I recently undertook a mixed qualitative and quantitative research project to understand the changing and evolving landscape of our workplaces. By way of background, I am a qualified psychotherapist and I have also worked in the employment team at a firm of solicitors for over 20 years. I was interested in this research for the following reasons:

• My menopause experience had been very challenging but, had it not been so, would my attitude towards women who were struggling with their symptoms at work have been more of a “get over it” reaction? As a trained counsellor, it wouldn’t, but a line manager or HR manager who hadn’t had problems with menopause might react that way.
• Should menopause be a protected characteristic?  The Government has declined to add it as a protected characteristic under the Equality Act and I was interested to understand what the views were of both employees and employers.
• Should businesses provide a menopause policy and reasonable adjustments? I wanted to find out what women wanted and whether businesses were aware of their obligations.
• Can counselling help women with menopause symptoms? Finally, once I had all the information, I wanted to look at what therapies (if any) could be used to alleviate symptoms.

I’ve set out a snapshot of what I did because it turned out to be a huge topic with surprising reactions from the people I spoke to. I sent out questionnaires to employers and employees which were mirrored versions so that I could evaluate the answers given by both groups. An example of this is that I asked in both surveys whether menopause should be a protected characteristic expecting all the employees to say yes and all the employers to say no. The result was the same on both surveys at 75%. The general consensus from employees was that they didn’t want to be categorised when they reached a certain age or for their employer to assume that they had reached an age where they would no longer be able to progress or perform their duties at the same level.

There are 32 symptoms associated with menopause and I listed a few of the main ones and asked employees to name any other symptoms they struggled with at work. Brain fog was reported by 87.5% of the employees who completed the survey.  They also confirmed night sweats to be one of the most debilitating symptoms because it causes disrupted sleep and that means they struggle to show up at a set time.

Should employers make reasonable adjustments for menopause symptoms?

I asked what reasonable adjustments the employees would like to see and there were a number of requests for fans, a cool and quiet room when needed, flexible working and working from home. Where it would be possible and practical for employers to allow a change in hours, i.e. to start later and finish later or to work from home and, therefore, be able to wear more comfortable clothing and have access to the outdoors.

Some employers provided none of these adjustments and some provide all of these and more. West Yorkshire Police provide a uniform made of moisture wicking material and have monthly meetings for women to attend to discuss their issues and help each other.

I then spoke to Henpicked who are a business providing training for businesses and menopause friendly accreditation. They advise having a menopause champion in the business plus a number of menopause advocates who employees can approach on a confidential basis. They recommend that one of the trained advocates should be male. This is because anyone born with a womb can experience menopause and trans f to m employees or non-binary employees may not want to discuss menopause struggles with a female. I asked if businesses were more interested in supporting female employees over 50 and she said it is improving as they are realising that making support available is key to retention. I asked what adjustments women requested the most and she said it is flexible working patterns, extended deadlines, being given meeting agendas in good time, not being put on the spot to produce figures or ideas and being able to take tasks away to complete in their own time or to receive written instructions so they can keep referring back.

Do women leave work because of menopause symptoms?

I asked if women leave employment rather than asking for support and she told me that 1 in 4 employees will leave rather than admit that they have menopause symptoms that are affecting their work. As there are so many different symptoms, if they take odd days off for different symptoms such as migraine or joint pain, it affects their work record and many women “leave by stealth”, i.e. reduce hours and leave gradually. If the employee has notified that these sick days are related to their menopause then their employer should note it as the single reason for the absence and not the symptom.

I then asked if there is a stigma around menopause and she confirmed this is a real problem. The employees I spoke to were reluctant to discuss their views on menopause which was a surprise to me because I expected them to want to see change.  They thought discussing menopause would be detrimental to their careers and categorise them as “old”.

I believe it’s in the interests of employers to support this section of the workforce because they risk losing highly skilled employees. Female workers between the ages of 45 and 55 account for 18% of the UK workforce and this is the fastest growing demographic. The research that I read and the Government’s published findings (Committee, 2023) all state that stress plays a major part in exacerbating menopause symptoms at work.  

Employment tribunal cases related to menopause are increasing. The claimant must be able to demonstrate that their symptoms have affected their ability to carry out day-to-day activities over a long period of time to meet the criteria needed to prove a disability. It should be noted that it is  the impairments caused by menopause that prove the disability and these can be either physical or mental. Experience of menopause is different for all women and the cases have to be assessed individually. Cases are being brought as disability discrimination, age discrimination and sex discrimination. It is therefore in the best interests of businesses to support rather than discriminate. It is my experience that for all the reported cases there will be many more cases where women have decided not to speak out and have either tolerated discrimination or left their employment.

Counselling for menopausal women

Finally, I looked at counselling as a support mechanism for menopausal women. I’ve found that an integrated approach of both person-centred (talking therapy) and CBT is considered to be the best approach. CBT helps to change behaviours and rewire thoughts, for example, if someone is self-conscious and embarrassed about experiencing hot flushes at work then it can make it worse. The person-centred approach can help with stress at work which will help with the symptoms and mindfulness/meditation can also be beneficial in helping to create calmness. 

Exercise and diet can also have a beneficial effect but every person’s experience of menopause is different and counselling can help to discover what works and what doesn’t for the client.

References

Committee, W. &. E., 2023. Menopause and the workplace, London: UK Parliament.