Part 1 of 2: Pssst, Menopause is Taboo At the Workplace

9 min read

Hi everyone, I’m Rick Barron, your host, and welcome to my podcast, That’s Life, I Swear

Recent studies have discovered the staggering cost of Menopause for women in the work force. Some are taking sick days. Others are cutting back their hours. Still others end up quitting altogether. Why must women deal with these hurdles? It’s flat out not right!

Let’s jump into this 

Definition of Menopause. Courtesy of 6PillarHealth

Definition

Before I get into this discussion with you, allow me to provide a definition of ‘menopause’ as provided by the National Institute on Aging: Menopause is a point in time 12 months after a woman's last period. The years leading up to that point, when women may have changes in their monthly cycles, hot flashes, or other symptoms, are called the menopausal transition or perimenopause. The menopausal transition most often begins between ages 45 and 55. End of definition.

More than 1 in 10 women experience adverse work outcomes due to menopause symptoms, calling out a need to improve treatment and create more supportive workplaces, according to a study published April 26 in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 

The study provided input from approximately 4,500 employed women ages 45-60 seeking primary care at one of four Mayo Clinic sites. The focus of the survey regarded the adverse work outcomes related to menopause symptoms covering a time period from March 1 and June 30, 2021.

Some key data points the Mayo Clinic study:

1.     About 13 percent of women reported at least one adverse work event due to menopause symptoms.

2.     Nearly 11 percent reported missing work in the past year, such as cutting back on hours worked, or taking unplanned vacation time

3.     Women can experience perimenopause for months or years before menopause and afterward. Menopausal symptoms can persist after menstruation has ceased. On average, symptoms persist for around 4 years but can last for as long as 12 years once menstruation has stopped. A study in the UK showed that 1 in 100 women experience early menopause before the age of 40. 

4.     The annual cost associated with lost work due to menopause symptoms is $1.8 billion annually, researchers estimated. This figure does not include reduced work hours, loss of employment or early retirement. 

5.     The study is among the largest to examine how menopause affects work outcomes. Researchers said more research is needed to confirm the findings in more diverse populations of women.

Why does this matter?

Not being an expert on this subject the Mayo Clinic survey is somewhat astonishing as to the inequities women have to deal with in the workforce. It sucks!

Several other studies have arrived at conclusions similar to those of the Mayo Clinic study. 

1.     A smaller survey by Carrot Fertility discovered that roughly 20 percent of women took time off from work due to menopause 

2.     At the University of Southampton in England, analyzed data from a study of over 3,000 women found that those who reported at least one disruptive menopausal symptom at the age of 50 were 43 percent more likely to have left their jobs by the age of 55

3.     A 2022 study by Biote, who surveyed 1100 women, found that  26% felt that their menopause symptoms negatively impacted their career, while another study by the British Menopause Society in January of 2023 revealed that 45% of women felt that menopausal symptoms harmed their work and 47% who needed to take a day off work due to menopause symptoms say they wouldn’t tell their employer the real reason. 

Menopause symptoms have a negative impact on their work. Courtesy of: PRMA Consulting

I could go on and on with all this data summaries, but it’s pretty clear the findings underscore the physical, economic and social challenges women face as they age, enduring sometimes debilitating physical changes while navigating the discomfort of discussing menopause with younger or male colleagues.

Dr. Ekta Kapoor, a co-author of the Mayo study and an endocrinologist at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota., stated, and I quote: “The topic of menopause is taboo in general but even more so at the workplace. I’ve heard from women that they don’t want to come across as a ‘complainer’ at work or if they bring up menopause, they’re faced with the people rolling their eyes.” End quote

Dr. Ekta Kapoor. Courtesy of: Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison

Suffice it to say, those who roll their eyes are, yes, men. Surprise.

The data resulting from the Mayo Clinic Proceedings study confirmed what Dr. Makeba Williams, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, was hearing from her patients.

One of her patients is a university professor who was troubled by the brain fog she had during the transition to menopause that she decided to stop teaching advanced-level courses. For this patient, the symptoms reached a point, she could not find the next word when lecturing. 

What makes dealing with menopause for many women so difficult is that they can’t cut back on work the way some women can, Dr. Williams said. The Mayo Clinic study reflected that many women are not in a position to have the privilege of saying I’m just not going to teach this course. Instead, they worry because if you don’t show up, you will not have a job, which also has economic and personal financial impact.

A lady by the name of Grace Ward, came across my desk while researching this topic. She was a supervisor at a local library in Kalamazoo, Michigan. While there, she started getting intense migraines for the first time in her life — a symptom, she later realized, of perimenopause, the transition to menopause.

Grace said, “For two to three days a month, she had to keep her head down. The sensitivity to light was just obnoxious.” She also experienced “wild” mood swings and hot flashes that kept her awake at night and she began menstruating twice a month — all of which made her extremely tired.”

Like many other women who had to deal with similar circumstances, Ms. Ward used her sick days to take time off work and eventually stated that “my managers were starting to question whether I was still up to it.” That’s when she decided to resign.

“I thought it would be better to leave than be fired,” she said. “It’s horrible that we, as women, must work through this craziness. I routinely feel bad for us.”

Over time, we’ve made significant advances in this country, where organizations have created supportive workplace environments with family and medical leave and reasonable accommodations. 

Supportive menopause work environments. Courtesy of: Work Well

However, it’s time that women undergoing menopause should be included in these conversations and in a way that doesn’t create fear of being looked at in a negative manner or wondering if it may have an impact on careers or their relationships with their colleagues. Why should they?!

Women have no choice in how this physical change happens to them. It’s what mother nature has dictated.

Take time to read deeper into the reference links I’ve provided on my website for this episode. You’ll discover a majority of the women surveyed said that if they were considering working for a company, it would be important for them that the company clearly expressed a commitment to support employees with menopause symptoms.

Next week I’ll share with you about how help is on the way to help women work in an environment that is menopause friendly in the United States. Here’s a hint, the help is coming from across the pond.

What can we learn from this story? What’s the take away

If you’re a leader or in a position of power in your organization, there are several things you can do to improve the negative statistics covered in this episode.

Start with simple additions to your employee guidelines, such as offering flexibility for remote work and options for temperature control. Surveys shared in this episode revealed that kindness, compassion, and awareness of what women go through, goes a long way. 

As employers, you can’t afford to continue losing valuable contributors at your organizations. As a culture, we need to normalize being human and work toward making supportive environments the minimum standard for all women in the workplace. Taking such steps will help in part to, attract and keep the best talent across all life stages. That’s a future we should all be working towards and nothing less. 

Well, there you go my friends That's life, I swear.

For further information regarding the material covered in this episode, I invite you to visit my website, which you can find on either Apple Podcasts/iTunes or Google Podcasts, for show notes calling out key pieces of content mentioned and the episode transcript.

As always, I thank you for listening. 

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