Several years ago, a new boss openly joked about his wife’s hot flashes in his first meeting with our leadership team, a group comprised of many women of menopause age, including me.
Although it’s been 25 years since the first TV ad for erectile dysfunction aired in the U.S., the topic of menopause has stubbornly remained taboo or the butt of a joke—until now.
This February, one of the first Super Bowl ads of the night was about vasomotor symptoms commonly referred to as hot flashes or night sweats, a routine occurrence for those experiencing menopause. A few weeks later, the New York Times magazine ran a cover story on the topic. And in recent weeks, celebrities including Oprah, Maria Shriver, Drew Barrymore, and others have been openly discussing menopause, its symptoms, and its effects on women.
It turns out menopause is big business—and not just for the plethora of new companies Fast Company recently highlighted, seeking to serve those experiencing it. As people live longer and birth rates fall, men and women are working longer than ever before, meaning many will work decades after experiencing menopause.
Menopause, or the time in a woman’s life when estrogen levels drop and she stops having her period, generally happens between the ages of 45 and 55. Perimenopause, or the preceding period when symptoms may begin, can start in the early forties, and post-menopause symptoms can last well into the sixties. In fact, the world population of menopausal and postmenopausal women—which doesn’t include those in perimenopause—is expected to reach 1.2 billion by 2030, with 47 million new entrants each year, according to the National Institutes of Health. (Throughout this article, we use the word “women” to refer to people with ovaries and a vagina.)
As this population grows, companies need to address the real implications of this natural transition to retain and get the most from their talent. Yet most are woefully behind and only beginning to recognize this need, though the U.K. may serve as a model for countries and companies around the world.
There’s so much of a stigma around menopause that people literally avoid the word, often referring to it as “the change” or “change of life.” Women avoid the topic for fear of losing opportunities or being sidelined for being seen as old, while some men and younger women in the workplace feel comfortable making jokes about it.
Even professionals in human resources, charged with handling employees’ issues, are uncomfortable discussing the topic, leaving most women to silently push through whatever symptoms are impacting their life and work.
“It all goes back to the relationship between the workplace and aging,” says Jaqueline Oliveira-Cella, a global healthcare and benefits leader who has worked at Kyndryl, Aon, and Colgate-Palmolive.
That’s beginning to change. “Our workplace demographics are changing. Women are staying longer. When is the sweet spot when we become leadership candidates? It’s right when menopause hits.”
While symptoms and severity differ by person, this transition can dramatically impact a woman’s work and life. Among the more common symptoms are chronic insomnia and sleep disruption, profuse sweating, brain fog, frequent urination, depression and irritability, and heavy bleeding. And yet, Bonafide’s 2021 State of Menopause study found that 73% of women are not treating their symptoms, which can last an average of 7.4 years, or as long as a decade for some. One former colleague kept a towel and change of clothes in her office to deal with her hot flashes, which lasted more than a decade.
“Almost all cells in the human body have estrogen receptors, so that all organ systems can be affected by the loss of estrogen,” says Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, a gynecologist and clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Yale University School of Medicine. “Sleep issues are one of the key symptoms. One question we have is, ‘Was it the loss of estrogen that caused depression and mood swings, or was it the lack of sleep?’”
More than half of women experience at least one severe menopausal symptom, increasing the likelihood that they’ll leave their jobs or scale back their hours, according to a 2020 study by researchers at the University of Southampton in the U.K.
In April, the Mayo Clinic released a study, the largest of its kind in the U.S., that found that the U.S. economy lost $26.6 billion a year due to lost productivity and health expenses resulting from employees experiencing menopause symptoms.
“This is the year the U.S. is waking up to this conversation,” says Deborah Garlick, CEO of Henpicked: Menopause in the Workplace and the creator of the U.K.’s Menopause Friendly Accreditation program, the first in the world. “In the U.K., early days was really six or seven years ago. We were working with the government accountability office and found that there wasn’t a menopause policy in the land.”
Henpicked launched with conferences around that time, adding its Menopause Friendly Accreditation in 2021 to establish best practices that range from awareness seminars to new health benefits. So far, more than 50 companies including HSBC UK, aerospace giant BAE Systems, and even West Ham United, a Premier League Football Club, have earned their badge. More than 400 more are in the queue, says Garlick, who believes demographics played a big role in the U.K.’s progress. “We are an aging demographic with a talent shortage.”
Last year, during Ireland’s first Menopause Awareness Week, the Bank of Ireland announced it would begin offering up to 10 days a year of paid leave to women experiencing the physical or psychological symptoms of menopause. HSBC is extending its learnings from the U.K. to operations globally, holding forums and events for men and women to learn more and share experiences, establishing resource hubs for employees and managers, adopting flexible ways of working, and even redesigning the HSBC bank uniform in the U.K. to be made from more breathable fabric.
In fact, U.K. efforts by large multinational companies and governments may well be the tipping point for the U.S. and the rest of the world. Henpicked recently launched its program in Australia, and by the end of the year, is aiming to do the same in the U.S. “There is a definite appetite for Menopause Friendly Accreditation in the U.S.,” says Garlick. “I’m having some discussions already with organizations and would welcome others joining the conversation.”
Even without the accreditation program, some U.K. companies are making changes in their U.S. operations. For example, BAE Systems now offers work accommodations for menopause-related needs and has made changes to its U.S. health plans to offer medical treatments, mental well-being support, and more.
Menopause and health specialists say there are many ways employers can make life easier for those experiencing the symptoms of menopause—from making it comfortable to discuss the topic, increasing proximity to the bathroom, or allowing them to control the temperature in their office, to name a few.
Oliveira-Cella and Sarah Ahmad, a health and wellness leader with experience at Humana, Shoppers Drug Mart, and elsewhere, recently penned a LinkedIn article titled, Menopause at Work: The Silent Career Killer Employers Can’t Ignore. In it, they suggest additional ways companies can support women going through menopause, including treating menopause as a health condition, confronting age bias and the knowledge gap among men and women, introducing targeted health-awareness initiatives, and negotiating discounts for menopausal relief products.
“This is a very productive group of people with a lot of experience,” says Minkin. “You don’t want to lose these people.”
Anne Marie Squeo is founder and CEO of Proof Point Communications, a boutique marketing and communications firm, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning business journalist.
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