Menopause Cafe are:

• No intention of leading participants to any conclusion, product or course of action
• An open, respectful and confidential space where people can express their views safely
• Opportunity to bring along a refreshing drink and cake, if you'd like!

Menopause Cafes are not:

• Support groups
• An opportunity to give people information about the menopause, regardless of how useful or important this information is. Instead, it’s an opportunity to create time and space to discuss the menopause without expectations or experts. For this reason, having speakers and information materials available is actively discouraged. 
• A method for community engagement, research, or consultation.

Our virtual Menopause Café was launched and hosted by our Group Director of Clinical, Quality and Governance, Annette Cairns, and was well supported by a variety of colleagues and it was great to get positive feedback from so many colleagues, including the below:

• Great session!
• I would like to say a big thank you Annette for sharing your experience and bringing this topic up.
• Really useful. thank you!
• Great meeting, thank you x
• Nice to be working for a company who is already taking positive action to support employees!
• Really lovely and supportive to share experiences.
• Thanks so much!
• Some great and open discussion and information sharing for all.

Our colleagues’ health and wellbeing are important to us, so we plan to hold these events regularly.