Stop Looking the Other Way: Advice For Managers Supporting Menopausal Employees

Depending on which scientist you ask, and how particular they are in their answer, modern humans have been around for more than 300,000 years. So, by extension, we can pretty confidently state that women have been experiencing menopause for at least 300,000 years. You can probably tack on several hundred more millennia by looping in the experiences of our hominid ancestors. Menopause is an entirely normal and natural part of being a woman; it always has been.

And yet, it’s only very recently that workplaces – and society more broadly – have really started to acknowledge menopause and take it seriously. Now that they are, it’s important that managers address the issue properly.

“The history of menopause… is sort of a history of misinformation, or lack of information, lack of research,” writer Susan Dominus recently explained on the podcast “The Daily.”

Dominus is the author of an incredibly influential article, “Women Have Been Misled About Menopause,” which was published in The New York Times Magazine earlier this year. Her voice is one of many that have risen up recently to address this once-taboo subject. Another of those voices comes from arguably one of the most influential women on the planet: Oprah Winfrey.

“For generations… women have suffered in silence,” Winfrey said in a recent panel discussion. “It’s always been shrouded in stigma and shrouded in shame.”

All of this is important for organizations to keep in mind as they work to support employees going through the different stages of menopause. Women have for so long been discouraged from talking about it that they may find conversations about menopause to be incredibly difficult, awkward or even painful.

Up until the late 1960s, menopause, if ever spoken about, was treated as the effective death of a woman’s persona. A postmenopausal woman was no longer ‘useful,’ no longer ‘whole,’ no longer had anything to offer the world, and was expected to relegate herself to the corners of rooms – remaining quiet and unobtrusive for whatever time she had left on the planet.

Which could be a very long time. Menopause typically happens between the ages of 45 and 55 (though, there are plenty of examples of it occurring far earlier or far later). Businesses will look at this age range and know that it is a time of peak value for an employee – a period in life when gained experience, wisdom and knowledge can combine to create the best leaders.

In her article, Dominus explains that attitudes toward menopause began to shift slightly in the late 1960s and early ’70s, as hormone replacement therapy became a go-to treatment for menopause. People still didn’t really talk about it, except as the butt of jokes (“The general misogynistic, ageist reality [is] that older women are the last group [that] can be the target of insensitive jokes,” says Dominus), but treatment offered women a better chance of keeping symptoms in check. Another way to see this, perhaps, is that hormone replacement therapy helped women continue to ‘hide’ menopause.

In 2002, however, a major study by the United States’s National Institutes of Health announced findings that hormone therapy could potentially increase a woman’s chances of cancer, blood clots, heart attacks and other serious health issues. Many doctors immediately stopped prescribing estrogen and progesterone, leaving women right back where they had been in centuries past, but now with several decades of media/societal expectation that menopause should be something women are able to handle gracefully and without complaint.

In the present, more than two decades on, the options for treatment remain unclear, with many medical professionals uncertain about what is or isn’t safe, and women understandably confused about what their options are.

“Even some of the smartest, most can-do women I knew, women who have tremendous agency, and are great at research, and are extremely efficient, were completely baffled by the subject,” explained Dominus. “They were confused about their symptoms. They were confused about how menopause works.”

In the last few years, however, you may have spotted an increasing number of prominent women who are willing to discuss menopause. As the medical world continues to develop systems and treatments, women are finally opening up to each other and society as a whole about the experience. For many women, just this has brought tremendous relief; they no longer feel that they have to face menopause alone.

This is probably the most important thing for organizations and managers to keep in mind when supporting employees: acknowledging a woman’s challenges and being willing to listen with empathy.

There are three stages of menopause – perimenopause, menopause and postmenopause – and a woman’s career strengths may be affected differently by each stage. Many women, it should be noted, are able to move through the stages of menopause with relatively little discomfort or inconvenience. But for others it can be a years-long trial of physical and mental anguish.

Some women may suffer so intensely that they will consider early retirement, robbing themselves of career fulfillment and their organizations of incredible talent. The right support can help women retain confidence in their skills and abilities, and mitigate mental health conditions such as stress, anxiety or depression. Here again, empathy is vital.

“I think one of the biggest challenges managers face is the concern that they feel around having to offer a solution or to ‘fix’ the problem,” explains Lucinda Quigley, professional coach and Talking Talent Head of Client Solutions EMEA. “Then, when they know they can’t (fix the problem), they shy away from having conversations – as they feel they can’t help. When what they really need to offer is an empathetic listening ear.”

They should also seek to gain as much knowledge and understanding of menopause as possible, including its symptoms and its effects. And they should have a strong grasp of laws and regulations related to menopause, as well as their own company’s policies.

Keep in mind, of course, that each woman’s experience is unique. But there may be some general things that employers can do to make working conditions more tolerable. This may include flexible working, adjustments to the working environment (eg, temperature or ventilation), or even providing a quiet and relaxing space for the employee to rest if needed. Organizations should also have a clear menopause policy.

Without singling out any employees going through the experience, all staff should receive training in their company’s menopause policy, so they, too, can provide support and foster an environment where women feel free and safe discussing what they’re going through. A menopause policy can help all members of an organization understand what menopause is, how it affects women differently, what support is available, and who the organization’s point of contact is.

Having a policy in place shows that the organization is open and ready to talk and listen. This helps create a more inclusive and supportive workplace for all, and ultimately leads to a better world – one where women don’t feel shame in experiencing something that has always been, and always will be, an entirely normal and natural part of being a woman.

“We now get to redefine [menopause],” Oprah Winfrey explained. “Unlike our mothers and their mothers before them, where there was no discussion.”