The Overlooked Consequences: How Trauma Can Impact Women’s Lives & What We Can Do About It

Many of us will experience stressful, distressing or even frightening experiences in our lives that leave us with lasting psychological, emotional and physical scars. 

While events like car crashes, muggings, terrorism or natural disasters are widely accepted to affect our everyday functioning, potentially cause trauma or develop into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and deserve professional support and treatment, this is often not the case for women.

Throughout their lives, women tend to suppress how they truly feel because they believe that they won’t be understood, their concerns will be belittled or they will be judged as being weak or lacking resilience. 

And who can blame them? 

Even when they have just experienced a traumatic event like complications during childbirth, child loss, rape or domestic violence, they’re often told that they just need to ‘Forget it and get on with things’ or worse still, ‘Stop being so sensitive’. 

They rarely get the understanding they need, let alone the help or support to heal from their trauma. 

Today, I want to raise awareness of women’s trauma and how it can affect their lives and performance in the workplace. Finally, we’ll look at what we can do as employers to provide the support these women need and help them find a path to healing and optimal health. 

What happens when a person experiences a traumatic event?

To explain what happens when a person experiences trauma, let’s pretend for a second that you’re on your way back to your car after meeting friends. 

Suddenly, someone jumps out of a dark alley and holds a knife to your throat, demanding that you hand over your wallet, phone and car keys. 

What do you think would happen in your body at this very moment? 

Yes, your body’s stress response system (fight or flight response) kicks into action, triggering numerous sudden changes in your body. Your heart and breathing rate increase, your pupils dilate, and blood rushes to your limbs to prepare for action. 

All of these changes are triggered by the release of stress hormones including adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol.

These changes are all essential for short-term survival when faced with danger. 

However, if the trauma is prolonged, chronic or severe, your adrenal glands (where various hormones are produced) can become overwhelmed and unable to work as they should.

This can cause a huge range of chronic physical and mental health problems including anxiety and depression and struggle more when it comes to coping with life’s ups and downs. 

It also means you could ‘hold’ the trauma in your body and develop chronic health problems like autoimmune diseases or psychological problems like anxiety, depression or PTSD. 

How does this affect your female employees?

While all of the above will have a huge impact on a person’s mood and behaviour, it also makes it harder for them to perform at their best in the workplace. 

If the person was also born female, the trauma they experienced can also impact their reproductive health and later in life, worsen their symptoms of perimenopause and menopause. 

For example…

1. They might ‘hold’ the trauma in their body

Clearly, any traumatic event can have an effect on our emotional health and can leave psychological scars. However, sometimes trauma can have an impact on our physical health, even long after the initial event. 

This can lead to an increased risk of disease, faster ageing, heart disease, autoimmune disease, diabetes, cancer, hormonal imbalances and gut problems to name just a few. 

2. They’re more likely to experience anxiety, depression or PTSD

Firstly, thanks to the hormonal fluctuations they’re experiencing, they’re much more likely to experience anxiety or depression or develop PTSD from their trauma. This is often due to fluctuating levels of progesterone, one of the main female sex hormones that helps us feel calm. 

As research published in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry says, “...women who experience at least two adverse events during their formative years – whether it be abuse, neglect, or some type of family dysfunction– are more than twice as likely to experience depression during perimenopause and menopause as women who either experienced those stressors earlier in life, or not at all.” 

What makes matters worse is that women’s experience of trauma is often downplayed or even dismissed and they often don’t receive the help and support they need to work through their experiences. 

For example, if a woman experiences a traumatic childbirth, they’re told ‘Well, at least you have a healthy baby’ and the psychological impact is largely ignored. Likewise, if they’re in an abusive relationship, the focus is likely to be on helping them escape the circumstances and not on the trauma they’ve experienced. 

This is unlike war veterans or men who can receive help for their trauma or PTSD…

3. Their symptoms of perimenopause or menopause could worsen

If your female employee is in perimenopause or menopause, these chronically high cortisol levels and overall physical impact can make their symptoms even worse. 

While it’s normal to experience fluctuations of the sex hormones oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone during these years, cortisol makes it harder for their bodies to find optimal hormonal balance and be healthy. 

As a result, they’re more likely to gain weight, have trouble sleeping, suffer from brain fog, develop diabetes and heart disease, struggle with low energy levels, have a low sex drive and difficulty reaching orgasm, and suffer from hot flushes, night sweats and other symptoms. 

4. They could struggle to perform at work

When a woman has experienced trauma and reaches menopause, they’re more likely to find it hard to be their efficient, creative and productive selves in the workplace. 

Because those high cortisol levels can worsen their existing symptoms, they might struggle with their energy levels, find it harder to focus, experience anxiety, depression and panic attacks, feel unable to think clearly and even make silly mistakes. 

What can we do as senior leaders? How can we help women heal from trauma? 

Healing from trauma is complex and depends totally on the individual, their experience and their unique psychological makeup. 

However, there are many things we can do to support women who have experienced trauma, help them with their healing journey, rebalance their hormones, ease their anxiety or depression and become a productive and creative team member at work. 

1. Encourage them to talk 

Creating a strong workplace culture of open communication is key when it comes to supporting employees, especially those who have experienced trauma. Encourage these women to build a strong support network of trusted friends and loved ones who they can share their experiences with and remind them that they can come to you for support when needed. Often, simply being able to talk about their problems can help them start to process their trauma. 

2. Promote wellbeing in your organisation

Ensure your team members know how to take better care of their physical, emotional and psychological health by providing resources, workshops and information they can put into action. When you do this, they will feel both valued and empowered and be more likely to make those small lifestyle tweaks that support better health and promote recovery. This can include: 

• Sleep: This is the foundation of optimal physical, mental and psychological health so recommend they get at least 7-8 hours per night and limit electronics for two hours before bedtime.
  
  
• Food: Encourage your employees to eat a varied diet, stick to whole foods and aim to include plenty of veggies, healthy fats and healthy proteins, avoiding high-sugar foods, alcohol and caffeine that can make matters worse.
  
  
• Physical activity: Exercise gets those feel-good hormones flowing and will help lift your employee’s mood. 
  
  
• Self-care: Make sure your employees understand the value of self-care and encourage them to do something they love and that helps them feel calm. This can include meditation, yoga, mindfulness, walking, reading, enjoying hobbies or simply taking a few minutes to sit quietly, appreciate nature, support the vagus nerve and breathe. 

3. Encourage them to seek help

Anyone suffering from the effects of trauma should be encouraged to seek professional help, the earlier the better. If you can, gather resources that you might need and signpost your employee to a professional. 

4. Create flexible working arrangements

Many people suffering from trauma remain productive members of the workforce but require understanding and flexibility in order to fulfill their roles. Consider whether you could implement flexible working arrangements for those who have suffered trauma, allowing for those more difficult days when their trauma is affecting their daily lives. 

5. Implement a Women’s Health in the Workplace strategy

If you are in a senior or leadership role, consider how you can implement a women’s health in the Workplace strategy to support women in perimenopause and menopause, including a focus on mental health. 

With the right tools in place, you can support your key team members, help them work through trauma and allow them to remain a productive and creative part of your workforce. Contact me for more information. 

Conclusion

Trauma can have a long-lasting effect on a woman’s health during all phases of her life, from menstruation to menopause and beyond.

If left unaddressed it can cause numerous physical, emotional and mental health problems, trigger anxiety, depression and PTSD and have a profound impact on their workplace performance. 

However, by encouraging trauma survivors to open up about their experiences, seek professional help and focus on self-care, then providing the support they need they can better manage how they feel and remain productive members of the workforce. 

Need help creating a Women’s Health in the Workplace strategy? Contact me today.