Written evidence from Miss Claire Hattrick [MEW0025]

During the summer lockdown of 2020, I launched, with the help of my 23 year old Identical Twin Daughters (Abby and Beth) a website blog called clipboardclaire.com
I am a part time Beauty Therapist, Abby is a Biochemist and Beth is London Paramedic!

It is aimed at helping others going through similar or the same experiences that I have been through. It is completely free to read and designed to give people unbiased, helpful tips and advice.

The section of our blog that has taken off hugely and is my absolute passion, is our Menopause section. This covers lots of my personal experience through it and how I have managed the symptoms, my biggest being joint pain.
We also have a Facebook group of 9,800 women, who share their daily struggles and questions and it’s heartbreaking to see so many women struggling and receiving very little or no help at all.

WE WANT TO HELP…
I’m a huge advocate for getting menopause out there and other women not suffering like I have, and being better informed at a younger age! With the huge pressure on the NHS, we are currently in the process of turning our blogs into a booklet. We would love to get it out to women in their mid/late thirties so they were forewarned and forearmed about anything and everything menopause! This would save endless GP, Consultant and Specialist appointments, if these women knew that they didn’t have dementia, tinnitus was rife In menopause and there IS help out there! Saving the poor, on its knees NHS, thousands of pounds with wasted appointment times that aren’t needed, and freeing them up to deal with the massive backlog of work generated by Covid-19. This is my reason for submitting evidence, I strongly believe this booklet can massively help educate many people and strongly believe their isn’t enough help out there at the moment! Levitations need clarifying and advertising to employers and employees!



In today’s society women are still suffering throughout the Menopause, from hot flushes to insomnia this time in a women’s life is not easy! Women end up missing days off of work because of their symptoms and with 50% of the population going through this at one stage in their life, there needs to be more support out there!

Businesses need to start by educating themselves and their employees about the menopause and it’s many symptoms. If colleagues understand it they are more likely to help to factor in the needs of their peers and understand when a women going through the menopause is struggling and what she needs, it can be the smallest things that can help the most, such as putting them near a window, changing their shift patterns or getting them a more comfy desk chair! If you are educated about the topic you can act upon it!

How do we educate about the menopause? Simple! A short, informative, easy to read booklet explaining what the menopause is and stating the most common symptoms. Women should be informed about the menopause before they hit the age of 40, this can help them prepare and get adjustments set up to make this change in life easier! And Men should be educated around the same time, especially those with managerial positions in the workplace, those with wife’s/ partners/ sisters or generally a female they care about in their life! It’s the small things they can do that make a big difference! Women can go through the menopause as early as in their 30s and suffer from symptoms until their 80s, that equates to the majority of the female population struggling at a given time and minimal help available!

Giving a booklet to both men and women’s also helps with those who do not identify as a women but are going through this, they too receive the education as well as everyone else and no one stands out.

I think the menopause deserves more coverage, it’s a big topic but so many are uneducated on it, this needs to change and it could be as simple as sending a booklet out when people hit a certain age! 

September 2021