Menopause 'penalty’ pushing women out of workplace: study

‘Adverse experiences with menopause can have a ripple effect’: experts highlight career impact of menopause symptoms and need for employer-led support

Menopause 'penalty’ pushing women out of workplace: study
L: Nese Yuksel; R: Marie-Chantal Côté

A recently released European study has identified a growing concern for global employers: there are more women over age 55 working in developing countries than ever before, becoming an important portion of the labour force. 

However, due to untreated, unrecognized symptoms of menopause, many women experience a “menopause penalty” which forces them to bail out of their careers early.  

The research report, The menopause “penalty” by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) in the UK, shows that women diagnosed with menopause experience a significant and persistent reduction in earnings – roughly 20% within four years – and a measurable decline in employment rates.  

Career impacts of menopause

The report points out that symptoms frequently push women out of the workforce entirely, not just into lower-paying roles. This aligns with data showing that menopausal women are more likely to withdraw from work altogether due to lack of support or accommodations – compounding the long-term financial impact.  

Nese Yuksel, professor of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Alberta, explains how symptoms can compound and lead to eventual job loss. 

"We think of often just hot flushes and night sweats, but a lot of times when people struggle it's because they're not sleeping at night," she says.

"They're fatigued and tired during the day, there could be mood effects, which can all affect your ability to be productive ... even vasomotor symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats affect your productivity at work." 

Without the language and support to talk about these symptoms openly, Yuksel adds, women are likely to suffer in silence, eventually deciding it's easier to just leave. 

This can be exacerbated outside of work, she adds, if a woman is also not finding support she needs through other healthcare providers. For this reason, employers should be adopting an educational role, she reccomends, to enable women to self advocate.

"If you understand your own symptoms, you understand menopause and what can happen with hormone shifts, you're going to be able to say, 'This is what's happening to me,'" Yuksel says, but adds that self-advocacy is only one side of the equation.

"It's being able to share that really clearly, but then it's also having a manager or supervisor that understands that," she says.

"It's appreciating that and respecting that, and having that open communication on it. And then it's like, 'How can we work together so that you can be successful in your job.'"

Source: Nese Yuksel

Targeted HR strategies

The IFS findings reinforce the need for targeted HR strategies to support women through menopause, which affects about 10 million women in Canada, according to Marie-Chantal Côté, senior vice-president of Sun Life Health.

Sun Life has signed up for the national program “Menopause Works Here” from the Menopause Foundation of Canada – Côté says it’s a necessary initiative to counter an understudied and under resourced group of employees.  

“Women’s health is an area that for historical reasons, in scientific research, awareness, stigma – a variety of reasons, has been under researched, under looked at, and certainly not very talked about in organizations,” shé says, pointing out the ubiquitous nature of the issue. 

“Unlike other things, where some people can experience it and not others, every person who is in this category will be going through some symptoms, some journey.”  

Training managers for sympathetic responses

Sandra Ventin, benefits VP at Gallagher in Canada, further explains that's it’s not only symptoms that are affecting women’s careers – stigma plays a large part as many don’t feel they are able to discuss what they’re going through. 

“Many women report feeling uncomfortable discussing menopausal symptoms at work,” she says. 

“This silence can lead to isolation, reduced productivity, and even decisions to leave the workforce prematurely.” 

To counter the stigma around menopause in the workplace Yuksel recommends training and education programs that show managers how to react with sympathy, rather than gaslighting or dismissal. 

"It's working with that individual to say, 'What's going to help you at this point in time?'" she says.

"It's more how you deal with it, as far as that sympathetic understanding - 'Let's make sure you're still able to achieve what you need to achieve, because at the end of the day, you're still working. So how can we make that happen for you so you feel successful?'"

Employers positioned to support women’s health  

In the Menopause "penalty" report, employers were encouraged to understand the long-term effects of inaction—not only on women’s lives, but on organizational sustainability.   

According to Ventin, the first step is addressing stigma, as the physical and emotional symptoms of menopause – such as fatigue, anxiety, and cognitive (brain) fog – often go unmanaged because of discomfort with disclosure. 

“Adverse experiences with menopause can have a ripple effect,” she explains.  

“They may raise anxiety for women about when and where their symptoms will occur, what others may think if they’re noticeable in a public setting, and whether they’re serious health developments. About 1 in 3 women (30%) expect that others will perceive them as weak, old, or ‘past their prime’.”  

The IFS report found that reductions in earnings and employment have ripple effects on productivity and public health spending – Ventin points to the potential scale of financial fallout on a national level. 

“Menopausal employees with unmanaged symptoms are calculated to cost the economy about $3.5 billion per year,” she says.  

“Employers have an opportunity to change that narrative by taking small, strategic steps that send a powerful message: ‘You’re not alone, and your experience matters.’” 

Normalizing menopause in workplace 

According to Côté, the infrastructure to support women already exists within most organizations – it’s just a matter of using it intentionally by creating a culture that validates women’s health concerns and allows them to seek accommodations before their earnings or careers are impacted.  

“When you talk about how organizations can ease women’s experiences, I think demystifying, destigmatizing is critically important,” Côté says.   

“Normalizing is the end game. Normalizing women’s health ... imagine a world where you can talk to your manager about perimenopause symptoms, in the same way you could talk about back pain.”  

Role of leadership and education  

In the IFS report, women in smaller workplaces with few older female colleagues experienced the greatest employment drop-offs, suggesting that isolation and lack of leadership visibility exacerbate the menopause penalty.   

For Côté, leadership modelling is crucial, including the tone of messaging.  

“We can easily make a comparison to mental health, for example,” she says.  

“I think that the first thing that is critical is the tone from the top, so employees will emulate what they see very senior people – the presidents, the C suite people – doing.”  

The IFS data underscore that earlier intervention and openness may help reduce the need for women to make reactive decisions such as quitting or stepping down due to unmanaged symptoms. But as Côté explains, many managers lack the tools to start these conversations.  

“Many want to have conversations, but they don’t know how to start,” she says.  

‘If you're a man, a cisgender man, how do you start? Let's say one of your employees is maybe on that journey and is potentially experiencing symptoms. But how do you even start the conversation to create that tone from top?”  

Source: Nese Yuksel

Practical support through policies and education  

According to the IFS study, the economic toll of menopause is more severe when symptoms go unmanaged, creating an incentive for employers to make existing benefits more visible and accessible.  

Côté outlines how HR leaders can connect the dots between existing tools and new awareness, circumventing negative affects before women are forced to take extended leave or leave the workforce entirely.  

“It sends a strong signal to the organization and to the employees, if you have coverage for family building, you have coverage for hormone replacement therapy, you do training sessions, you do these things,” she says.  

“I think it's really demystifying, having the tone from the top, doing the training, providing the education, and then having all the right support, solutions, policies, etc.”   

Many of the tools already exist, she adds—what’s missing is clear, organization-wide communication.  

“Many plans cover [HRT] under their drug plan ... many plans, if not all plans, have an employee assistance program ... many plans have a virtual care capability,” she says.  

“People don’t always even use what they have available today, because they don’t know that it’s available, because nobody really talks about it.” 

Begin by understanding your workforce  

The Menopause "penalty" report emphasizes that workplace interventions must be inclusive – especially for women in lower-income and underrepresented groups, who experience more severe career impacts.   

Côté says employers should begin by understanding who in their workforce may be affected and what barriers they may face: “As an organization, understand your population. Where do they live, what are their experiences … so that you can understand how to support them.”  

Yuksel adds that informal support networks within the workplace can also be very effective for women experiencing menopause symptoms, noting that some recent research showed that supportive talking can be as beneficial as a policy. 

"What's really important is a supportive environment and networking," she says.

"Even if women are allowed to share their experiences with each other, I think that's really important, to be able to feel like they have that supportive environment and to be able to discuss what helped them, what worked with them."

The IFS study notes that symptoms often go unaddressed not because resources are unavailable, but because employees do not know where to start. Ventin echoes this idea, stressing that employers don’t need to wait for perfection to make an impact.  

“If an employer isn’t ready to address menopause head on, the subject can be wrapped around other topics important to women through targeted communications,” she says – such as International Women’s Day, financial wellbeing in midlife and preparing for retirement, and fertility benefits. 

“There’s no need to delay menopause support for working women until a formalized or full-fledged program is ready to launch. Incremental steps can make a difference.” 

 

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