According to a segment on ITV's This Morning, nearly half of women over 50 avoid seeking support for their mental health, partly because they they don't want to burden others.
Being explicit about the numbers and referring to the research she was looking at, Ashley James, appearing on the show to discuss the matter, confirms, "Yes, 47% of women don't get help."
She adds that some of the reasons include, "Feeling the need to hold it together for others, not wanting to burden people, fearing that other people won't understand, and thinking their issues aren't serious enough to merit help."
Ashley continues, "It's interesting isn't it, because I think women over 50 grew up in a different cultural time. And also, even our understanding around our hormones, like perimenopause, menopause, we're only really just starting to talk about it now."
"So I think lots of people are suffering and not quite understanding why," she says. Ashley also ponders whether the current generation of over 50s have been "conditioned" to put up with poor mental health.
Already "the first generation of women expected to do it all, to work, raise children, do all the housework," she feels it's possible women of this age don't vocalise their problems because they're used to having to just get on with everything.
Ashley feels that although younger women are much more vocal about their problems in the current era, and have social media to hear other voices sharing similar concerns about mental health, this doesn't undo a lifetime of conditioning to ignore concerns for some older ladies.
Sharing a personal anecdote, she says, "My gran who is in her 70s, she's the most stoic person I have ever met, she would never say anything was wrong physically or mentally."
Presenter Cat Deeley steps in to the conversation with her very relatable take on why women would choose not to seek mental health support.
For Cat, it's a lot to do with the endless to-do lists women seem unable to get to the bottom of.
"My to do list is normally so long," she shares, adding, "and there's so many things to do, from opticians appointments for the boys, to the dentist - you always float your stuff down to the bottom."
Ashley then adds succinctly, "It's the mental load." Adding weight to the argument that women, especially mothers, feel constantly overwhelmed, Ben Sheppard shares statistics on this.
"Seven out of 10 mothers say they feel overloaded," he says, continuing, "and almost half have mental health issues such as anxiety and depression."
When the segment was shared to Instagram, it garnered many comments. Many of those commenting wanted to highlight the importance of menopause and perimenopause being taken into consideration for this age group of women when it comes to mental health concerns.
Others commented to suggest they have sought help, but access to services has been prevented once they'd made that first step.
It appears that multiple factors contribute to women in midlife not getting assistance for their mental health, but society's conditioning is just one of them.
Doctors and health services need to be more aware of the impact of hormones on women, and women should have better access to mental health services when they're needed.
If you're struggling with any of the issues raised in this article, charities such as MIND can offer you support.
