Clubs urged to join our Menopause Friendly campaign

Wednesday 18th October 2023

Today is World Menopause Day and we’re delighted to launch the Menopause Friendly campaign to athletics clubs across Scotland – with praise from Olympic champion hurdler Sally Gunnell, who has heralded the project as ‘groundbreaking’.

The initiative encourages athletics clubs to take some simple steps to make their training sessions welcoming and supportive for those going through menopause.

In exchange, they can use our ‘Menopause Friendly Club’ branding. We have published two pages of information and resources on our website, aimed at athletes, and clubs/coaches, offering advice, information and support:

Menopause Friendly – Information and advice for athletes

Menopause Friendly – Information and advice for clubs and coaches

To use the Menopause Friendly logo, we ask that clubs register their interest with us via the google form on the clubs and coaches page, and pledge to:

• Educate themselves on the symptoms and challenges for athletes (and other participants) that can come with menopause, and continue to stay informed for as long as the club uses the logo.
• Make training sessions supportive to athletes going through menopause, using the tips provided on these pages.
• Share information about athletics and menopause on the club’s social media to help inform members and normalise it as a topic of conversation.

The campaign is not only aimed at those going through menopause themselves – it explores the way that everyone can contribute to make clubs welcoming and supportive to participants at this stage of life.

It has won the support Olympic and World gold medalist Sally Gunnell (pictured), who has herself been outspoken about the effects of menopause.

She said: ‘I think it’s a great campaign, it’s a great way to see a governing body thinking. It’s probably only in the last year that we’re starting to talk about menopause in all areas, and why shouldn’t we be talking around it within sport? I think it’s quite groundbreaking and positive to see.

‘Menopause can affect people in so many ways, I couldn’t believe all the different feelings – as somebody who is quite a positive person, going through the menopause, how you had some self-doubts and questioned things. Now understanding what was happening, I think it’s clear we need to talk about it, so that we can support people. Knowledge is everything, as we know in sport, and it’s the same when we’re talking about our hormones and menopause.

‘I think signing up to the campaign is something that every club should do. It’s about spreading that word from within and sharing that information –  that has to come from within the clubs, and we have to do it in a friendly, approachable and understandable way.

‘So this is very good to see – I totally support the whole campaign by scottishathletics and jogscotland.’

The Menopause Friendly clubs campaign follows the format of the award-winning Menopause Friendly campaign run by our jogscotland programme over the past two years.

We know that, among both athletics clubs and jogscotland groups, there will be many members struggling with menopausal symptoms, and some will probably drop out without ever revealing why to their clubmates.

We want to keep these athletes active as long as possible, for their own benefit, and because of the vitality and value that they bring to the athletics community as a whole. While many of the resources look particularly at the challenges that can face athletes, the lessons can also be of benefit for others such as coaches and officials if their club activities become more challenging during menopause.

The resources have been developed through consultation with members of athletics club and jogscotland groups, including those with lived experience of staying active through menopause.

Among them was Barbara Knox, coach at Springburn Harriers, who said: ‘I saw Menopause Friendly jogging groups mentioned a few times on Facebook, so I went to the jogscotland website to find a wealth of information.

‘We formed a wee Menopause Initiative WhatsApp group within the club to discuss ways we could raise awareness, and then asked our jog leaders and coaches to have a look at the material on the jogscotland website.

‘We also held a Running and Menopause Evening with Dr Juliet McGrattan as speaker, and it was amazing to have so many women in the room all talking about their challenges, but finding ways to overcome them and know they are not alone.

‘I’m so pleased to see the campaign now being fully launched to athletics clubs. There are so many women out in our communities that think running or an athletics club is not for them because we won’t understand how they feel, so if we can have something thay says ‘we hear you‘ or ‘we understand‘ through the Menopause Friendly logo then think of all those lives we can have a positive impact on for their physical and mental fitness.’

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Tags: jogscotland, Menopause Friendly, Sally Gunnell