Menopause awareness in Canadian workplaces is growing [Video]

TORONTO –

Leisha Porter was getting an hour or two of sleep each night and having trouble functioning at work

“I was just forgetting everything, it felt like,” said the 49-year-old from Waterloo, Ont.

Porter was 44 years old at the time and sweating all night, so she asked her doctor if she might be in menopause.

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The doctor told her it was “very unlikely.”

A prescription for an antidepressant didn’t help, while Googling her symptoms scared her.

“When you have been kind of a high-performing person at work and now you’re struggling to put your thoughts together (and) you can’t remember what happened with your team from the week before…I started thinking…you know, Alzheimer’s,” said the service director of group benefits at Sun Life, an insurance and investment company.

Going into her third year of symptoms, she saw a doctor who finally did blood work and confirmed she was in menopause.

At the same time her employer Sun Life …