Mixed up metaphor

SIR – If a deputy governor of the Bank of England, Ben Broadbent, thinks that the economy is in a “menopausal phase” (report, May 16), then thank goodness he’s not a gynaecologist. Dr John Gladstone

Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire

SIR – Since most people, both men and women, work very productively into their seventies these days, is Mr Broadbent quite sure he is using the correct metaphor?

And is he implying that women – with whom the menopause is usually associated – are no longer productive if they cannot reproduce? This would appear to denote a somewhat strange, sexist and limited outlook. M A Owen

Hockwold, Norfolk