“Listen up, meno-pals,” actress Lisa Ann Walter proclaims in the training video for Centrum’s new “Hot Conversations” campaign. “Together, we’ve got this.”
In 2024, Centrum, a multivitamin brand, introduced “Hot Conversations” to help destigmatize, support and inspire open discussion about menopause, especially in the workplace. The campaign spokesperson is none other than Ms. Walter, who recently made an impression on the big screen as second grade instructor Melissa Schemmenti in the award-winning mockumentary series Abbott Elementary.
This partnership has smart compatibility for any of the other people involved. As Josh Gabriele, Centrum’s brand director, explained, Centrum was looking for someone who could simply “raise awareness of demanding situations and take charge of managing menopause symptoms without support,” and “Ms. Walter’s humor and relevance set the tone and helped demystify menopause. “At work and giving other people the space to have those conversations. “
He also noted, “As someone who has personally gone through menopause and is candid about her experience, [Ms. Walter] understands the changes and challenges women face during this time”.
In fact, Ms. Walter has spoken for years about her own private experiences related to “the changes and challenges” of being a woman. His first child was born in 1987, and 18 months later he took the level as a comedian. At the time, few (if any) comedians were constantly talking about their current level in life. Joan Rivers, who had a son, had made a couple of jokes, and Bill Costhrough, father of five, had a few things of his own, but by all accounts he was a guy who hadn’t had any direct experience with pregnancy, childbirth or postpartum.
Walter’s material, on the other hand, represented his point of view: that of a woman. “I talked about the standard of living I’m at,” he explained. “The things we own [as women], our experiences — it’s vital to me. “It turns out that the same things that “mattered to her” and that she shared on a level also “resonated with people. “
In doing so, his stand-up broke the trend of focusing on the masculine: on comedy, fitness care and other areas. Today, approximately 73. 3% of comedians are men, and notably, 88. 7% of comedians are men. As of October 15, 2024, Netflix has released 37 comedy specials this year alone, and only nine are starring women.
This gender inequality also prevails in the field of fitness. According to the latest census, women make up 50. 9% of the US population. But, in 2018, only 4% of all fitness product studies and advancements were true to the situations expressed by women. In 2020, only 10. 8% of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) investment went to women’s studies. And, in 2021, only 1% of studies and innovation in fitness care were invested in situations expressed by women beyond oncology.
As Ms. Walter noticed, healthcare centers men. In other words, it overlooks or downright dismisses … [+] women in favor of men.
For menopause specifically, 31. 3% of the 99 US obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN) residency systems surveyed reported that they even had a menopause curriculum in their curriculum. This same study found that 29% of systems offering menopause curriculum had a maximum of five menopause lessons per year. The remaining 71% took a maximum of two courses during the year.
As a result, in 2019, less than 7% of citizens in family medicine, internal medicine, and obstetrics and gynecology reported feeling sufficiently prepared to care for postmenopausal women, even though women spend about one-third of their lives in perimenopause. , menopause and postmenopause collectively.
Even in their teams of friends or family, they still feel uncomfortable talking about menopause.
“None of this is intentional,” Walter said of this lack of education, studies and understanding about women’s fitness in general and menopause in particular. “But we deliberately avoid things that only women do. All fitness matters.
And so, for Ms. Walter, this partnership with Centrum breaks “trends that center men”: like comedy and like healthcare. As part of the “Hot Conversations” campaign, Centrum released Centrum Menopause Support: a new line of supplements designed to help relieve common symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes (Complete Multivitamin + Hot Flash Support), sleep disturbances (Restful Sleep), and lack of mental alertness (Clear Mind & Calm Mood).
Centrum recently introduced Centrum Menopause Supports – a range of supplements specially designed to relieve common symptoms of menopause.
Importantly, though, Centrum also gives women a space to talk about menopause and what they’re experiencing: something that women have historically lacked. Due to “sexism and ageism,” as Ms. Walter noted, society has viewed menopausal and postmenopausal women as lacking sex appeal, relevance, and usefulness, since they can no longer reproduce. Women who are connected with menopause are thus connected to this source of shame and to a condition, that, in the past, has been “the butt of frat boy humor” as Ms. Walter described. As a result, “everything connected to [menopause] is scary.”
Carrot Fertility’s Menopause in the Workplace 2023 report has highlighted this concern and shame. Of the 2,000 female workers surveyed in the US and UK, 72% of respondents felt embarrassed or embarrassed about having to deal with menopause symptoms at work. When those women missed work for reasons similar to menopause symptoms, 79% hid the true reason for the interruption at least some of the time.
Menopause symptoms can affect the time it takes women to work to complete a task, the quality of their work, their self-confidence, and more.
60% of respondents believed that having something meaningful (such as a referral or healthcare policy, workplace equipment, assistance locating menopausal doctors, and flexible scheduling) would increase their task satisfaction. But only 24% said they had a number one employer. that presented benefits for menopausal fitness and only 9% thought that the benefits presented were really important.
“Hot Conversations” aims to start breaking down these barriers and provide helpful products and resources for women. After all, because of menopause, 25% of women have considered leaving or have left the workforce completely. Mayo Clinic, moreover, has estimated that the cost of worker productivity losses due to menopausal symptoms are about $1.8 billion while healthcare costs related to menopause are over $24 billion.
A study, by the Korn Ferry Institute in partnership with Vira Health, found that approximately 25% … [+] of women have quit their job or are considering due to menopause. 44% of those women are senior leaders or senior executives.
“These conversations are super important. We shouldn’t be afraid to talk about [menopause],” Ms. Walter summarized, noting that, “Everyone’s different and symptoms can be anything”. She personally didn’t have any trouble sleeping: one of the most common side effects of menopause. But she did experience hot flashes – including one during an audition callback – and her shoulder went “weirdly numb”. After her first missed period, she visited her cardiologist, thinking the change in her shoulder might be a symptom of a heart attack – only to be told that there was nothing wrong with her heart. The cardiologist “didn’t even connect my symptoms to menopause,” she remembered. Only years later did she research and learn for herself that a frozen shoulder can be linked to menopause – and she’s not the only one. As of 2024, 60% of women in 2024 said that they are entirely self-taught when it comes to menopause knowledge.
60% of respondents to Carrot Fertility’s ‘Menopause in the Workplace 2023’ survey said Array’s menopause-related benefits were. [ ] would increase their satisfaction with the task. But only 24% said their number one employer even featured those benefits.
“Hot Conversations” allows Centrum and Ms. Walter to challenge this prestige quo and raise awareness about menopause. The crusade has already “produced impressive initial results,” according to Mr. Gabriele; Its media coverage, for example, garnered more than 2. 5 billion impressions, and Centrum is currently the third-largest menopause logo in the U. S. , just six months after launching its line of menopause supplements. HotConversations. com also provides other resources to fill existing wisdom. hole about menopause; They come with an online questionnaire to access a free, personalized menopause coach and article recommendations, audio coaches, expert advice, products, science education, and more.
As Centrum Brand Director Josh Gabriele shared, the “Hot Talk” crusade generated…[ ] impressive initial results,” adding those textual responses from viewers.
Mr. Gabriele added that the Centrum team “believes the [“Hot Conversations”] campaign has positioned Centrum as a forward-thinking leader in the category, setting a new benchmark for how Centrum connects with our community on both an emotional and functional level”. Going forward, Centrum aim to continue supporting women at every stage of their health journeys with similarly “impactful and relevant initiatives.”
Meanwhile, Ms. Walter won a Screen Actors Guild award for her outstanding cast in a comedy series with the rest of the Abbott Elementary cast in 2023, the show’s fourth season premiered last week, and she finds that she has more “wisdom and knowledge. “and self-awareness” now more than ever.
Together, she and Centrum hope to bring this same empowerment to other women. “Hot Conversations” can help guide them through their individual menopause journeys and start dismantling the once-dominant societal narrative that – Ms. Walter explained – categorized menopausal and postmenopausal women as “worthless, sexless, done.”
“I’m here to tell you that’s not the case,” she concluded.
A community. Many voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts.
Our network aims to connect other people through open and thoughtful conversations. We need our readers to share their perspectives and exchange ideas and facts in one space.
To do this, please comply with the posting regulations in our site’s terms of use. We summarize some of those key regulations below. In short, civilized.
Your message will be rejected if we realize that it seems to contain:
User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:
So, how can you be a user?
Thank you for reading our Community Guidelines. Please read the full list of posting regulations discovered in our site’s Terms of Use.