Recognizing and Supporting Menopause in the Workplace: The Importance of Corporate Benefits

At 48, she learned from her new gynecologist that these changes were precursors to menopause: perimenopause. And that the stress of work made them worse. M^me Chen remembers what his doctor told him: “Your body is screaming at you to stop. »

M^me Chen’s life changed. After a few months, she became a consultant. She can manage her schedule and stress level.

Perimenopause, which can last around ten years, is often a brake on a career. It occurs at an age when one is likely to have significant promotions. According to a Mayo Clinic study published this year, 15% of women miss work or reduce their hours due to menopausal symptoms, and this lost productivity costs women $1.8 billion each year. According to a British study, women who have at least one disturbing symptom at age 50 are 43% more likely to have quit their job at age 55.

New benefits

That’s why some companies wanting to attract and retain talent include menopause-specific care in their benefits, along with fertility treatments, paid parental leave and daycare.

These advantages sometimes include virtual access to the few thousand certified specialists in the United States, which cannot be found in certain regions, and the provision of hormone treatments that are often expensive and excluded from insurance plans.

For the North American subsidiary of the pharmaceutical company Sanofi, the addition of benefits related to menopause was “a no-brainer”, says vice-president of human resources Nathalie Grenache.

According to providers who offer corporate menopause support, this service is very popular. Peppy, a telehealth company founded in 2018 in Britain, has offered the service in the United States since January and has signed contracts with eBay, Nvidia, Wiley and Capgemini. In October, Maven Clinic launched a menopause telehealth app, which connects employees with specialists and therapists. The application includes forums for discussion and resource sharing. In nine months, more than 150 companies signed up, says Kate Ryder, CEO and Founder of Maven: “This is the best seller in the history of any Maven product. »

In the United States, more than 40% of working women are at least 45 years old, the age at which women generally go through menopause. This passage, which marks the end of the reproductive years, is characterized by a series of symptoms: insomnia, hot flashes, brain fog, etc. Symptoms can be debilitating because there are few effective treatment options. There is very little research on the why and how of the body changes induced by menopause.

Break the taboo

Despite its high cost and universality among women, menopause is largely ignored in the workplace. According to a 2023 survey by Bank of America, 58% of women do not feel comfortable talking about menopause at work; it seems too personal to them and they fear being judged by their colleagues.

But more and more women are moving into leadership positions, and the situation is changing, says Max Landry, co-CEO of Peppy. “Women who will be in menopause in five to ten years won’t accept the situation like my mother’s generation did,” he says.

According to some lawyers, existing laws could require companies to provide accommodations for menopause that may go beyond the provision of health care and also include flexible hours or spaces for cooling off. An example ? A new US law, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which took effect in June, says Liz Morris, deputy director of the Center for WorkLife Law, an advocacy and research organization from the University of California College of the Law. The law requires employers to make accommodations for workers who are pregnant, recovering from postpartum or have “related medical conditions”, which Liz Morris said could include the end of fertility.

That argument hasn’t been tested in court yet, but corporate benefits won’t be enough either way, says Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, executive director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at the University of Ottawa Law School. New York University. According to her, there is a need for further research to prevent the symptoms and to pass laws that explicitly prohibit discrimination.

According to M^me Weiss-Wolf, corporate benefits are just the beginning.

This article was published in The New York Times.