Sooner or later, all women will have to experience menopausal symptoms. And apart from hot flashes, irregular periods, and mood swings, a study published in the journal Menopause suggests we can expect our work performance to suffer as well since researchers learned that symptoms of menopause specifically have a negative impact on our productivity.
They used two scales to find the connection. The Work Ability Index (WAI) was used to measure work efficiency, while the Greene Climacteric Scale (GCS) was used to look at menopausal symptoms. Conducting a cross-sectional survey of 208 healthy Dutch women from ages 44 to 60, researchers were able to determine that the total GCS score predicted 33.8 percent of the variance in the WAI, which means there is a significantly high and negative association between menopausal symptoms and work productivity.
"These findings suggest that menopausal symptoms may increase the risk of sickness absence," the authors wrote in the study. They added, though, that precisely how it happens should be examined in a further study.
For more on menopause, check this out on FN:
Need help being more productive at work? Try these for tips:
- Good-Time Girl: 5 Tips for Better Time Management
- 5 Ways to Avoid Maintaining an Unproductive Mindset
- Tech Talk: 10 Free Online Tools that Make Life Easier and More Efficient
- 10 Tips on Fighting Procrastination
- Organizing at Work: Fix Your Desk to Improve Efficiency at the Office
(Photo by bloody marty mix via Flickr Creative Commons)
