We are all now part of the Zoom phenomenon as we attend several meetings a day via video conference. For those of you in menopause there is still the question of how to deal with menopause at work even though you may not in the office. Menopause can still impact women’s work performance both on and off-screen.

I love quotes. They are quick, little moments of inspiration that can brighten my day or give me an energy boost at a low point in my mental energy! I have put together a few of my favorites which are good quotes about success and valuing yourself

It is typical for women to experience midlife depression. This can be a depressed mood which can be experienced as having a bad day or being in a blue-mood. Another can be feeling depression as the result of a life experience that is typical of many women in midlife such as the death of a parent, spouse or a close friend; an empty-nest, divorce or job-loss. The most serious is a clinical depression which happens as a result of a chemical imbalance in the brain which can be a hereditary condition. The hormonal shifts that occur in midlife can exacerbate each of these types of depression.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing two amazing women about a product they have created to help women deal with menopause. Most of my clients are GenX women - women in their forties to mid-fifties, so they are right in the middle of that phase of their lives when they are most likely dealing with symptoms of perimenopause. (Perimenopause is the period of time from the very beginning of your hormonal changes to a year after your last period which is considered the moment of menopause.) However, symptoms don’t always end at the moment of menopause and can continue well into your sixties, so treatments that address these symptoms can help a huge portion of the population of professional women. Am I hearing an applause here? You bet!

Once you are in your forties, you are in a unique time in your adult life. Some mornings you wake up wondering, "Is this all there is?" Other times you feel a sense of gratitude and excitement at the possibilities! You realize that you are in a position to focus your time and energy on things that really matter to you.

What is midlife anyway? It is a term that elicits a lot of reactions from people in it, people approaching it and people past it. Midlife has gotten a bad rap. It is a psychological, emotional, spiritual, and cultural phenomenon that hits us in our late thirties to early forties and lasts until our 60s.

Some of the most challenging aspects of perimenopause in the workplace are hot flashes, foggy brain, fatigue and memory loss. But the most potentially career derailing is the out-of-the-blue, white-hot, I’m-going-to-rip your-face-off rage. It is incredible and seems to come out of nowhere!

In the year 2018 there are about 31 million women in the US workforce who are between the ages of 45 and 64. 80% of these women will experience symptoms related to perimenopause. Of the 80% of 31 million, about 25% will experience symptoms so severe that they will consider quitting their jobs.

I’ve been reading a lovely set of books by Cathleen Rountree on women’s aging. I am now re-reading the interviews in her book “On Women Turning 50”. They make me smile. These women reflect what I so often see in my clients: that women in their 50s, 60s and 70s are some of the most content, empowered, creative and visionary women that I know. These women remind me of why I developed a fascination with midlife when I was in my twenties - I knew then that women in that age group were dynamic and exciting and were my role models, my mentors.

Women arrive at midlife to perhaps find themselves surprised by emotional pain, upheaval, rebirth and transformation. It’s entirely normal, and ridiculously common. In my last couple of articles I offered you some thoughts on this transformative time and how you can use it to your benefit.