When I recently put out a call on social media for Gen X friends to share their experiences with menopause in the workplace, the response was immediate and enthusiastic. Many around me were eager to talk about how this tumultuous transition affected their work lives.
But when I asked if anyone could share how their workplace supported them through the menopause transition? Grilling.
While menopause has (finally!) become a cultural topic of conversation, women don’t always feel comfortable talking about how it affects them at work—and employers don’t necessarily ask.
Understanding the impact of menopause on women’s working lives can help spark important conversations.
Read: The Truth About Working During Perimenopause >>
Menopause can make work difficult
Whether women talk about it in the break room or not, menopause impacts many women’s work lives. In a survey of 1,000 perimenopausal and menopausal women from across the United States, about 8 in 10 described working during menopause as challenging.
Almost half of women – 4 in 10 – said they had to take time off work due to menopausal symptoms. Of those women, about six in 10 said they felt they had to hide their reasons for resigning.
More than half of women said they struggled with fears about job security and other work-related issues due to menopause. And while a small number of respondents (less than 1 in 10) said they received menopause support from their employers, 6 in 10 said they received no support at all.
Menopause and the bottom line
The lack of support in the workplace isn’t just bad news for menopausal women, it’s also bad for business. People are often less productive when they are not feeling well (physically or mentally) at work or need to take time off, meaning companies lose money.
Jewel Kling, MD, is a physician and professor of medicine who researches menopause at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. She was part of a group of researchers who asked patients how their menopausal symptoms affected their work.
“We found that almost 11% of women reported being unable to work because of their menopausal symptoms, and that on average it was up to three days per year,” said Kling.
Kling and her colleagues calculated that days missed from work due to menopausal symptoms accounted for an annual loss of $1.8 billion in the United States
Menopausal women also quit their jobs (or think about it). A global survey of more than 8,000 women found that 13% of women had quit their jobs due to menopause – and another 15% were considering doing so.
Reaching career highlights – and the menopause
It’s worth noting that there are actually three stages of menopause. The first phase, perimenopause, begins when the amount of estrogen produced by your ovaries begins to decline. The drop in estrogen triggers symptoms such as hot flashes, mood swings and brain fog.
Perimenopause usually begins in your 40s and can last from several months to 10 years, or in some cases longer. Menopause is the second phase and is actually just the point at which you have gone 12 consecutive months without a period.
After you reach menopause, you are in the third stage, postmenopause – and stay there for the rest of your life.
This means a woman can spend a decade in perimenopause and a quarter to half of her life in postmenopause. And she’ll likely be working — and perhaps even reaching career heights — while dealing with menopause symptoms.
Case in point: The same survey that found that women quit their jobs during menopause also showed that women in senior leadership roles are most affected by menopause-related challenges.
“Such a large percentage of our workforce are women, and 100% of women will go through menopause,” Kling said. “How can we continue to support women, considering that during the menopause period, i.e. in your late 40s or early 50s, you have often reached the right step in your career and bring so much to the company?”
How workplaces can help
Many employers still need to figure out how to support women going through menopause. The good news? There are actionable steps employers can take to make the workplace more menopause-friendly. Changes may include:
- Normalize conversations about menopause in the workplace
- Make sure health insurance companies offer treatment options for menopausal symptoms
- Offers flexible work arrangements and schedules (work from home, part-time work) to make work more convenient
Kling suggested workplaces look for ways to give women more control over relieving menopausal symptoms like hot flashes. “Are there ways to give women some flexibility through simple things like temperature checks? Is there a strict dress code?”
Little things like giving women control of the thermostat or allowing them to remove layers of clothing during a hot flash can help them get through the workday.
Because every workplace, job and employee is unique, making changes to support women through menopause is not simply a matter of adopting a “one size fits all” policy. Instead, companies may want to seek advice from experts – and then adapt their own systems accordingly.
Fortunately, guidance for employers is becoming more widely available. For example, the Menopause Society, a nonprofit organization that helps health care providers support women going through menopause, recently launched an initiative called “Making Menopause Work.”
The program provides free, downloadable resources for employers looking to create a more menopause-friendly workplace.
Read: Support for menopause in the workplace >>
Keep the conversation going
As the topic of menopause becomes less taboo, Kling is confident that we are moving in the right direction when it comes to supporting menopausal women in the workplace.
“There’s a lot of really good things happening,” she said. “It’s not perfect for everyone yet, but at least when women bring up this conversation, hopefully they should hear something other than, ‘Oh, you just have to stick it out.'”
This educational resource was created with support from Astellas, a member of the HealthyWomen Corporate Advisory Council.
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