Braddan Commissioners will be the first local authority in the Isle of Man to introduce measures to support their employees going through menopause.

Menopause is when a woman stops having periods and is no longer able to get pregnant naturally.

There are a wide range of physical and mental symptoms, including hot flushes, depression, anxiety and mood swings.

According to the NHS, these symptoms can be ’severe and prolonged’ and can affect relationships with colleagues, cause problems with decision making, concentration and memory.

Moira Radcliffe, the deputy clerk and finance officer at the commissioners, explained why it was so important to put in a new policy.

She said: ’I’ve read a third of women who go through menopause hide their symptoms at work, eight out of 10 of them experience notable symptoms that they struggle to work with and 20 percent of them consider giving up work. If you’ve got a workforce going through that, and it can be a long period, it can be between about two and five years that women are experiencing these symptoms, so why not support them to try and keep them.

’These ladies have long experience, I don’t want to lose that experience so I think having this kind of flag in the sand to say come and talk to us, we can adjust things around you, it makes a space for this conversation to happen really.’

Ms Radcliffe was motivated by a Davina McCall documentary on the subject, saying: ’I was particularly struck by the lady on that documentary that was considering giving up work because of her symptoms so she’d gone to her employer and they had a policy in place that helped her solve it, that helped her manage her symptoms at work.

’I put something together and talked to my boss and they said put it to the board, see how you get on, and it went to the board.

’We’ve got five gentlemen and they approved it.

’I have to say, I’m really proud of them for that - not just because they’re the first commissioners on the island to do it but because they can see the foresight in that really and how it’s important.’

According to a recent study by the UK Government, there are over five million women aged 40 to 55 in the UK in the workplace and it’s thought 80% of these women will suffer symptoms of menopause transition while in employment.

Menopausal women are the fastest growing working demographic in the UK, according to the report.

Yet support for the potentially debilitating symptoms of the menopause is absent from many workplaces.