Why Peri Menopause & Menopause are a Business Priority
Eight major brain regions functionally rely on oestrogen (yes EIGHT!), including those responsible for cognition, memory, nervous system regulation, temperature control and motivation.
Please note that I did not include capability, intelligence, intuition or experience in that list….
Because peri-menopause & menopause do not suddenly make women less skilled, less valuable or less commercially impactful. If anything, with effective support, it makes them even more so.
But what this period of change can do, is significantly affect how women are able to function, cope and sustain performance, within environments that were never designed with this female transition in mind.
So, if your business employs women in midlife (and most do), it is absolutely in your interests to ensure you are supporting and retaining this population effectively.
And I’m not talking about a women’s wellness conversation.
This is senior workforce continuity planning.
This is talent retention.
But mostly, it is commercial risk management.
And yet, many organisations are still approaching menopause support as an optional wellbeing initiative, as opposed to the commercial business issue it has become.
Women’s health will already be showing up clearly in your organisational data; particularly in absence, progression and retention trends, even if it is not explicitly labelled as such.
We see it in:-
increased burnout and stress-related absence
reduced confidence and withdrawal from progression opportunities
medical absence
disengagement and presenteeism
higher attrition at mid and senior levels
experienced women quietly stepping back, or leaving altogether
At the exact time where leadership capability, institutional knowledge and commercial value peak, businesses are losing talent they can least afford to lose.
And this issue is growing….
Half the workforce will experience menopause. With an ageing population and later retirement ages, the number of women navigating menopause while working in senior roles is increasing rapidly. Yet fewer than one in ten organisations currently have structured menopause support or policy in place.
This is one of the most under-served demographics in business today.
Importantly, the issue is rarely just workload. More often, it is the collision of fluctuating hormones with high-pressure, always-on cultures that lack flexibility, autonomy, trust and psychological safety.
Women consistently say they need:
understanding rather than judgement
flexibility without penalty
psychologically safe conversations
educated managers
and support that feels practical, not performative
And this is where so many organisations fall down…..
Policies alone do not create supportive cultures.
Manager capability does.
Leadership behaviour does.
Psychological safety does.
But mostly, flexibility does (and that one is completely free!)
The good news is that organisations now have a real opportunity to raise the bar.
With Menopause Action Plans becoming mandatory for larger employers in the UK, businesses have the chance to move beyond awareness campaigns and create meaningful, strategic support structures that genuinely retain and enable experienced female talent.
The organisations that will lead in this space are not the ones doing the loudest PR around women’s health.
They are the ones building cultures rooted in:
trust
autonomy
flexibility
education
kindness
and sustainable performance
Because supporting women through peri menopause & menopause is simply about creating supportive environments where highly capable people can perform at their best, without sacrificing their health in the process.
And commercially, that is simply smart business.
(To the few well-informed, progressive, smart business leaders out there who are already calling this out - I see you, I applaud you and I thank you!)