Remember me
From polycystic ovarian syndrome to perinatal mental health, women’s health issues are often misunderstood, stigmatised or ignored in the workplace. This is particularly true of menopause – despite it being a normal hormonal shift, menopausal women experience both ageism and sexism at work, and receive inadequate support for its physical and mental health impacts.
This has negative financial consequences, given many women leave the workforce early due to a lack of reasonable adjustments. Eight in 10 menopausal women in employment say their workplace has no basic support in place, while the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that more than two thirds of women aged 40-60 with menopausal symptoms report a negative impact at work, such as stress and reduced concentration. The UK loses around 14 million workdays annually due to time off for menopausal symptoms.
As part of the government’s Employment Rights Bill, large employers (those of more than 250 employees) will need to develop and publish equality action plans, which will lay out how they plan to support employees experiencing the menopause and address the gender pay gap. These will be voluntary from April 2026 onwards, then mandatory in 2027.
On 21 October 2025, The New Statesman hosted a roundtable discussion in association with the insurance company Phoenix Group on how menopausal women can be better supported at work. Industry and policy experts discussed how equality action plans could be effective and what adequate support mechanisms look like for both large and small and medium-sized organisations (SMEs).
Treat yourself or a friend this Christmas to a New Statesman subscription for just £2
Conversation topics included tackling stigma, misinformation and discrimination surrounding menopause in the workplace; the importance of line management training and involving business leaders in creating cultural change; the need for a cross-government approach to improving education on the menopause and its financial ramifications for women; and health interventions that workplaces can offer to help employees with symptom management.
Tackling stigma and discrimination
In her opening remarks, Seema Malhotra, minister for equalities and MP for Feltham and Heston, said: “There is still a taboo that surrounds conversations around women’s health”. She emphasised that it was vital that workplace culture shifts so that business leaders talk openly about menopause. “This is not just about women’s health,” Malhorta continued. “This is a matter that we should all be concerned about, for women and for our economy.”
Challenging menopause misinformation is crucial to creating a better culture, said Deborah Garlick, CEO at Henpicked, the UK’s leading website providing information for women over 40. Having led menopause-friendly training for more than 1,000 public and private sector organisations, she recalled a graduate at one large company assuming that all menopausal women were retired – in reality, most women experience menopause between 45 and 55, with perimenopause sometimes affecting women as early as their mid-30s. Improving people’s understanding of menopause – a transition of hormones in midlife, not old age – could help to change perceptions, Garlick said.
Rachel Taylor, MP for North Warwickshire and Bedworth and member of the women and equalities select committee, added that menopause discrimination is still apparent in the workplace. For example, women in their 50s being assertive can be dismissed as being “angry’ due to going through the menopause.
The attendees discussed whether menopause should be considered a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, just as pregnancy and maternity are. “I think we have to tackle the stigma and [consider] whether there is some element of change that needs to be made in discrimination law,” said Taylor.
Discrimination facing older workers, regardless of gender, was also discussed. People are increasingly leaving the workforce before retirement age – in November to January 2023, 3.5 million people aged 50 to 64 were economically inactive, a rise of 280,000 people compared to January to March 2020. Employers need to work harder to recruit and retain these workers, said Catherine Foot, director at The Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement, a think-tank that is part of Phoenix Group. The government also has a role to play in reframing its skills agenda, she added, which is focused on training young people in emerging fields rather than “retaining and maximising the skills” we already have.
Improving awareness on menopause
Due to a lack of adequate health education, many women are completely unprepared for the effects of menopause, attendees said. They agreed there is a need for better educational programmes to be embedded across government departments, from NHS policies to school curriculums, and that a cross-government approach is crucial.
Laura Biggs, co-founder of the global summit Women in Work and founding director of the campaign group Menopause Mandate, flagged how “menopause is not even mentioned” to women over 40 at an NHS health check. She gave the example of an eminent dementia professor who thought she was developing dementia when she was actually experiencing brain fog, a common menopause symptom. Thanks to Menopause Mandate’s campaigning, it was announced on 23 October that menopause will now be included in routine NHS health checks for women across England.
Employers can play a part in improving menopause awareness – some give their employees access to services such as My Menopause Centre, a specialist menopause medical clinic. For employers that cannot afford this, there are other interventions, such as giving staff access to Peppy, a digital platform dedicated to support on overlooked health issues including menopause. Garlick said that some employers had simply trained line managers to signpost employees to resources and help them access the right specialists more quickly.
Cultural change starts from the top
The importance of line management training dominated the discussion, with Caroline Mallan, external affairs lead at the Chartered Management Institute highlighting how having empathetic managers and business leaders was the catalyst for cultural change. “Train your managers,” she said. “Don’t train your managers in menopause awareness – train your managers in how to be good managers who have listening skills, who know how to have challenging conversations.”
There are resources available to make line management training more accessible to smaller organisations, added Phoebe Sarjant, policy advisor at Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). These include the government’s 12-week Help to Grow: Management course, which is 90 per cent subsidised, and Help to Grow: Management Essentials, its free online counterpart. The FSB is calling on the government to introduce a more comprehensive line management skills bootcamp for SMEs.
Financial repercussions
A lack of workplace menopause support has a wider societal impact on gender inequality. Multiple factors, including menopause, childcare and caring for older parents, are pushing women out of the workforce early. This exacerbates the gender pay gap as many women never reach senior management level as a result.
Scott Gilfillan, associate director at the public policy consultancy Global Counsel, said that, whilst men have stepped up significantly on childcare, there is a “still a huge gap” when it comes to caring for older relatives. Such responsibilities compound with women having to “deal with their own health issues at the same time”. “A basic biological reality should not prevent you from achieving everything you want to achieve in your career and in your wider life,” he said.
Gaps in employment or career breaks impact women’s financial security in later life, with a 48 per cent gender pension gap in the UK – the median private pension wealth for women aged 55-59 is £81,000 compared to £156,000 for men. The government has launched a new pensions commission to address this issue. Taylor suggested that both independent financial advisors and employers who autoenroll their employees onto private pensions should be talking to female colleagues about potentially making more voluntary contributions to their funds.
The need for legislation
The Employment Rights Bill is currently in its final stages in parliament, and is expected to be law by the end of 2025. Attendees agreed that equality action plans should not just be a “tick box exercise” – it is crucial the government clarifies how it will enforce reporting mechanisms for large employers, while also incentivising smaller businesses to make progress. Samantha Niblett, MP for South Derbyshire and member of the women and equalities committee, noted that government guidance and recommendations have their place but “unless things are mandated, they don’t tend to happen”.
It was a consensus that menopause should not be seen as a “women’s issue” – it impacts everyone, whether directly, through relationships or society more widely. To help more women feel supported and happy at work, it is clear that cross-government policy needs to be successfully coupled with inclusive workplace strategies that elicit cultural change.
Related
