Menopause classes ‘will make Harrow boys compassionate’
HARROW SCHOOL has enlisted “menopause influencers” to teach pupils to become “compassionate partners” and “understanding colleagues”.
The school hopes the innovative new classes will help boys learn about “the change”.
Next term, 160 sixth-formers at the £40,000-a-year school will take part in an interactive course – Over the Bloody Moon – created by Lesley Salem.
Ms Salem, 49, told The Times that the workshop will invite pupils to take part in an empathy exercise entitled “in her shoes”.
She added: “I wasn’t aware of oestrogen withdrawal or symptoms that can accompany that.
“[The pupils] will have a mum, an aunt, a teacher going through the menopause right now – in the future it will be partners, friends and colleagues.”
She said she plans to use the workshop to draw parallels with puberty.
Simon Sampson, head of personal, social, health and economic education at Harrow, said that teaching pupils about the menopause would help to support “Harrow boys to grow up as considerate young men, compassionate partners and more understanding colleagues”.
A number of women have taken to social media in recent months to raise awareness of menopause symptoms.
Diane Danzebrink, a Youtuber, said she was pushed to the brink of suicide by her experience. A hysterectomy in 2012 triggered early menopause, which left her in a “dark and scary place”.
A doctor explained to her that loss of oestrogen can affect mental health and put her on HRT.
She said: “The Samaritans’ annual figures show the highest incidence of suicide in women is regularly between the ages of 45 and 54.
“The average age of menopause is 51, 52. That’s no coincidence.”