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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 19h

Hello. If you haven't met me yet, I'm Helen and I help schools support their staff through perimenopause and menopause so that they can keep on doing their jobs to the best of their considerable ability.

I do this through talks, workshops, training, menopause mentoring and policy support.

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 1d

3/3 Many people find that cold water swimming helps with hot flushes - so maybe that's training the hypothalamus which manages our body temperature.

So, while I wouldn't trust every game advert that says it can reduce your brain age - it's definitely worth a little work on our brains!

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 1d

2/3 Can we train our brain out of it?

Well, there's a lot of evidence that learning new skills or a new language can defer the onset of dementia.

There's also evidence that meditation and mindfulness can help with mood swings, rage, anxiety and depression.

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 1d

1/3 National Train Your Brain Day might be relevant to those of us who are going through menopause. The changes in oestrogen levels have an impact on all sorts of areas of the brain causing hot flushes, mood swings, memory problems, rage, anxiety and depression.

#Edusky #EduskyUK #WomenEd

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 2d

My workshops don't just help people. They enable people to ask for help. That starts a discussion that enables them to keep on doing their jobs in the way we know they can!

#Edusky #EduskyUK #WomenEd

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 3d

I think that's one of the things the strikes were about - removing conductors from trains.

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 3d

Yes. I have done that now - but they don't get back to you right away. It's for things that happened in the past. They ask you to ring 999 if it's an emergency. Which seems excessive. It seems there's actually very little support.

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 3d

There doesn't seem to be conductors on many trains (and this is exactly why they are neede!). The only staff were on the buffet car and I would have had to walk past them.

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 3d

That's true. Thank you.

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 3d

Not really. There's a text for British Transport Police but that's for after the event. Otherwise they encourage you to call 999 for emergencies. I think I would have had to get up, pick up my case and move to another carriage (with no seats) and phone from there.

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 3d

There's that. I think my Grandpa would probably have told them to have some respect - all 5 foot four of him. On the other hand I hate to think what would have happened if my brother or boyfriend had been there and said something - they may well have got a hammering that a woman would not have.

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 3d

7/7 But I didn't do anything. And I feel shame about that.

It made me realise that sometimes we need a mental rehearsal about what to do in such circumstances.

What would you have done?

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 3d

6/7 I could have got my case and moved to a different carriage and then called the British Transport police. I could even have got off the train and got onto the next one, which because of delays was only about 10 minutes behind.

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 3d

5/7 No-one else did or said anything either. In fact no-one else on that carriage spoke.

I've since had time to think about it and reported it to the British Transport Police and they have taken it seriously, even though they can do very little except record the incident.

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 3d

4/7 Partly that was a freeze reaction - as a survivor of sexual trauma. Partly it was pragmatism. They were looking for trouble and things could have escalated very quickly if they'd been challenged.

It was also not knowing what to do.

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 3d

3/7 I always thought that I was one of those women who stood up for other women. I think usually I am. But I said nothing. I was frozen to the spot. I never moved. I didn't go and get food and drink and I didn't go to the toilet - even though I really needed both.

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 3d

2/7 They were loud. They'd been to a football match. They were laughing about the fact that they were going to spoil everyone else's train journey. They were making sexual jokes very loudly and making sexual comments about every woman that passed. They also referred to someone they knew a f*****t.

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 3d

1/7 It's not uncommon to get home from a train journey feeling stressed and tired. But shaken and ashamed? Not so often.

Let me share what happened. I was returning from Birmingham on the train when a group of middle-aged men got on the train.

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 4d

It would be nice to be able to let loose wouldn't it? But when we're working in school we can't!

Mood swings are common in peri/menopause because hormonal shifts can affect the parts of the brain that regulate our emotions.

#Edusky #EduskyUK #WomenEd

helenaclare.medium.com/regulating-o...

Regulating Our Emotions in Perimenopause and Menopause

Because perimenopause in particular has an impact on some key areas of the brain, including the amygdala it can affect the way we…

helenaclare.medium.com

Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 5d

4/4 She's also working on her weight-bearing exercise.

She realised it before any bones were broken - which is not always the case.

But I wish I'd been there a few years earlier!

#Edusky #EduskyUk #WomenEd

Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 5d

3/4 She'll be ok, but the medication is pretty unpleasant and it's obviously very worrying and upsetting for someone who had no idea that something so worrying was happening, symptom-free inside her body.

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 5d

2/4 The group urged her to have her bones checked. I'm glad we did! She had a mixture of osteopenia and osteoporosis in key places such as spine and hips.

She's taking medication for it and working on getting HRT from her doctor.

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 5d

1/4 Menopause education can prevent tragedy.

Sometimes I get there too late.

One of the participants in a school mentoring session had an early menopause and an uneventful perimenopause in the middle of the pandemic when we were all just struggling to keep pupils learning one way or another.

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 6d

2/2 Once they've gone nice and brown and soggy there'll be a jar of medlar brandy joining these. There might even be two - looks like there's a good harvest.

Christmas is going to be fun!

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Helen Clare @helenaclare.bsky.social · 6d

1/2 It's that time of year again! Damson gin and sloe vodka steeping on the hearth. The medlars are still bletting - most of them are on the tree, but one or two are in a box with apples.

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