In Focus: Menopause matters

A community network set up by staff at Specsavers has supported women and educated managerial staff about the symptoms of the menopause.

The MenoTalk group was started by co-chairs Louise Furby and Caroline Millikenin in 2020 after they discussed their experiences of menopause with each other.

Furby worked in events and Milliken worked in learning and development as part of the Specsavers support office team.

During one conversation about how they had struggled with symptoms of the menopause, they agreed there would be other people at Specsavers who also needed support.

Furby told Optician: ‘We had one or two conversations over the months and eventually said, “You know what? We need to do something about this. Let’s start a group up and see where we go.” We always wanted the group to primarily be a support group. For lots of women going through menopause, one of the many debilitating parts of it is they struggle with their usual level of performance because of the symptoms.’