Sparking Global Change - A Menopause Chat with Lauren Chiren

In this powerful episode of Find Your Spark: Real Life Menopause Moments, host Alison welcomes Lauren Chiren, CEO of Women of a Certain Stage. Lauren shares her raw and relatable journey from senior leadership in financial services to experiencing extreme anxiety, memory loss, and burnout, only to discover she had gone through early menopause.

What followed was a complete career pivot. Lauren opens up about the moment she realised she wasn’t alone and how that led to hosting the first menopause event in London’s financial district, founding her business, and eventually creating a Menopause Coaching Diploma that Alison herself has taken.

Together, they explore the lack of awareness and support around menopause in the workplace, the importance of visibility, and how coaching and community are changing lives. This is a must-listen for anyone navigating menopause or wanting to better understand and support others through it.

🎧 Listen in if you want to hear about:

• The early signs of menopause no one talks about
• How menopause symptoms mimic dementia
• Creating change in the workplace around menopause
• Turning personal struggle into social impact
• The power of menopause coaching and community

If you would like to contact Lauren, you can find her on Linkedin (1) Lauren Chiren | LinkedIn and her website is www.womenofacertainstage.com

I'd love to connect with you on LinkedIn;

www.linkedin.com/in/⭐alison-allen-chartered-mcipd

Transcript

Episode 2 - Sparking Global Change - A Menopause Chat with Lauren Chiren

 

[00:00:00] Are you or someone you know and love going through the menopause? If this is you low and welcome to find your Spark, real life menopause moments. I'm Alison and I'm excited to guide you through all things menopause. In this empowering podcast, we'll dive into honest conversations, share real life stories, and bringing guest insight to help you feel supported through every stage of the menopause transition.

I am so excited to welcome Lauren to my podcast, Find Your Spark Real Life Menopause Moments. Lauren is the CEO of women of a certain stage. I'm absolutely thrilled that you've agreed to join us. So just to give a bit of background, as a HR professional and a qualified coach and someone that has been working on raising awareness of menopause for a number of years through my corporate career, and then since I've set up Sparks [00:01:00] HR.

I came across you probably about a year ago now. Was it? I joined one of your webinars and then we had a chat and when I heard about your menopause coaching diploma and everything else that, that you do, I knew that I just had to be a part of your world and to work towards qualifying within the Menopause Coaching diploma.

So, I think for me, combining the work that I'd already done. And then qualifying as a menopause coach through your diploma and, you know, all the, the knowledge, the resources and the support that I've gained through that process and continuing to, to gain it was a no brainer for me. You know, and it's been absolutely fantastic.

So, like I say, the support that you are given and the, the knowledge I've gained through completing the diploma. So, I'd love to hear, and I'm sure that the listeners would love to hear more about you and what has brought you [00:02:00] to, to this point in your journey, you know, to be, be doing everything that you're doing.

It was really simple, really. I. It was really simple. Really? Yes. I can see this is going to be me falling over my words today. It never ceases to amaze me that even 18 years post menopause, I can still get my words mudded up and the good thing is that it doesn't bother me. So anyway, hopefully that doesn't put anyone off listening.

So how did I get here? I have a real squiggly career and. I was a senior leader in financial services for a while. I've been headhunted into some troubleshooting roles, really leading large scale projects and programs. Lots of regulatory and compliance change, and loved it. I really was thriving on it until I found myself sitting on board meetings, unable to speak up, or finding that my throat was so tight with anxiety.

I literally couldn't squeak the smallest of words out of my mouth. On one occasion, I remember turning around to one of my colleagues who I'd headhunted myself, and I couldn't remember her name. She'd worked with me at different firms over eight years, and I could not [00:03:00] remember her name. I could tell you her husband's name, her children's name could not remember her name whatsoever.

I knew I had to ask her and. I remember just kind of getting on the conversation, but turning back to my own desk and going, holy macro, what went on there? And then not long after that, sitting in a meeting holding on the yarns of the chair, watching the clock tick down because my heart was beating out of my chest.

And I thought, if I let go of the chair, I'm gonna fall on the floor. So over the course of time, things of that were happening, and eventually after about 18 months, I thought I had early onset dementia. And as a sole parent of a child with lifelong medical needs. I thought I better leave so that I could get someone, you know, get him set up for life and then figure out what the heck I was gonna do.

So it was three months after leaving work, my doctor did all the right things. He was amazing and said You've just been through an early menopause, which probably turned out to be a premature menopause. And in that moment I was like so overcome with relief. It was unbelievable. I'm probably the only person to be pleased.

To find out that [00:04:00] they're menopausal. But, um, and that was it. That was it. It was just that dawning realization that someone with I, I've, I've got really deep background in human performance, um, anatomy and physiology, psychology, personal training, nutrition and all of that, and have been working in that space on and off for over 35 years.

And I couldn't believe that someone who's trained elite athletes, who's worked with people all over the world. Was completely clueless about menopause and that was when I thought, I need to learn about this thing and figure out how we can stop other people or going through what I went through it. It's scary, isn't it?

You know what people do go through and you don't realise what they're, they're going through. They don't realise it's menopause. And I've spoken to so many people over the years. Who have said they thought they were starting with early onset dementia, and it is, as I said, it is just scary. So how did you go from that moments where you thought, I need to learn about this to get to where you are now?

Well, I don't know. I just kind of go up every day and put one in front of another. Um, [00:05:00] I am a qualified coach and I'm also, this is my fourth business, so I'm not new to running businesses. I've been, you know, I started working with my dad when I was four years of age. You know, I'd go out with him to work and, and learn the ropes and various different things.

So, I've always worked in my school holidays. I've always had that work ethic. It's something I've just always done, and I enjoy it. I get a sense of achievement from it, whatever it is. I think that initially all I wanted to do was find out was I the only one was I like really crazy and my doctor has just made a mistake and I, I had a conversation with a former colleague of mine at the gym and she was like, oh, I heard you left.

You know the organisation I've been working with? I said, yeah. She goes, well, what happened there? And I told her, and she goes. Oh my gosh, that's what I'm going through. I feel just like that. And we hatched a plan to try and get her organisation to start doing some work on that space. It was Lloyds Bank and nine months later we'd had a number of conversations, created the first every event in the city in London talking about menopause.[00:06:00] 

And during those nine months, I was starting to talk to more and more people and started arranging menopause social events where I teamed up with the local charity. They provided the space and hot drinks and together we advertised and every week more and more, more and more people would come along and was hearing more and more stories.

And I was like, oh my goodness. And it was literally a, a combination of events. It was doing the Lloyd's event in London and getting some really good coverage for that. And we're talking, you know, a decade ago, so back then people were taking a half day holiday 'cause they didn't want to be seen as going to menopause event.

But then one of my other. Women that came to the menopause social, um, worked at Airbus and I live in Fulton, in Bristol at the time of recording. And they, she said, look, can you come and speak to our work? So, I did. So, I went to speak to their global HR person and you know, we had an amazing conversation, but it was too early to actually do any training.

But they agreed to lend me their premises and I invited 60 companies. They had a bunch of people there. We got [00:07:00] the local media, national media. B, B, C, and we had BBC World Service there. We had local press and 60 companies from all around the UK and Europe. And that was really the beginning of it because we had the deputy mayor, we had a lawyer, we had me telling my story.

We had a couple of other people looking at it from different angles. We had some people from Lloyd's there talking about work they'd started doing and we're intending to do. And they've done a lot since then. And I think having all those companies in that room was really the beginning of. Other organisations sitting and looking at each other and recognising, ah, this thing is really hurting our business and we really do need to address it.

So, they walked out with great big, you know, words of paper and notes and workbooks, and then I followed up with them all and, and that was the beginning. That was just the beginning of women of a certain stage. It was never intended to be a business. Wow. And then. Now, obviously the way that I met you was because I, I was interested in taking part in the diploma to become a menopause coach.

So how did that [00:08:00] come about? Well, the very first thing I did, I, again, I, I was never intending to, you know, I wasn't a workplace trainer, uh, never worked in learning development. I've, I'd done a lot of HR transformation projects and programs, so I knew a lot about HR and this shows age. Now I'm part IPM qualified, so what you know is now CIPD.

Uh, through university 'cause I specialise. Um, and one of my specialisms was organisational psychology. Originally my goal was to, um, just coach other women because I've had an amazing executive coach who was also an organisational psychologist, and she hadn't gotten anywhere near the root of the problem that I was going through at the time.

And it was really fascinating to me that having someone one-on-one for two hours every few weeks. We didn't get anywhere near coming up with strategies that we're going to help and support. It was great having two hours off to sit down and be in a good environment and safe space with her.

Conversations were amazing, but we did nothing but put sticky PLAs in anything. So, I recognised that as an [00:09:00] executive coach that doesn't work on its own. I. So, there has to be an awareness of menopause in the individual or someone has to be able to eek that out of somebody to be able to make that identification.

And then there's a different conversation that needs to take place because it all comes back to your own wellbeing. And I was already trained as an exec coach, as a life coach, multiple different coaching diplomas, but one of the ones was as a health. Coach and I was able to pull from all my background, all the different things I've experienced over the years and put together a program, and I started repeating it with my clients, and all of a sudden I saw people getting quite quick results much faster than just with regular.

What's the problem we're looking to solve today? You know, what's your goal for today's session? Um, what's your objective? What would you like to achieve? You know, it, it completely transformed the conversations and people got much better results and started asking for help and support at work at home.

From the doctors and I realised then that that was something. Then what happened was some of my larger organisations said, uh, they wanted me like once a month or twice a month, and I didn't want to be tied [00:10:00] into like regular patterns of having to be in a location at a certain time. And then they wanted me to train people in house to become menopause coaches.

I was like. What do I know about, you know, what do I know about this? So, I went on another bit of a mission to, to learn and, and then create a program. And then I started training two people here and five people there, and eventually pandemic happened. So that all came to grinding halt, and then the demand was still there, but it was different like people, different priorities during the pandemic.

As we were coming through that I had this kind of light bulb moment and kind of went, what about instead of me going to you? You come to me. So, I did a pilot with my large organisations, trained a bunch of people together, and it actually was much better experience for them and for me. I got more experts involved, which meant it was a richer experience.

I could see the benefit of having outside people coming in. And then I did my first public cohort. And it wasn't without its issues. I have to say that it was a really good learning [00:11:00] curve and I recommend anyone that does something new always does a pilot. 'cause there is a purpose behind the pilot and you know, several cohorts later, 500 coaches later.

And Champions is my favourite part of the week. I love it. And I know that you've got an ambition to train how many 20,000. 20,000 cultures. Yeah. Yeah. And how far are you off that? About 19,000 something. We've got many, many years and co rides ahead of you to do that, you know, and it, and it's amazing. We've all got to, you know, we've all got to have a dream, haven't we?

And, and, and work towards that. You just mentioned that you bring in many experts, and, and obviously I've seen that you do, you know, how have you, how have you got to know those people over the time and to become trusted partners? I suppose because the menopause coaching program is, is your baby. You know, you've got to trust these experts to come in and, and be a huge part of it.

So how have you built those relationships? It's a combination of people already in new and trusted, so I. At the back end of the [00:12:00] program, as you know, we've got people like Chris and Laura and Jen and who are all really good friends of mine and experts in their own field, and some of us have trained together.

Some of us have been a mastermind together, so I know their work ethic. I know their commitment, I know their values and we're all very, very closely aligned and a couple of people are grads. So, people like Michelle, who's a MacMillan, cancer nurse specialist, and Sian, who's an executive coach, you know, so I've got a number of grads now who've come back and they, they want to share what they're doing or share their expertise and give back in some way, shape or form.

And then the, the other experts are people who I have sought out. So, we've either shared a stage together or, you know, I've met them, man, event, or I don't know, done quite a lot of being of parliament. So, you know, you, you, you kind of see the same bases at places and you start to see who's. Following through and you start to learn who's not just following through, but also seeing at the cutting edge of research.

Who is [00:13:00] humble and again, whose values feel aligned. And then just reach out and just ask and just say, look, this is the mission I'm on. You know, does this align with where you're at and where you're going? And that's been really important to me because I can't, I don't guarantee that we're gonna have any.

Specific people in any particular cohort. But I think there is something that's really beautiful having you say 80%, not 80 20 through 80% of consistency, because the message has to be on point, but the curriculum doesn't change. But I want it to be current. I want it to be up to date. I want it to be, you know, leading in the field.

And you can't get that from reading a book or listening to a podcast or you know, it's current at the time we're recording. But by the time someone listens to this in 20 years time, whatever, you know, so I think. And there's a lot of AI generated courses out there as well, which I'm sure are great when they go live, and they're a good starting point.

I'm not knocking them, but I think if you're going to coach somebody, you've got a duty of care and responsibility. And you, you and I have talked about this, you know, [00:14:00] during training and different things. You know, there's a, there's a risk of someone. In suicide ideation or suicide, you, you can't learn how to manage that.

You know, just by going, doing an online prerecorded course, you need a network of people around you. You need experts to be able to reach out to. So, does that kind of make sense? Yeah, yeah, definitely. And, and I suppose you've touched on staying up to date. You know, there's so much to learn, but then I think as you get into learning more and more about menopause, you realise how much there will be to learn.

And if we were to have this conversation in 5, 10 years, then obviously it would be a very different. Conversation that we'd be having would know so much more. So how do you keep up to date? Just by reading and just by following the research as well. Stay on top of, you know, who are the people that are out there, what are they talking about?

I personally have made a choice to follow the menopause.org, BMS and IMS, so the British Menopause Society, international and North American, simply because they're [00:15:00] fairly well aligned and they are the kind of. Stake in the ground. Um, you know, but I think you've also got to be mindful of the alternatives that are out there and, you know, what's the efficacy behind them.

I get approached by product companies every single week, and I, as you know, I don't really support many products because checking out their supply chain, their ethics and everything else is really tough and products seem to pop up in the market without an awful lot of back backup or research. So again, I just, I just play in a space where I know I can go and check things out and I can read up about it and that's a continual curve.

People send me article and say, I'm sure you've seen it. And I'm like, oh, I haven't seen that actually 'cause there's just so much. So, as you know, you've got access to library. We're, you know, we're constantly adding to that. So, I'm always sending stuff to my assistant and going, can you add this to the library under this category?

You know, here's another one to add. And, and not a week goes past where there isn't something new that's added in there. [00:16:00] Yeah, it's amazing. And I suppose, um, finally, I'd just love to hear about. You know, we, we've learned about your, your career and what's brought you to today, but I know that you are, you're invited to speak all over the place, obviously throughout the UK I've followed you.

Um, when you've been to America, you've talked about going to Australia, you know, so I'd love to know more about that and, and how your journey has taken you onto these global stages throughout the world. I don't know. I mean, if I could figure it out, I'd probably do more of it 'cause I love it. Um, I don't know.

I really genuinely don't know how it started. I could not, you couldn't have paid me enough money to get him staged before menopause. I, I just wouldn't have done it. I would freaked out and run a Maya. But there's something about knowing that you're potentially helping someone make a difference. And you don't care about what you look like or what you sound like or what anyone thinks about you.

You just want to. Hope that everyone walks out the room is going to do one thing differently or think differently about menopause. So [00:17:00] one of the big events was, oh, like in the early days was getting a random email from Wise P uh, from Denise Pines over in, well, she wasn't in Atlanta, Georgia, but she was running an event there, and she invited me to go and speak there.

And I think being in the room. With all these people, seeing all these other suppliers, all the different angles people were looking at menopause from was a real eyeopener. And I realised that there's something about community. There's something about uplifting each other and supporting each other. And coming from a very male dominated background, it was a real relief to suddenly find a home.

And I think a lot of it's word of mouth and. Just, I won't see good luck, but I, I think we make our own luck by just putting ourselves in the right spaces and places. Uh, yeah, the gigs are getting bigger and they're getting more interesting. Um, I'm speaking at Red Bull Racing later this year and going to be speaking at Sydney Opera House.

I'll be back over speaking in LA as well, and I'm probably speaking Nashville in a couple of weeks’ time. I was in [00:18:00] Dallas last month, so yeah, it's fun. It is really good fun. And you meet, you just meet some really interesting people. But I also say. If you can just do local gigs, do them because get known locally is probably the best thing that you can do and it's a lot cheaper on your energy, on your time, on your travel and the amount of time you spend away from the business as well.

Because, you know, going overseas is, is okay and it's fun and it sounds great, but actually it does take a toll and you have to be really smart about how you've covered that off. I didn't travel for about. Two or three years after the pandemic because I thought, I'm not gonna do that again. But I've kind of been pulled back in a little bit over the last couple of years.

So yeah, it's good fun. I do enjoy it. Amazing. Thank you so much. I've really enjoyed talking to you. I'm sure that everybody will enjoy listening to your journey, but I suppose there will be people listening that are thinking, I'd love to, to do the, whether it's the Menopause Coaching diploma [00:19:00] or menopause champion, or you know, just being your world, you know, what's coming up and how can people work with you.

As you know, we run the diploma every March and every September, so, you know, get in touch via women of a certain stage.com. LinkedIn is my preferred social media, but I'm on most of the main ones. And, uh, like you, I have a podcast also called Women of A Certain Stage. Just launched that as well. So, you know, we're, we're podcast newbies together, which is quite interesting and exciting.

And yeah, I think, you know, if you, if you know Alison, get in touch with Alison, um, to get in touch with me if you, you can't find me. Perfect. Thank you so much. And, um. Like I say, I've loved working with you for the last few months and hopefully it will continue. So, thank you so much for joining us today and if anybody does want to know more about Lauren, obviously I will pass you details on, but certainly look out for to the podcast.

Thank you so much for listening to Find Your Spark: Real Life Menopause Moments. [00:20:00] If you'd like to learn more, visit www.sparkshr.co uk. Please share this episode with others navigating their Menopause Journey or supporting. Someone through it. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. Your feedback helps us to spark, change and connect with more people.

Let's keep the sparks alive and continue this journey together.