You work in advertising, you know the drill. It’s World Menopause Awareness Day on October 8^th so what fly-by-night initiative are you planning?

Of course, this is the wrong question to be asking, because cynicism is the death knell for both creativity and change. From Bloom’s Menofesto to AMV BBDO’s and Essity’s Last Lonely Menopause, meaningful change is afoot when it comes to addressing advertising’s last taboo: the Menopause. 

An important part of this change is Back to Work After, an authentic event series which shines a light on the challenges of work and the Menopause. The series is the brainchild of Nicky Palamarczuk, Head of Social and Influence at VCCP.

Breaking the silence, changing the narrative

Palamarczuk created Back to work, after her own experiences of returning to work; first after talking a year out to have a baby in 2016, then again after a surprise breast cancer diagnosis just five months after returning from maternity leave. The honest event series has broken the silence surrounding challenging experiences such as returning to work after miscarriage or illness. 

Now the event series is back, after an unwelcome pause. As Palamarczuk explains: “I never wanted to stop doing my Back To Work events but then I had an unwelcome surprise in the form of a Brca2 diagnosis in late 2020 and I just didn't have the headspace to give anything to my side hustle. My own health, my family and my job had to come first.” 

She continues: “In the last two years I've had another double mastectomy and my ovaries removed. The latter round of surgery (which was just 8 months ago) has medically crashed me into the menopause, for the second time.”

It was this experience which has driven the event, as Palamarczuk explains: “After my cancer five years ago I was placed into the menopause with a cocktail of drugs by my oncologist because oestrogen, the thing that women lose in the menopause was tragically the thing that would cause my cancer to come back. So I've actually been dealing with menopausal symptoms for the last five years.”

She continues: “Hot flushes, severe joint pain and extreme insomnia have become part of my daily life but it wasn't until I saw Davina McCall take the conversation to the next level that I knew this should be my next Back To Work event.”

Making Menopause matter to everyone 

It’s easy to be cynical about the Menopause having a marketing moment, when the truth of women’s lived experience shows this is a huge issue which impacts so many women and yet is so little discussed in the workplace or advertising. But does Palamarczuk believe that a fundamental shift is afoot? 

“I think when adland starts creating policies and processes that can actually help people then a fundamental shift is afoot. But honestly, I still don't think it's on the radar for lots of people,” she continues.

“The menopause isn't just a fortysomething women problem. It's everyone’s problem. But because growing old in adland is not cool, then the menopause isn't either,” adds Palamarczuk. Yet she points to the ‘amazing’ progress in pockets; such as Bloom’s Menopause policy and Dark Horses’ open-sourced menopause policy. 

“The menopause isn't going anywhere and if we want to retain talent, we need to get over the stigma. You only do that by being more open and having more dialogue,” she says.

The myth of ‘quiet quitting’

In a media ecosystem fixated on the ‘war for talent’ and ‘quiet quitting’ the fact that older women are still not being heard and their experiences not recognised by businesses is a clear friction point. So can older women be better supported in the workplace?

Palamarczuk has spent the past  months talking and listening to women describe and share their menopause experiences, a process she has found ‘horrifying’. She explained: “They talked of anxiety and depression that was so severe that they fundamentally couldn't cope with life, let alone their jobs. We have HRT shortages in the news and it's still incredibly hard to get a menopause diagnosis for many women. The sad truth is that so many women go through their menopause and work experience on their own. I don't think they should have to”. 

It is an an issue that is particularly acute for the creative industries, an industry that not that long ago was urging women to ‘fight the signs of ageing’. So what is the commercial cost of the lack of representation of older women particularly in their creative careers?

“As a woman in the ad industry who is only getting older herself, I don't want to see talent and experience leave the building because they can't cope with the menopause. So if I can make some change by being part of the change then I'm up for that,” says Palamarczuk. 

It’s the stories we tell, and the ones that are shared with us which are so crucial to that change. Palamarczuk shares that the biggest learning from the event series is equal parts simple and powerful: “If you can move people, you have the biggest chance of making a change.”