Podcast Ep 245: Loretta Dignam has become the only Irish woman honoured in the first-ever Forbes 50 over 50 global list of trailblazing women. She talks about becoming an entrepreneur in her 50s and a global opportunity she plans to pursue.
Dignam founded The Menopause Hub – Ireland’s first and only dedicated menopause clinic at the time – in 2018 at the age of 56.
She says that age has no limit for entrepreneurship and talks about her efforts to make Ireland a global leader in removing the stigma around menopause.
“By 2030 there will be 1.1bn menopausal women on the planet. And every year 47m newly menopausal women will join that cohort. So it’s a global problem, it’s also a global opportunity”
Speaking with ThinkBusiness, Dignam said that making it onto the prestigious Forbes roll call of enterprising women over 50 years of age across 32 countries is fitting recognition for her efforts to make Ireland a global leader in removing the stigma around menopause.
Dignam rubs shoulders with Canadian author of The Handmaid’s Tale and twice Booker Prize Winner Margaret Atwood, Italian fashion house billionaire Miuccia Prada and Mexico’s first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum.
Making menopause a mainstream issue
The Menopause Hub has clinics in Mount Merrion, South Dublin, Santry, North Dublin and Ballincollig, Co Cork.
Its sister organisation, Menopause Hub Academy, provides workplace training, policy development and accreditation.
“I’m very happy to accept the accolade [from Forbes] and I’m hopeful it will open lots of doors by way of expansion and growth for our business.
“I think menopause – not only in the workplace but generally as a topic – has really only started to become a bit more mainstream in the last few years.”
Dignam discovered she was menopausal in her late 40s. “My first reaction was ‘oh my goodness, I’m a bit young for this’ because my perception of a menopausal woman was somebody a bit older.
“As a reasonably intelligent woman who has been around the world, I knew nothing about menopause and it was a shock. I didn’t know where to go for help and the internet (aka Dr Google) kept throwing up conflicting information that had me in a tailspin.”
Trips to the doctors for a variety of symptoms failed to clarify to Dignam that what she was experiencing at the time was perimenopause.
A round of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) helped her to manage the symptoms. “HRT was the thing that worked best for me and once I started to feel well I said ‘Right, I’m going to investigate this for the women.’”
That was 2018 and the Menopause Hub was only one of two such facilities in the world at the time; the other being in the UK.
“In 2018 no one was really talking about menopause. But when Davina McCall did a documentary on menopause for Channel 4 and Joe Duffy dedicated eight days to it on Liveline on RTE Radio 1 he did an amazing job for the menopausal women in Ireland.
“Since then a lot more people have got on board and suddenly people have realised that at any one time a large section of the world’s population are going through menopause. And it’s a big market.”
Dignam says that the seriousness with which menopause should be treated, particularly in the workplace, needs to be appreciated.
“Through the research we did we discovered that 10% of menopausal and perimenopausal women give up work because of their symptoms and four in 10 consider leaving work because of the symptoms.
“Not only is there an issue for women in seeking help around their symptoms, but there is a also an issue in the workplace that we need to address.
“So that’s what our business The Menopause Hub and the Menopause Academy do, we focus on prpviding the medical services to women through the clinicis and it is all self-referral. You book an appointment and we offer workplace training, education policy, development and accreditation and help organisations become menopause-friendly to hang onto that talent.
“A lot has changed in the last few years, but we have a lot more to do. But it has improved dramatically.”
A world of opportunity awaits
Asked about starting her business in her 50s, Dignam said she is happy to help dispel some myths.
“I spent about 25 years in the corporate sector working in big multinationals like Mars, Diageo and Kerry Group in consumer communications and branding. I absolutely loved my jobs and had a very fulfilling career. I lectured in Smurfit Business School on their MSc and MBA programmes and I was on the board of the Abbey Theatre.
“But I had gotten to a stage in my life where I was a little bored. I had done all I could do and I even found the title ‘marketing’ a bit restrictive and I felt I had more to give.
“And it just happened. It coincided with a personal problem and the problem being menopause. Women of previous generations suffered in silence and I wanted to redress things for them and sort things out for my own generation so that we wouldn’t suffer in silence.”
Her journey into entrepreneurship has given Dignam a new lease of life. She refuses to be categorised. “They say that if you work at something you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. Well, I do work and it’s much harder work than in the corporate sector because there is no ‘off’ switch. You have fewer resources and you’re balancing and juggling. When I started I was the receptionist, the PR person, I emptied the bins. I made all our furniture from IKEA. I did everything. And it’s a great sense of reward and fulfilment you get from doing that.
“I meet women who we’ve helped and they tell me that they went to the clinic and it changed their lives. And I would hear that on a regular basis. And there’s something very grounding and humbling about that.
“What we are doing collectively as a team is actually changing peoples’ lives for the better and that’s really what I set out to do.”
Dignam estimates: “By 2030 there will be 1.1bn menopausal women on the planet. And every year 47m newly menopausal women will join that cohort. So it’s a global problem, it’s also a global opportunity.”
She recently closed a fundraising round with Enterprise Ireland and private investors to take the Menopause Academy international.
“We’re also looking at adding more clinics around the country so that women have better access to specialised care in the area of menopause. I’ve campaigned for free HRT and raised a petition that helped to get that over the line. I need to double down on the new Minister for Health to make sure that it gets implemented this year.”
Fielding calls from overseas about replicating her business model Dignam says the international model beckons. “There’s just so much opportunity and it’s now about how best to capitalise on it and how best to focus.”
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