Key TakeawaysSide effects of menopause in the workplace cost $1.8 billion a year.While uncommon in the U.S., menopause accommodations in the workplace are on the up-and-up.Change is most realistic if people experiencing perimenopause are open about their needs in order to reduce stigma.

Key Takeaways

Side effects of menopause in the workplace cost $1.8 billion a year.While uncommon in the U.S., menopause accommodations in the workplace are on the up-and-up.Change is most realistic if people experiencing perimenopause are open about their needs in order to reduce stigma.

When Nancy D’Andrea started experiencing severe menopause symptoms several years ago, she was thankful to be working from home.

“It was heavy, heavy bleeding for a long time,” said D’Andrea, 55, who lives in New Jersey. Her periods typically lasted two weeks out of each month and were so intense that she needed to use tampons and pads together, changing them around the clock. It got so bad that she had to plan activities and events around her bleeding, which meant she was homebound roughly half the time.

As she operated a cruise travel business out of her house, D’Andrea was able to hide her condition from clients—something that would not have been possible had she been in a storefront agency.

“If I didn’t work from home, it would look really weird for me to run to the bathroom every hour,” she told Verywell. Ultimately, a hysterectomy solved the problem.

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For employees in midlife, dealing with menopausal and perimenopausal symptoms at work can be mildly irritating, enormously intrusive, or somewhere in between. In the U.S., however, employers typically have taken a hands-off approach when it comes to providing support for people grappling with the challenges of menopause, possibly because many symptoms are invisible and not well understood.

The study compiled information from 4,440 women aged 45 to 60 about their symptoms and their impact on work. Respondents were asked to use the Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) to rate the severity of 11 different symptoms including sleep disruption, heart discomfort, hot flashes, fatigue, joint pain, depression, and sexual and bladder issues. They were asked if they had missed any work days in the prior year; cut back their hours in the last six months; were laid off or fired in the past six months; or quit, retired, or changed jobs in the past six months.

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Thirteen percent of the study subjects said they had at least one adverse work outcome because of menopause. Eleven percent had missed work in the prior year, 5.6% had cut back on work, and 0.3% were laid off. The higher the MRS score, the more likely a woman was to report an adverse outcome.

Silence Is Not the Best Option

These numbers don’t tell the whole story about experiences with menopause symptoms on the job. Unlike those who are pregnant, people in menopause don’t necessarily display any outward indicators that suggest they need accommodations. And employees may not be eager to broadcast their symptoms to coworkers or supervisors.

“The majority of women, given the stigma around menopause, are unwilling to discuss it,” Mariam Saadedine, MD, a research fellow at Mayo Clinic and co-author of the study, told Verywell. “Women often choose to suffer in silence and keep their experiences to themselves.” This can be due to fears of ageism and being perceived as not as competent on the job.

If employers can’t offer meaningful accommodations, it’s often an individual process of trial and error to find treatment that helps get an employee back to working order. That was the case for professional singer Nancy Bos, whose changing hormones impacted her voice when she enteredperimenopausea few years ago.

“I couldn’t breathe as well,” said Bos, who is 55 and lives in Albuquerque. “I didn’t have as much lung capacity.”

She realized her voice no longer carried over the chamber orchestra with which she was performing. She also experienced hot flashes, a dry throat, and bladder-control problems that made it difficult to spend hours performing in costumes or execute bouncy moves.

After starting on menopausehormone therapyat age 51, Bos found her voice returning and her former feelings of well-being restored. Without the therapy, menopause would have altered her life irrevocably.

“It would have ended my career,” she told Verywell. “I would not have sung anymore.”

Bos, who is also a speaker and writer, went on to co-author the bookSinging Through Change: Women’s Voices in Midlife, Menopause, and Beyond, to help prepare and guide her fellow singers through this universal transition.

What Does a Menopause-Friendly Employer Look Like?

According to Kristin Mallon, the CEO and co-founder of FemGevity, a menopause-focused telemedicine company, the landscape is changing when it comes to acknowledging the effect menopause may have on an individual’s career. Companies, particularly larger ones, are beginning to give serious consideration to the issue.

“2023 is the first time we’re seeing employers start to ask these questions in the U.S.,” Mallon told Verywell, noting that some corporations have contacted her for information. “They want to understand how we can help them.”

U.K. employers have been tuned in to menopause’s impact on the workplace for several years. Some take advantage of training sessions and certifications that enable them to advertise themselves as “menopause friendly,” understanding the need for menopause-related conversations and outreach.

When considering how to make their workplaces more accessible for employees in menopause, Mallon suggests that employers provide an environment in which people can convey their needs without judgment. She specifically recommends offering spaces that can be temperature controlled, allowing breaks during the day and time off for medical appointments, and modifying uniforms so they can be adjusted.

Mallon takes care to stress that menopause is not just about hot flashes, even though they occur in roughly 80% of menopausal people and are often the first symptom people associate with the transition.

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“It’s also about insomnia and fatigue and brain fog,” she said. People often get the runaround when trying to get help for their various symptoms, she added, because many doctors aren’t knowledgeable about menopause.

Due to the speed with which other corporate initiatives providing support for infertility and the LGBTQ+ community have been adopted, Mallon feels menopause-support programs will rapidly become more widespread in the business world. This is especially true as companies begin to discuss the topic openly and draw inspiration from each other.

1 SourceVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Faubion SS, Enders F, Hedges MS, et al.Impact of menopause symptoms on women in the workplace.Mayo Clin Proc. 2023;98(6):833-845. doi:10.1016/j.mayocp.2023.02.025

1 Source

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Faubion SS, Enders F, Hedges MS, et al.Impact of menopause symptoms on women in the workplace.Mayo Clin Proc. 2023;98(6):833-845. doi:10.1016/j.mayocp.2023.02.025

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Faubion SS, Enders F, Hedges MS, et al.Impact of menopause symptoms on women in the workplace.Mayo Clin Proc. 2023;98(6):833-845. doi:10.1016/j.mayocp.2023.02.025

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