It affects 20% of the workforce, so why don’t we talk about menopause at work?

Imagine standing on a stage in front of 400 people, delivering the closing keynote for a conference, and suddenly forgetting what you were saying, mid-sentence.

This was my very real experience a few years ago. Fortunately, my audience was primarily women in their 40s and 50s, so when I made a joke about meno-brain they all laughed. That gave me enough time to collect my thoughts and continue.

Every day I hear similar stories about how menopause is detrimentally impacting women’s lives — at home and at work.

In the recent report, Driving the Change: Menopause and the Workplace, 83% of respondents said their work was negatively affected by menopause. Almost half said they considered retiring or taking a break from work when their menopausal symptoms were severe. And 60% ranked workplace support during menopause as ‘poor’ or ‘below average’.

While menopause is a natural phase of life that all women (and many trans-men) who reach the age of 50-ish will undergo, it certainly isn’t plain sailing for us all. Most women will start experiencing symptoms of perimenopause (the years before menopause) between the ages of 45 and 55 and these will typically last between four and eight years. However, it can start when women are in their 30s, or even late 20s, and last up to 18 years.

The economic impact of menopause

Dr Stephanie Faubion, Executive Director of the North American Menopause Society, and the Director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Women’s Health, says menopause has an enormous economic impact, directly affecting health care costs and work performance.

In Australia approximately 20% of the workforce, or nearly 2.5 million women, are estimated to be currently undergoing perimenopause or menopause.

Menopause is one of the main reasons many women feel disconnected at work. A study from the Society for Endocrinology, indicates 80% of women will experience symptoms and one in four women will experience symptoms that are detrimental to their life. These include hot flushes, unpredictable and/or heavy periods, sleep disruptions, mood swings, forgetfulness and brain fog, extreme anxiety, depression, loneliness and feeling like you are going CRAZY. Not surprisingly, these make it difficult to function at even close to 100% capacity.

For many, the timing couldn’t be worse, with peri-menopause occurring when a woman’s career is likely at its peak. Despite this, some research suggests as many as 25% of women have considered leaving work because of their symptoms and that 5% do resign due to menopause. And many more would resign if they could afford to.

How can employers help?

Managerial support is critical.

A menopause-friendly workplace will have positive impacts on your whole workforce, leading to improved engagement, increased productivity, and a better bottom line. It will also strengthen your diversity, gender equality and female leadership programs, and contribute towards making you an employer of choice.

Unfortunately, in many workplaces, menopause is either seen as a taboo topic or no-one really knows much about it. Either way, it’s not talked about.

The impact of this is that many women are too embarrassed to have a conversation about their menopausal symptoms with their boss, especially if their boss is a man.

If you want more women in senior roles in your organisation, it’s time to be more open about menopause at work and stop excluding menopausal symptoms from corporate health and wellness policies.

Employers can provide support by encouraging conversations, providing health and wellness promotion programs, raising managers’ (male and female) awareness and generating a positive cultural environment for menopausal women at work.

Providing the right support can mean the difference between retaining experienced and knowledgeable employees or having them feeling unsupported and uncertain about their future and deciding to leave.

What can I do as a manager or leader?

Supporting your staff doesn’t need to be expensive or time consuming. A few things you could consider are:

• Approaching conversations with sensitivity and care — some women won’t want to talk about it AT ALL, others will tell you far more than you ever wanted to know;
• Ask questions such as “how can I support you?” and listen to understand;
• Manage absence due to sickness and performance changes with sensitivity;
• Consider workplace adjustments, such as fans on desks, air conditioning, flexible working hours/locations and other requirements that may be requested; and
• Demonstrate kindness and thoughtfulness.