Effective menopause care. Designed for employees.

Many women rise into senior leadership positions in their 40s or 50s, just when perimenopause, the transition into menopause, generally occurs. Menopause symptoms start just as they might be stepping up and earning at their highest potential. It can feel like their body is betraying them.

Menopause is not something that happens in midlife, it can happen much earlier. Some can experience early menopause and induced or surgical menopause due to treatment.

There are more than 40 menopause symptoms that can be difficult to pinpoint, change all the time and are unique to each individual. They can be physical, such as hot flushes, joint pain, urinary incontinence and heavy periods. They can also be mental with anxiety, depression, bouts of low confidence and difficulty sleeping. Imagine 10 years of difficulty with sleeping. No one knows what to expect as menopause differs from person to person. But make no mistake, menopause symptoms are significant.

A day in the life of someone with menopause symptoms could involve dealing with a sudden hot flush, rushing to the loo to mop up sweat and boiling while everyone else is freezing. They might want to skip a meeting or send someone else because a wave of anxiety makes them feel overwhelmed. Or it could be they want to work from home because very heavy periods have made it virtually impossible to move far.

More than 50% are too scared to talk about menopause at work. Menopause has historically been a taboo topic spoken about in hushed tones – if at all. The symptoms are tough enough without having to manage them in secret.

Our research across 8,000 working women found that 65% do not feel supported by doctors. This has a huge potential impact on the workplace – 33%​ have resigned or considered quitting ​their job due to menopause symptoms​ and 19%​ report missing work for one week or more in any given month due to symptoms.

According to a study by LeanIn and McKinsey & Company, for every female at the director level who receives a promotion, two other female directors are choosing to leave the company. These women are leaving the workforce at the peak of their careers not because they don’t want to work, they just aren’t getting the support they need from their employers.

What does it mean for your workplace? It means a significant loss of senior talent, significant knowledge drain, difficulty increasing gender diversity, increased absenteeism, and a loss of productivity. And yet, supportive treatment is comparatively cost-effective.

Representation matters and supporting senior employees to stay in your company means younger staff have inspirational role models.

While you are considering getting serious about menopause, there are some simple changes to the physical setup of offices, resetting expectations around work culture and updating health care policies that can make a difference.

1. Offices

Open-plan offices are a disaster for controlling the temperature and privacy when you’re having a hot flush or need a moment to regroup. Changing the entire floor plan overnight is a bit of an ask but a private break-out room, desk fans, period products in the loo and letting people move away from radiators or hot sun can help.

If there are uniforms at your workplace, use a thinner fabric, making it more breathable or even sweat-wicking can make a huge difference to comfort, as well as having a few extra around, if a quick change is required during the day.

2. Culture

Pretending the natural process of ageing doesn’t exist is a complete waste of time. Bring the discussion right into the workplace and include menopause within existing training on things like diversity and inclusion, anti-harassment, mental health or parental leave. Invite all genders and ages to understand menopause, so people can learn how to be supportive.

3. Policy

When symptoms are out of control, normalise staff asking for more frequent breaks or pausing while having a hot flush. Leniency from an office around scheduling or more frequent breaks will make a huge difference in retention.

Including menopause within the healthcare provision helps give the support and education needed to manage menopause without guilt, shame and embarrassment. Private healthcare is not enough on its own as someone with menopausal symptoms may need to see a gynaecologist, endocrinologist, pelvic floor physio or therapist – which can be complex and time-consuming. Stella has all the information and support needed on-demand and in one place.

We offer several onboarding options, from “menopause 101” webinars to demonstrations of the Stella experience. In addition, Stella provides weekly email newsletters for members that includes educational content and opportunities to join our virtual Q&A events with experts. Our experience is that 52% of targeted women who receive this newsletter open it and 15% of those women engage by clicking through to specific content that speaks to them. That experience highlights the unmet need and, we believe, speaks to the power of what Stella can deliver.

We would also be happy to develop an onboarding program suitable for your specific work environment, and can do so on a schedule that works for you.