Menopause at Work: Why Awareness Alone Won’t Cut It

Have you ever worked a thousand piece puzzle and been certain, midway through, that pieces were missing? Only to reach the end and find out ALL of the pieces were present and accounted for. All that time, the pieces fragmented or ordered wrong, but they were right there in front of us just waiting to be discovered. THIS is how perimenopause is for many women.

The fragmentation of symptoms is a primary reason menopause remains invisible in health claims data, utilization dashboards, and exit interviews. Rather than showing up as a plethora of symptoms resulting from hormonal fluctuations, it shows up as burnout, turnover, and disengagement, and no one is there to connect the dots.

If you had looked for me in my employer’s data when “the change” began, you would have found me coded for new onset social anxiety, in orthopedic claims for plantar fasciitis, as a musculoskeletal visit, a diagnosis of situational depression, and finally, before the telltale hot flashes and night sweats started, a neurology concern around early-onset dementia. Not a trace of perimenopause in sight, right?!

I may not sound like a lucky woman from the description above, but I was super fortunate when it came to getting diagnosed. I mean it was a unicorn like rarity, in that my primary care physician diagnosed me with perimenopause at only my third complaint. I will note that I pay out of pocket for a concierge physician which is likely why I had such an atypical result. After treatment with hormonal and non-hormonal therapies, I was back in action and the majority of my challenges disappeared. Most women are not this fortunate. Many never get diagnosed at all.

This gaping disparity in care for women is unacceptable, and gets me out of bed even on the most rage-filled of mornings.

And here is where I really get fired up. When women don’t get appropriate diagnoses and care during the menopausal transition they quietly exit the workplace, leave their partnerships, and sometimes blow up their entire lives. Most of which is entirely preventable.

We Have More Awareness Than Ever. It Is Not Enough.

Celebrities from Naomi Watts to Oprah have been shouting about menopause from the rooftops. Vendors and marketers have jumped on the menopause bandwagon and are offering products, classes, coaching, and trainings. Everywhere we look it seems like someone new is talking about our uterus and ovaries, and we are being told that empowered women talk about menopause loudly and proudly from the bedroom to the boardroom, wherever they and their parts take them. And yet the data tells a different story. Bonafide Health’s 2025 State of Menopause report found that 48% of women aged 40 to 49 now report menopause symptoms negatively impacting their career ambition, up from 42% in 2024. Fifty-nine percent of women in that same age range had never even heard of perimenopause until they were already experiencing it.

We are in 2026 and nearly six out of ten women in their peak career years are blindsided by a biological process that affects every single woman who lives long enough.

Awareness campaigns and menopause-specific manager training have modest efficacy when they go beyond one-and-done, but multiple literature reviews confirm there is no sustained behavioral change from these interventions (Hardy et al., 2019). And many working women express ambivalence toward formal training and policies, fearing the extra attention makes them appear less able than their younger or male counterparts (Atkinson et al., 2021). Whiley et al. (2023) placed menopause inside their “dirty femininity” framework, suggesting it violates the ideal worker norm of clean, orderly, and masculine.

While a life-stage as certain as death and taxes for anyone born with a uterus and ovaries should be accepted, maybe even celebrated, the stigma persists in 2026. To this end, while only 35% of women admit to perceiving menopause stigma at work, over 72% have hidden symptoms from coworkers and leaders (Catalyst, 2024).

That gap between what women will say and what women will do tells you everything you need to know about why awareness alone is insufficient. And telling professional women to speak up about it at work is about as helpful as handing Noah an umbrella.

Workplace Menopause Support Is Not Rocket Science, But It Requires More than a Band-Aid

After spending over two decades in pharmaceuticals, managing well-being strategies for 50,000 employees globally, and now consulting with employers on workplace menopause support, I can tell you that the problem is not a lack of caring. The problem is structural, and it sits in places most organizations don’t think to look: fragmented benefits that employees can’t find or use, leaders who lack frameworks for difficult conversations, and treatment access barriers that make getting appropriate care a steep climb for even the most persistent women.

That is why I built the 3H Framework™ at The Fuchsia Tent. Healthcare, Help, and HRT Access. Three interdependent pillars that address the systemic challenges employers face when trying to support midlife women, without creating stigma, without singling anyone out, and without requiring million dollar budgets.

Most workplaces already have the majority of what they need. What is missing is coordination, optimization, and a willingness to address root causes rather than offering programmatic band-aids.

Conti et al. (2025) proved that “ the menopause penalty, ” a 10% decline in earnings within four years of diagnosis, is not biological or inevitable but structural and solvable. And Lean In and McKinsey’s 2025 Women in the Workplace report dispelled the myth that women lack ambition, showing the gap between men and women disappears entirely when women receive the same level of career support as men.

Said simply, this penalty which is tied to biology is eradicated with better structural support in healthcare and organizations, which benefits all employees, not just midlife women.

From Intent to Action

This brings me to one of the most encouraging developments I have seen in this space. Reproductive & Maternal Health Compass (RMH Compass) just updated their workplace performance standards to include menopause as a core pillar for the first time. I was privileged to provide insights in their updated standards and latest thought piece, and I am thrilled to see an organization with the rigor of RMH Compass bringing this level of accountability to the conversation.

On Thursday, February 19th at noon ET, I am sitting down with Flory Wilson, Founder and CEO of RMH Compass, for a LinkedIn Live conversation about why workplace menopause support needs to go beyond awareness (If you read this blog past February 19, you will be able to view this conversation as a replay).

We are going to talk about:

• Why menopause has stayed invisible at work for so long
• What meaningful support actually requires
• How performance standards give employers a clear path from intent to action.

If you are an HR leader, benefits professional, or executive who wants to understand what it actually takes to support workers through this transition, join us.

The menopausal puzzle pieces are on the table, and they always have been, but now it is time to put them in the right order.

If your organization is ready to move beyond awareness, book a discovery call with The Fuchsia Tent or take our Readiness Assessment to find out where your organization stands