it s trained thousands of its staff to recognise and advise customers on menopause symptoms. so what are the lessons they ve learned? lena chan, a real pleasure having you on the show. and lena, your company, holland and barrett have been in this space for a while now. what have you learned about helping women in this age group? i think we ve seen a lot of change, especially in the last couple of years. women being a lot more comfortable talking about menopause, even though it still is a topic that s very much shrouded in taboo. but i think i d say that there are two key things that we ve seen come up a lot. one, which is if we really want to be reaching menopause equity, we need to include the voice of communities. i think a lot of the menopause solutions now, our customers are telling us that it talks a lot about the symptoms that white women or their white counterparts might be experiencing. but we need to do a lot more in terms of how do we address some
in terms of how do we address some of the symptoms that potentially black women, asian and other ethnic minorities are facing. and the second one is that it s really important that we recognise that menopause is a life stage and it s not a disease. i think there s a lot of narrative around menopause that pins it as a disease, but really it s a life stage and the more we can actually start normalising conversations of menopause, it s more likely that women will come up to us and ask for support, because if they keep thinking that they re suffering alone, then it s already the first barrier to getting support. and really, every menopause is very unique. you ve recently invested millions to reach women here in england who speak other languages like hindu and urdu. lena, is this part of that trying to reach as many communities as possible? i think one of the key things that we saw, the statistics are really are really stark. one in two women felt that they weren t part
yet, they wanted to look at lifestyle nutrition. so, lena, do your staff tell customers to go to a doctor so, lina, do your staff tell customers to to go to a doctor or to buy food supplements? i mean, we need to have a holistic conversation with our with our customers. so they will definitely signpost people. and we actually have in partnership with the menopause mandate, a menopause nurses hotline. so if anybody presents themselves that we think that they should be signposted to somebody with a bit more of a medical background, they will have access for free to our menopause nurses hotline, who can then advise on seeking specialist support or gp support. lina, you operate in lots of countries, notjust here in the uk. how do attitudes to the menopause differ? part of this research that we ve done looking at communities is a big example of that. i mean, in some cultures you don t even have the word for menopause. so you can imagine if some women don t even know how to advocate for them
millions into the menopause market is the uk based health shop chain holland and barrett. it s trained thousands of its staff to recognise and advise customers on menopause symptoms. so what are the lessons they ve learned? lena chan, a real pleasure having you on the show. and lena, your company, holland and barrett have been in this space for a while now. what have you learned about helping women in this age group? i think we ve seen a lot of change, especially in the last couple of years. women being a lot more comfortable talking about menopause, even though it still is a topic that s very much shrouded in taboo. but i think i d say that there are two key things that we ve seen come up a lot. one, which is if we really want to be reaching menopause equity, we need to include the voice of communities. i think a lot of the menopause solutions now, our customers are telling us that it talks a lot about the symptoms that white women or their white counterparts might be experiencing. bu
hrt, yet, they wanted to look at lifestyle nutrition. so, lena, do your staff tell customers to go to a doctor so, or to buy food supplements? i mean, we need to have a holistic conversation with our with our customers. so they will definitely signpost people. and we actually have in partnership with the menopause mandate, a menopause nurses hotline. so if anybody presents themselves that we think that they should be signposted to somebody with a bit more of a medical background, they will have access for free to our menopause nurses hotline, who can then advise on seeking specialist support or gp support. lina, you operate in lots of countries, not just here in the uk. how do attitudes to the menopause differ? part of this research that we ve done looking at communities is a big example of that. i mean, in some cultures you don t even have the word for menopause. so you can imagine if some women don t even know how to advocate for themselves or refer to that life stage, it s really, r