“It just makes you feel less alone”: Using the power of play to break menopause taboos in the workplace
Health psychologists from University of Staffordshire have adopted a novel approach to support women going through the menopause.
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Researchers used Playmobil to encourage open conversations about the menopause at work.
view moreCredit: University of Staffordshire
Health psychologists from University of Staffordshire have adopted a novel approach to support women going through the menopause.
A new study, published in the journal Menopause, highlights how the popular toy Playmobil can be used to understand and encourage open conversations about women’s experiences of the menopause at work.
Reports indicate that 3 in 5 women are negatively impacted at work because of menopause. Almost 900,000 women have left their jobs because of menopausal symptoms, and women continue to experience menopause-related discrimination.
Dr Alison Owen, Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology, explained: “Menopause is a significant life event that all women experience. The average age of menopause in the United Kingdom is 51, but women typically experience symptoms for several years before and after. The health changes associated with menopause can have a negative, sometimes debilitating, impact on a variety of life domains, including professionally.
“As menopause can be seen as a taboo health topic, and one that women can be reluctant to discuss within the workplace, it is important to find supportive and empathic methods to facilitate these conversations.”
Playmobil has raised many generations of young people, serving as an educational toy and encouraging imaginative play, interaction, and creativity. Its Playmobil pro kits are also used in professional and educational settings to support teams in prototyping, project management, and creative workshops.
A growing body of evidence shows the value of using playful approaches in research; however, very little research has explored the use of Playmobil as a research method.
In this study, Dr Alison Owen, Dr Amy Burton and Dr Jennifer Taylor enlisted 12 co-researchers, aged 31-60, working at the University, who were perimenopausal and postmenopausal women.
Women attended a workshop where they used Playmobil pro kits to make a figure of themselves and create a representation of their experience of the menopause at work. Participants were encouraged to respond to each other’s stories and examples, resulting in an in-depth focus group discussion.
The conversations highlighted how participants’ physical symptoms of menopause can have a real impact on a person’s working life. For example, pain in their fingers and joints impacted their ability pick things up, to use computers or write things down.
Symptoms such as brain fog and irritability had led to doubts in the women’s perceived ability to be able to do their jobs to a standard they wanted to, with some of the participants expressing that they had considered handing their notices in at work as they felt unable to do the job anymore.
As well as talking about their experiences, participants had ideas for ways in which their work lives could be made easier during times when the menopause was impacting them. For example, the importance of flexi time. The women also discussed the importance of social support, and being able to speak to people who are going through the same things that they were.
When asked about how the session made her feel, one participant said, “Part of a powerful women’s circle. Included, reassured”, another said they felt “empowered”, and another said they felt “understood and valued”.
Another participant commented, “Just being able to speak to somebody and realise maybe somebody else is experiencing it. It doesn’t lessen its impact, it just makes you feel a bit less alone.”
Following the workshop, the researchers have been working with the participants to feedback on the University’s menopause policy and are looking to introduce new ways to support women in the workplace – such as a menopause café and menopause champions.
Dr Amy Burton, Associate Professor of Qualitative Health Research, said: “Using Playmobil proved to be an extremely effective tool for tackling the taboo of menopause in the workplace. The workshop provided a safe space, allowing the women to talk about their experiences in a “playful” way, which led to powerful and meaningful discussions in a way that participants enjoyed and felt comfortable with”.
Dr Jennifer Taylor, Senior Lecturer in Qualitative Psychological Research Methods, added: “Many of the participants found attending the research workshop very beneficial and healing, as they were able to speak to and meet other people with the same experience. For some of the participants, it was the first time they had spoken about menopause openly with a group of other people.
“Going forward, it would be useful to explore the use of Playmobil in other research projects and see if it works as effectively with other health topics.”
Journal
Menopause
Method of Research
Experimental study
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
Using Playmobil as a creative research tool to explore women’s experiences of menopause in the workplace
Article Publication Date
9-Jul-2025
In menopause, sleep is vitally important for women’s long-term heart health, study finds
PITTSBURGH, July 9, 2025 — During the menopause transition, only 1 in 5 women have optimal scores using the American Heart Association’s health-assessment tool, known as Life’s Essential 8 (LE8). Among the tool’s eight components, four of them — blood glucose, blood pressure, sleep quality and nicotine use — are key in driving future cardiovascular risks, with sleep being particularly crucial for long-term cardiovascular health.
The findings – published today in Menopause – were made by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Baylor University.
“Previously we’ve shown that the menopause transition is a time of accelerating cardiovascular risk,” said senior author Samar R. El Khoudary, Ph.D., M.P.H., professor of epidemiology at Pitt’s School of Public Health. “This study underscores that it’s also an opportunity for women to take the reins on their heart health.”
The team analyzed health data collected from about 3,000 women who participated in the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN), an ongoing, longitudinal, multi-site, multi-ethnic study of midlife women that began in 1996. The researchers compared the women’s LE8 scores at baseline, around age 46, to their evolving health trajectories over time, from subclinical cardiovascular disease measures, such as increased carotid-artery thickness, to cardiovascular events, including heart attacks and strokes, to mortality of all causes. The team also examined impacts of each of the individual LE8 components: nutrition, physical activity, smoking abstinence, sleep, body mass index, blood lipids, blood sugar and blood pressure.
The analysis showed that four LE8 components — blood glucose, blood pressure, sleep quality and nicotine use — were the most important factors driving the study participants’ future cardiovascular risks.
Above all, sleep emerged as a potential predictor for long-term effects of cardiovascular disease events and all-cause mortality, though it was not linked to the shorter-term effects of carotid-artery thickening. The team found that at midlife, meeting the bar for healthy sleep, defined in Life’s Essential 8 as seven to nine hours on average for most adults, may contribute to women’s heart health and longevity, a hypothesis that should be tested in a future clinical trial, said Ziyuan Wang, Ph.D. candidate at Pitt Public Health and first author.
Low total LE8 scores correlated with increased cardiovascular risk, as expected—however, only 21% of the midlife women studied had an ideal LE8 score.
“With heart disease being the leading cause of death in women, these findings point to the need for lifestyle and medical interventions to improve heart health during and after menopause among midlife women,” said El Khoudary.
Other authors on the study were Ziyuan Wang, M.S., Emma Barinas-Mitchell, Ph.D., Maria M. Brooks, Ph.D., Jared W. Magnani, M.D., M.Sc., and Rebecca C. Thurston, Ph.D., all of Pitt; Carol A. Derby, Ph.D., of Albert Einstein College of Medicine; and Kelly R. Ylitalo, Ph.D., of Baylor University.
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About the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health
Founded in 1948, the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health is a top-ranked institution of seven academic departments partnering with stakeholders locally and globally to create, implement and disseminate innovative public health research and practice. With hands-on and high-tech instruction, Pitt Public Health trains a diverse community of students to become public health leaders who counter persistent population health problems and inequities.
Journal
Menopause
Method of Research
Data/statistical analysis
Article Title
Prospective associations of American Heart Association Life’s Essential 8 with subclinical measures of vascular health, cardiovascular disease events, and all-cause mortality in women traversing menopause: The Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation study
Article Publication Date
9-Jul-2025
COI Statement
R.C.T. is a consultant/advisor for Astellas Pharma, Bayer, and Hello Therapeutics, and received funding in the past from Happify Health and Vira Health. K.R.Y. was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number K01AG058754. J.W.M. receives institutional funding from NIH/NHBLI. The other authors have nothing to disclose.
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