Meet Susan
Dr. Susan Miele is a transformational leader and workplace well-being advocate dedicated to redefining the narrative around menopause.
Drawing from both her personal story and research, Susan speaks and writes about workforce inclusivity, gender equality, and the retention of senior women, challenging organizations to see menopause as a key factor in creating supportive, inclusive workplaces.
A former Chief People Officer at Ginkgo Bioworks, Susan led efforts to make biology easier to engineer. At Foundation Medicine Inc., she built a People Team that helped drive the company’s rapid global growth and earned it multiple Best Places to Work awards. Her career spans senior leadership roles across biotech, publishing, finance, and more.
Susan holds a PhD in Human and Organizational Systems and brings a mindset of continuous learning to her work. A dedicated yogi, she infuses her leadership with mindfulness and compassion. Susan is active on several boards, with a special focus on organizations that bring resilience and well-being to marginalized communities in her hometown of Portland, Maine.
My Silent Struggle: An Untold Story of Menopause
At 42, I was a highly accomplished C-level executive with a great husband, an amazing 5-year-old daughter, many friends, and a beautiful home. I had worked hard for this success and assumed that, with sustained effort, it would continue. Little did I know that a precipice was near, and I would soon plummet. In the coming months, I would tumble into a cohort of women who experience early menopause, commonly defined as reaching menopause before age 45.
The definition of menopause is as simple as the term itself ~ a pause in a woman’s menstrual cycle ~ albeit actual menopause is a permanent pause. Menopause marks the date of a woman’s last period and the end of her fertility. Menopause, while often perceived as ominous, was not my precipice. My precipice was perimenopause, the phase of a woman’s hormonal journey that precedes menopause.
For some, perimenopause symptoms are sneaky, creeping up over several years, unpleasant in most cases, but with plenty of warning. For me, these symptoms were anything but sneaky. They were a dizzying, systemic collection of intrusive psychological and somatic symptoms. Symptoms including irrational behavior, anxiety, depression, hot flashes, brain fog, and sleep issues. Not only was I rapidly stumbling toward early menopause, but the presentation of my symptoms was severe.
I could no longer manage my demanding schedule, and my performance at work suffered, as did life at home. It was unbearably lonely and frustrating, with an added number of indignities ranging from sweating profusely to tearful outbursts and embarrassing flights to the bathroom. I quickly became a medical detective searching for answers to what was happening to me. Repeatedly, I heard from the doctors I sought help from that it must be the stress of my demanding lifestyle or the onset of depression.
After leaving one appointment with a prescription for anti-depressives, I instinctively felt depression was not the correct diagnosis. Tossing the prescription, I instead self-medicated with alcohol, exacerbating my already deteriorating physical and mental health and further fueling my poor judgment. I was, according to all the experts I met, simply too young to be in perimenopause. A conclusion reinforced by the unreliable blood tests often used to diagnose this hellish hormonal nightmare I was living.
After months of suffering in silence, hoping no one would notice, the concern and exasperation of my colleagues, team, friends, and husband were visible. With no answers forthcoming, I lost confidence in my capabilities and watched my agency diminish. I surrendered to the consensus opinion that my symptoms were stress-related and resigned from my position. A desperate decision to salvage my sanity, professional reputation, and marriage. A potentially career-ending decision.