More women 'demanding menopause-inclusive workplaces,' says expert
A “gender health gap” continues to challenge many women’s careers in Canada — and this includes many women going through perimenopause and menopause, according to a recent report.
For women aged 40 to 49, perimenopause and menopause and hormonal are their top health concern (19 per cent) after mental health (27 per cent), and the same is true for women over 50 (21 per cent and 24 per cent, respectively).
Of note for HR and employers: many women (43 per cent) are unaware of any benefits around menopause support, found the report by Sun Life based on a survey of 1,400 Canadian women.
Women’s health and career advancement
And 60 per cent of working women said health issues around menstruation, menopause and reproductive health could affect their career advancement abilities, found the report.
The main cause for these career-limiting effects is lack of support stemming from a societal culture of silence around menopause, says Janet Ko, president and co-founder of The Menopause Foundation of Canada (MFC).
“We get support going through puberty, we get help to not get pregnant, help to get pregnant, help to have our children … you get help to reintegrate back into the workforce. None of that is perfect, but there is some support there,” says Ko.
“But then when it comes to midlife and your perimenopause, your menopause transition, and moving into that post-menopausal time, the education, awareness, understanding, knowledge, it just disappears.”
Hefty social cost of unmanaged perimenopause, menopause
As the report outlines, less than half (42 per cent) of Canadian women reported a work culture that supports open conversations about women’s health, and 29 per cent said they feel they have to lie to their managers about taking sick days off due to women-specific health issues.
In a 2023 report, MFC placed the cost of untreated perimenopause and menopause on the economy at $3.5 billion annually, Ko says.
“This is a result of lost productivity, missed days of work, and women themselves in their peak earning years when they should be earning the most; they're actually bearing the brunt of this situation because some of them are going part time, reducing their hours or even stepping away from the workforce altogether,” she says.
Most women reach menopause between the ages of 45 and 55, but perimenopause can begin two to 10 years prior to that, says Ko, meaning many women in their 30s and early 40s can be experiencing perimenopause symptoms – “of which there are more than 30.”
“When you don't understand what's happening to your body, and there's so little knowledge and awareness of this, you can't prepare for this stage of life, and you can't take appropriate action to support yourself,” she says.
“There's this myth that this is just a topic for so-called ‘older women,’ and that's just not true.”
Perimenopause and menopause support needed from employers
Helena Pagano, EVP, chief people and culture officer at Sun Life, says that education for more women, and earlier, is key to ensuring they are supported and can advocate for themselves when they transition into perimenopause and menopause.
But its not only up to women – employers also need to be proactive in broaching women’s health topics openly and creating supporting and inclusive environments so women do not feel isolated with their symptoms.
“When it comes to women’s health concerns, we know more and more women are leaving the workforce in their prime, or they’re opting out of promotions, reducing work hours or taking pay cuts to manage their symptoms,” Pagano says.
“When you consider that women account for nearly half of the global workforce, that’s a sizeable group of people largely dealing in silence with health concerns.”
Many women are not prepared for this stage of their lives, Ko says, and the majority don’t understand the symptoms of menopause and may not even be aware that they are experiencing it.
“That means that they suffer in silence, and their health and quality of life and well being can decline, which means that they can struggle at work,” he says.
“If we can just close that knowledge gap at work by changing the culture and the communication and normalizing the topic, that's going to be significantly beneficial to not just women, but to organizations as they look to attract and retain the top talent and to engage employees, and to ensure that they're supporting people through all phases of life.”
Employer benefits, flexibility key to supporting women in perimenopause and menopause
As symptoms can be unpredictable and inconsistent — and vary in severity from lost sleep and hot flashes to serious mental health concerns — flexibility is a key component to supporting women in perimenopause and menopause, says Pagano.
Plus, creating inclusive support networks, employee resource groups and other supportive groups are essential. Benefits such as hormone treatments, hybrid work, physiotherapists and pelvic floor specialists can all be beneficial to women’s health.
“It can start as simply as creating safe spaces for people to talk and share their experiences with topics of women’s health,” she says.
“This stage of life comes at a time where many women are assuming a greater career leadership role, which makes it even more imperative for employers to support women.”
Menopause is “having a moment”, Ko says, and it revolves around changing the narrative around this stage of every woman’s life (and career) from being viewed with an ageist lens as a stereotypically negative experience, to what is actually the prime of women’s careers.
She sees this narrative being helped with the younger generations’ insistence on talking openly about their needs and experiences.
“Gen X will be the last generation of women to be in the dark about menopause, and they're talking about it, and the generation behind us, their expectation for sharing information, having that open conversation, is very different than previous generations,” Ko says.
“So it's a very exciting time. Menopause is definitely having a moment, and we believe it's a movement now, a movement of women demanding change, demanding better access to care and treatment, demanding menopause-inclusive workplaces, and demanding this closing of the menopause knowledge gap, so that there's no more stigma, embarrassment, and that we normalize the conversation.”
