Eddie Hughes
Main Page: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)Department Debates - View all Eddie Hughes's debates with the Department for Business and Trade
(10 months ago)
Commons ChamberI beg to move,
That this House has considered the matter of the menopause.
I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting my hon. Friend the Member for Swansea East (Carolyn Harris) this important and timely debate in October, which is World Menopause Awareness Month. Regrettably, she is unable to attend or open the debate, so she has asked me, as a member and the treasurer of the all-party parliamentary group on menopause, to open the debate in her place. I am pleased and privileged to do so. I hope to do justice to her work, and that of the APPG and its supporters in this vital area affecting the lives of millions of women.
The hon. Gentleman says that this affects millions of women but, as the husband of a menopausal woman, I feel it is incredibly important that men, in their role as colleagues, friends or family members, have a deep understanding of the challenges of menopause, so that they can best support the women in their lives. Does he agree?
The hon. Member is absolutely spot on. That is why the APPG is working across so many areas to develop people’s understanding of menopause—not just women but, importantly, men as well.
The days of whispering the word “menopause” and keeping the changes in women’s bodies a secret and just getting on with it, so to speak, are thankfully beginning to be a thing of the past. The “Manifesto for Menopause” was launched last week at a celebratory breakfast in Parliament to mark World Menopause Day. Alongside the publication of the group’s “Manifesto for Menopause”, the reception featured new findings from a recent survey by Menopause Mandate of over 2,000 women. It found—it is important to get this into context—that 96% of menopausal women’s quality of life suffered as a result of their symptoms and almost 50% took over a year to realise that they might be peri or menopausal.
It is an absolute pleasure to follow my good friend the hon. Member for Bootle (Peter Dowd). I was originally excited to see that the hon. Member for Swansea East (Carolyn Harris) was going to be opening the debate, simply because her enthusiasm for this subject is contagious and draws people in, but he has done incredible justice to the opening of the debate.
It is marvellous to see a number of male colleagues in the Chamber. I grew up in a house with five brothers and an Irish Catholic mother, and the word “menopause” would in no circumstances ever have crossed her lips. I then went to an all-boys school and went on to do civil engineering at university. There were no girls at my school and just two women on my civil engineering course, in the whole of the department, so my exposure to women was somewhat limited until I finally got off the building site and into a traditional workplace. There I found that men whose experience was not as sheltered as mine had no greater knowledge or understanding of this topic, although I felt they had far less excuse.
So when my wife began to experience the symptoms of the menopause, originally neither she nor I, nor her GP, fully understood what was going on—certainly, menopause was not the initial diagnosis. That highlighted for me how difficult and challenging it must be for some women: they present to their GP, the GP misdiagnoses or misunderstands their symptoms, and then the problem is protracted because the appropriate treatment is not identified quickly enough.
With an understanding of that and as an MP representing the good people of Willenhall, Bloxwich and Walsall North, it was important to me to engage as much as possible with people who could help. We found a place for a menopause café—somewhere where women and men could come and sit down and talk about this topic, over a cup of tea and a slice of cake, in a relaxed environment. I think it is beholden on us, particularly male colleagues, in our role as MPs, to do everything we can to ensure that everybody is as well informed as possible. As I said in my intervention, in our male roles as family members, friends and relatives, it is incredibly important for us to first understand the symptoms and the range of appropriate treatments available, so that we can fully provide the necessary support.
The hon. Gentleman has mentioned families, groups and work colleagues. Does he agree that women who go through early menopause may find it difficult to discuss the subject with their employers? Those conversations need to be had, to ensure that women of any age are supported and enabled to engage fully in all aspects of their workplace instead of being excluded, perhaps unintentionally.
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. Given that my wife, myself and her GP did not fully understand what the symptoms were and at what age they could arise, it is completely understandable that an employer might be challenged in terms of providing such support. That is why it is vital that we do our best to ensure that everybody is as well informed as possible, because, exactly as the hon. Gentleman says, such symptoms might start to appear at any age, so it is important that their root cause is identified quickly and people can provide that support.
I am delighted to say that, now that my wife has a very senior role in her company, it is easier for her to drive that ethos throughout the company. I pay credit to phs Group for its work countrywide. I have invited the hon. Member for Swansea East to come and speak at one of its offices in the south of Wales—I hope we can arrange that soon.
I pay tribute to all colleagues in the Chamber today, particularly the men in our role as champions, fighting side by side with the women to ensure that this topic is completely understood by as many people as possible, so that we can all provide the support that is so well deserved.