Last week was Women’s Health Week, an annual campaign encouraging New Zealand women to prioritise their health through education, awareness and practical resources.
At Ormiston, we used the week as an opportunity to get our team thinking and talking about women’s health beyond the topics that usually get the spotlight. Because women’s health is broad, complex and far more interconnected than we sometimes give it credit for.
Throughout the week, we shared a different topic and range of resources with our team each day – encouraging everyone to take a few minutes to learn something new, explore a different perspective or think about an aspect of health and wellbeing they may not have considered before.
Beyond the obvious
When people think “women’s health”, a handful of topics tend to come to mind first. But the full picture is much wider. ADHD, osteoporosis, sexual health, endometriosis and menopause all sit under the same umbrella, and each can shape a woman’s wellbeing in ways that are easy to overlook until they’re personally affected.
Endometriosis is a good example of just how big that gap can be. It’s estimated to affect around 1 in 10 women in New Zealand, yet research out of Aotearoa has found the average time between the onset of symptoms and a confirmed diagnosis is close to a decade. Awareness plays a real role here – the same research found that women who’d never heard of endometriosis before their symptoms began waited longer for answers than those who had.
Menopause tells a similar story. A 2023 survey of New Zealand women found that 84% felt their symptoms had negatively affected their work, and nearly half had reduced their hours to cope, yet only 11% had felt comfortable raising it with their manager. The symptoms themselves aren’t rare or unusual. What’s missing more often than not is simply the conversation.
That’s part of why we started our Women’s Health Week by encouraging our team to get curious about a topic outside their usual area of expertise. Even five minutes spent reading about something you don’t know much about can broaden your perspective – whether that knowledge eventually helps you, a patient, a colleague or someone you love.
Explore: Women’s Health Week A–Z Hub
Financial wellbeing is health, too
It’s easy to separate “health” from money, but the two are far more connected than most of us treat them. Financial stress doesn’t just sit in the background – it shows up in sleep, mood, relationships and the ability to focus on anything else.
Recent research suggests women in New Zealand are feeling this more acutely than men. 66% report that the rising cost of living has negatively affected them, compared with 49% of men, and more than half of all workers say cost-of-living pressure has taken a toll on their mental health.
None of that is surprising once you consider that money worries rarely stay contained to a bank account. They follow people into work, parenting and how much energy is left over for anything else, including their own health.
Rather than treating financial wellbeing as separate from health, we shared a range of resources with our team to help build financial confidence and make conversations about money a little easier.
Explore the resources:
Friends That Invest – podcasts and free resources designed to make investing and money more accessible.
She’s on the Money – an Australian finance and business podcast and community.
Sorted – independent New Zealand guidance and tools covering everything from budgeting and KiwiSaver to mortgages and investing.
Money, Money, Money by Angela Meyer and Rachel Davies – a practical guide to resetting your relationship with money and building financial confidence.
It’s a Rich Man’s World by Camilla Falkenberg, Emma Due Bitz and Anna-Sophie Hartvigsen – exploring the financial inequalities women face and what can be done about them.
The invisible load
Many women balance careers, caregiving, family responsibilities and the mental load of keeping life running – all while making it look effortless. It’s often called the invisible load, and it’s easy for others to miss precisely because it’s designed not to be seen.
The numbers back this up. New Zealand’s own Time Use Survey has found women spend more than twice as long as men on caregiving for other household members, on top of paid work and everything else on the list. It’s not that this work goes unnoticed by the person doing it; it’s that it rarely gets counted, planned for or shared out loud.
None of this shows up on a blood test, but it’s worth paying attention to all the same. Sometimes the most useful thing you can do for your health is notice what you’re carrying and ask what could be put down, shared or handed off – even just for an afternoon.
We shared a few different perspectives on the invisible load with our team:
RNZ – Feature Interview: The Invisible Load
Sharing the Load with Petra Bagust
The Invisible Load by Dr Libby Weaver – exploring the mental and emotional load many women carry and how it can affect health and wellbeing.
Mental Health Foundation – wellbeing resources
Beyond the scales
To finish the week, we took a closer look at the relationship between weight, health and body image – and some of the assumptions that can shape the way we think and talk about them.
Body image, hormones and overall health are far more nuanced than a number on a scale suggests. Weight is only one part of a much bigger health picture, influenced by everything from hormones and genetics to environment, behaviours and socioeconomic factors.
The way we talk about weight matters too, particularly in healthcare where weight stigma can affect people’s experiences of care.
We shared a selection of resources with our team exploring some of these ideas from different perspectives:
Hormone Diets: Clickbait or the key to weightloss? | RNZ – looking at the science behind hormone diets and claims surrounding hormones, ageing and weight.
Why weight is not a measure of health | RNZ – a conversation about diet culture, weight cycling, body image and why the number on the scales doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story.
When (and how) should weight be brought up? | ABC Health Report – exploring weight stigma in healthcare and how clinicians can approach conversations about weight.
Body size and health | Healthify – a New Zealand resource looking at the many factors that influence body size, weight stigma and bias, and the relationship between body size and health.
Continuing the conversation
For us, Women’s Health Week wasn’t about trying to cover every aspect of women’s health in five days. It was an opportunity to create conversations, share useful resources and encourage our team to explore topics they may not come across in their day-to-day work.
From financial wellbeing and ADHD to the invisible load and the way we think about weight, the week was a reminder of just how broad women’s health really is – and how valuable it can be to stay curious about the experiences and health issues affecting the people around us.
The week might be over, but the resources are still there to explore. If one of these topics caught your attention, we encourage you to keep reading, listening and learning.