By Syreen Goulmamine, Society for Women’s Health Research and Kacy Fleming, MA of The Fuchsia Tent
This article first appeared on the Society for Women’s Health Research blog on October 5, 2026.
For several years, employers have been told what to do about menopause at work. But that direction came from the market, not from employees. In 2023, the Society for Women’s Health Research’s (SWHR) Employee Perspectives and Challenges Concerning the Transition of Menopause (EMPACT Menopause) Study showed that menopause shapes women’s career decisions and that most workplaces had no formal menopause policies. However, 93% of EMPACT Menopause respondents were women. To understand what it would take for employers to act, we needed to hear from the broader workforce.
This past spring, SWHR and The Fuchsia Tent (TFT) set out to fill this gap, asking everyone, not just women, what it will take to provide proper workplace menopause support. Menopause at Work: From Echo Chamber to Mainstream Practice (also referred to as Menopause at Work) is a national study from the SWHR and The Fuchsia Tent (TFT). The study surveyed 1,110 U.S. employees, coded 1,236 written answers, and included roundtables in Boston, Houston, Chicago, and Los Angeles to gather diverse perspectives about menopause in the workplace.
Most menopause surveys capture women who are already in menopause and comfortable being vocal on the topic. This study sought viewpoints from all workers, including men (41% of survey respondents), deskless and frontline workers, benefits and policy decision-makers, and the executives who decide what gets funded.
“This is the first time that we’re hearing from all corners of the workplace: what women in midlife want and care about and what benefits already exist to support them,” said Kathryn Schubert, SWHR’s President and CEO. “This study has input from men in the workplace too, which will help us make greater change.”
What Employees Want
Untreated menopause symptoms already cost U.S. employers an estimated $26.6 billion a year in lost productivity and health care costs. While that figure often drives the conversation, Kacy Fleming, CEO of The Fuchsia Tent and co-principal investigator (PI) of the Menopause at Work study, cautions against making previously estimated costs the whole story.
“When we only talk about what untreated menopause symptoms cost organizations, we turn midlife women into a problem,” Fleming said. “Employers are already absorbing premium increases of 6% to 7% a year and are struggling to find budget dollars for another siloed program. This study asked employees what they actually want from their employers. The great news: most of what employees named is already sitting in the existing employer benefits plans.”
When asked which workplace supports they would use, women most often selected:
- flexible scheduling or remote options (73.7%)
- prescription coverage for menopause (67.3%)
- confidential telehealth (61.6%)
- workplace adjustments like temperature and dress (60.4%)
Overall, 93% of women selected at least one existing support they would use, and fewer than 20 survey comments mentioned buying a new tool. Instead, employees emphasized wanting to feel cared about, understood, not punished, and treated as they would be with any other health challenge.
Many of the supports employees want may already exist within workplace benefits and policies. “Connecting those benefits to menopause and communicating them clearly is largely cost neutral,” Fleming said. “That work starts with an audit, not another line item.”
The findings also suggest that employees are open to these conversations. Eighty-three percent of employees, including men, said they would be comfortable if a colleague came to them about how menopause was affecting their work, and 71% said menopause support is as important as support for any other health issue.
For Syreen Goulmamine, PI of EMPACT Menopause, co-PI of Menopause at Work, and SWHR’s Associate Director of Research Translation and Programs, the findings point to a gap in communication as much as coverage. “What stood out to me is how much of this comes down to communication. Leaders often believe support is in place, while many employees, especially frontline and deskless workers, have never heard about it. A benefit can only help if employees know it’s there and how to use it.”
How Menopause Affects Employees
According to Schubert, a common misunderstanding is that menopause is “only just about ‘a few hot flashes.’”
“Menopause is an inflection point for women’s health,” she said, “and supporting the treatment of symptoms will help women live better, longer, more productive lives.”
Menopause support also has implications for retention and recruitment. One in three women who reported or suspected symptoms has considered leaving her job or cutting her hours because of them, the study shows. In addition, 44% of women say menopause support would influence whether they accept a job offer, rising to 53% among those who managed symptoms in the past year. These findings are consistent with the EMPACT Menopause Study, in which two in five women had considered finding or had found a new job because of their menopause symptoms, more than one in three had considered reducing or had reduced their workload, and more than one in four had considered passing on or passed on a leadership opportunity.
Comfort Does Not Equal Disclosure
Many assume the best workplace approach is simply to talk about menopause more openly. Fleming believes that approach underestimates the existing workplace norms women are up against. Not to mention that workplace anti-discrimination laws in most states still do not protect women who are experiencing menopause.
“Wanting people to talk about menopause is not wrong, but it underestimates the norm it comes up against,” she said. “Workplaces were built around an ideal worker with a separate work and home life, and a body that never gets in the way. Decades of research show the pervasiveness of the ‘ideal worker’ narrative in the United States.”
The Menopause at Work findings show the gap between comfort and disclosure. Among women with symptoms:
- 53% say they would be comfortable telling their direct manager, but only 21% have.
- 49% would be comfortable telling HR, but only 6% have.
“Comfort with the topic is not the same as disclosure,” Fleming said, “and disclosure is where support either happens or does not.”
SWHR’s EMPACT Menopause Study pointed to the same barrier. Only 31% of women in that study felt comfortable talking about their menopause symptoms or experiences at work, and 59% felt uncomfortable asking for accommodations. Many respondents described the stigma attached to menopause and the need to normalize the experience. Our new findings suggest that stigma continues to influence whether women speak up, even when they report feeling comfortable with the topic.
For this reason, our latest report recommends that employers offer support proactively by improving universal leadership skills, like improving complex dialogue skills, as well as integrating benefits, and communication so they are accessible rather than waiting for employees to ask.
What Good Looks Like
The report outlines four actions employers can take:
- Audit before you add. Compare current benefits with what employees said they would use, and track utilization quarterly.
- Integrate the benefits you already offer. Connect the medical plan, employee assistance programs (EAP), telehealth, referrals, flexibility, and leave to midlife care. State plainly that prescription coverage includes hormone therapy and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved non-hormonal treatments.
- Communicate where employees actually look. For deskless workers, that means managers, break rooms, and printed materials, not only email and the intranet.
- Treat compassionate dialogue as a life skill. Train managers to handle sensitive health conversations well, whatever the topic.
Goulmamine sees these steps as a practical starting point that builds on what employers already offer. “Employers don’t need the biggest budget to get this right. What matters is making sure employees can find, understand, and use the support that’s already available to them.”
Read the full report, Menopause at Work: From Echo Chamber to Mainstream Practice, for the complete findings and methodology.
Read the press release online, For Years, We’ve Been Told Talking About Menopause at Work Will Fix the Problem. New Evidence Shows It Won’t.