According to research by menopause specialists, Health & Her, 10 percent of women leave the workforce due to menopause.
Also, one in four consider leaving.
For those who stay, their quality of work and working experience are seriously affected, with 15 percent of women saying they have called in sick due to menopausal symptoms.
The impact of menopause on businesses is only just beginning to be fully understood, with research suggesting that perimenopause and menopause is costing UK business 14 million working days per year.
This is the equivalent of £1.88 billion in lost productivity each year.
Struggling to perform at work
Research has also suggested that due to the difficulty of perimenopause and menopause symptoms, women in the workplace are struggling to perform at work.
Almost a quarter of perimenopausal women surveyed admitted to making mistakes at work, while 6 percent had to skip work meetings to deal with the severity of their symptoms.
For some, it is too much to carry on working altogether, with research indicating that 370,000 women in the UK aged between 50 and 64 have left, or considered leaving, their career due to the intensity of their symptoms.
Another quarter had to reduce their hours or change their working pattern entirely.
What should employers be doing?
“With the Office of National Statistics suggesting that women aged 50 to 64 are the fastest growing economically active group, businesses need to adapt and create an environment that upholds and nourishes this talented, experienced, and able demographic – rather than risk losing them altogether,” says Co-founder of Health & Her, Kate Bache.
“What is important to remember is that each menopause is unique – every woman is an individual, who has an individual experience of menopause. As such, helping to support women going through perimenopause and menopause, businesses must develop a culture and policy approach that both encourages menopausal women generally and helps target their specific needs and requirements,” adds Ms Bache.
Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.
