“What are those pimples on your face?” My sister asked me this a few months ago, and I looked at her like, Why are you being rude?

“I don’t know. They’ll go away. They’re just pimples,” I said, uneasily. “Hmmm. That’s weird. You typically don’t have that,” she said.

And that was the end of that conversation. The pimples went away. Then they came back. They went away again. And came back again. Eventually, I started wondering… Why do I have pimples on my face?

My older sister has always had a way of noticing when my body is speaking to me before I recognize it myself. Years ago, she was the first person to recognize how much weight I’d lost while I was going through my divorce. “You’re going to fly away with the wind!” Rude…

But she was right. My body was telling a story before I was ready to tell it. This time, the pimples were part of another story. I was going through perimenopause. I just didn’t know it yet.

I Thought I Still Had Time

Two years ago, at the HLTH conference, I heard the word menopause spoken openly for the first time. Halle Berry was the keynote speaker, sharing her own experience with alarming symptoms that no doctor had been able to explain. Throughout the session, I took notes and sent everything to my sister, who was experiencing some of those symptoms at the time, not realizing that I needed the same information for myself…

Whenever the topic came up among friends, I would always think, Oh, that’s still a long way off for me. I was looking for their exact symptoms in myself, not realizing that everyone can experience perimenopause completely differently. I thought I still had time. Then I started connecting the conversations, the pimples and the other changes happening in my body.

Within the last six months, I’ve realized that I am in perimenopause.

This Is What Perimenopause Looks Like

For years, the images I saw in media made (peri)menopause feel like something that happened to women who were much older than me. What I rarely saw represented was the reality – women going through it while raising families, leading organizations and, in many cases, while reaching the highest levels of their careers.

If I could go back and speak to my younger self, I would show her a picture of me today and say, This is what perimenopause can look like. You don’t suddenly stop being yourself. You are still vibrant. Still capable. Your body is changing, and understanding those changes can help you navigate this stage of life with confidence.

Empowerment starts with education, and education should begin long before we recognize the signs in ourselves.

Let’s Learn Together

I’m bringing together four women who approach this topic from different perspectives, each with experiences of her own. Together, we’ll talk about what the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause can look like, how they affect women at work, and how benefit plans, women’s health providers and employers can better support women during this stage of life.

Whether you’re navigating this yourself, supporting someone who is, or responsible for the benefits and programs available to employees, I hope you’ll join us. Register here.

Let’s learn together and help more women understand what may be coming long before their bodies tell the story.

With Love, 
Leah ❤️

Perimenopause, Menopause and the Workplace?

Join us on Wednesday, September 30th at 2:00 PM EST, for an open conversation about what women experience during perimenopause and menopause, and what employers can do to better support them. We’ll talk about the signs many women don’t recognize, the support available today, and how benefits can help make this stage of life a little less confusing and isolating.

I’ll be joined by Tinsley English, Founder of The Three G Consulting Group and author of Leading Through the Pause: The High Achiever’s Guide to Staying Confident Through Menopause, Shelly Brown, Associate Director, National Partnerships at Oscar Health, Stacey Mennillo Dieterle, Head of Go To Market, Women’s Health at Sword Health, and Rebecca Bernier, National Employee Benefits Career Advisor at USI.

The panelists will bring perspectives from leadership, employee benefits, health plans and women’s health, while also sharing experiences of their own. It will be an opportunity to learn from one another and have an honest conversation about a stage of life that too many women enter without knowing what to expect.

I hope you’ll join us as we bring greater understanding to this stage of life and help create workplaces where women feel informed, supported and less alone. 

HCM Tech Advisory Happenings 

HR Leaders Roundtable

Last month, our HR Leaders Roundtable gathered again for honest, off-the-record conversation and the opportunity to learn from one another. I’m grateful for this community of women leaders who make space to share what they’re navigating.

Interested in joining a future roundtable?

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At HCM Tech Advisory, we help organizations make better HR technology decisions by bringing together HR, benefits, systems, and implementation experience. Whether you're selecting a new platform, preparing for implementation, or trying to get more value from the systems you already have, we help you understand where you are today, identify gaps, and build a path forward with clarity and confidence.