How employers can close the menopause gap

As October draws to a close, organizations across the country continue to emphasize the importance of Menopause Awareness Month through efforts encompassing how workplaces can support women navigating this significant stage of life, from providing education and awareness to reviewing and enhancing benefits coverage.

Janet Ko, president and co-founder of the Menopause Foundation of Canada, highlights the lack of workplace accommodations for menopausal symptoms leads to lost productivity, missed days, and reduced work hours. To address this, the Foundation launched the "Menopause Works Here" campaign, encouraging employers to make workplaces more inclusive for women facing menopause.

The importance of awareness is underscored by staggering figures revealed in the Foundation’s report, “Menopause and Work in Canada.” Ko shares that women in their peak earning years were losing some $3.2 billion annually by reducing hours, stepping back in their careers, or even leaving the workforce altogether. Additionally, the report quantified the staggering economic impact of the unmanaged symptoms of menopause at $3.5 billion, which resulted in more than 500,000 missed days of work and more than $237 million in lost productivity.

This issue impacts over two million Canadian women aged 45-55, a group that constitutes a “critical portion” of the country’s workforce. “Menopause intersects with this critical career stage, when women are assuming greater leadership roles and when they're incredibly important and valuable to an organization for their skills, expertise, leadership, mentorship,” asserts Ko.

The “Menopause Works Here” campaign also aims to help employers support employees by fostering a menopause-friendly work environment. As a result, the Foundation offers a free playbook with five actionable steps. This guide encourages companies to address common workplace myths surrounding menopause, including misconceptions that it only involves hot flashes or that symptoms are short-lived.

Ko emphasizes that menopause is not just about period changes and hot flashes, noting that “women might experience more than thirty different symptoms, from mental health challenges to physical discomforts. It's this lack of understanding of physical and mental symptoms. When you don't understand this, you can't connect the dots on your health, and then you can't get the help that you need.”

She points to widespread symptoms such as night sweats, which can disturb sleep, leading to fatigue, exhaustion brain fog, all of which can significantly hinder productivity. Ko also highlights the example of heavy bleeding in perimenopause, where several women find themselves bringing extra clothes and bags to work due to lack of adequate facilities. Accordingly, the playbook also addresses accommodations that can be made in various areas, from communication and flexibility in dress codes to expanded healthcare benefits for menopause-related treatments.

Several major companies have already joined the Foundation’s campaign, including Sun Life, PwC Canada, L’Oréal Canada, and BMO, all of whom have implemented policies supporting menopausal employees. Some organizations, like Sinai Health Foundation, have even started their own.

Lisa Rosen, director of total rewards at PwC Canada, explains how the organization launched a menopause strategy in April after examining existing benefits, policies, and employee support frameworks. The initiative stemmed from not only the Foundation’s recommendations, she admits, but a deeper realization that “menopause has come to the forefront both societally as well as in the corporate environment.” She attributes this shift partly to the rise of Gen X women in leadership roles and an evolved understanding of work-life inclusivity.

PwC’s approach to menopause awareness incorporates its disability inclusion strategy, ensuring that accommodations, health coverage, and support systems are in place for menopausal employees. For instance, PwC’s benefits include prescription drug coverage for hormone replacement therapy and a comprehensive mental health plan.

Rosen stresses the importance of not having to redesign benefits altogether. Rather, "it's more about helping people make the connections between what's available within those benefit plans." Additionally, she stresses the need for employers to have conversations, “breaking those stigmas and taboos as well as upskilling people in leadership positions to address what is menopause and how to address the resources and peer support employees have.”

Beyond policy, PwC Canada has taken several low-cost but impactful steps, including creating dedicated intranet spaces for menopause resources and establishing menopause-specific talking circles. "The biggest and most impactful thing we did was create menopause talking circles,” Rosen says, explaining that the monthly forums allow employees to connect, share experiences, and discuss their needs. She highlights employee feedback indicated a strong interest in hormone replacement therapy, which led PwC to invite a gynaecologist from BC Women’s Health Foundation for a dedicated information session in November.

Menopause awareness in the workplace also provides an opportunity to reshape perceptions. Often “overwhelmingly viewed as negative and ageist attitudes that pervade women's lives”, menopause is actually a transitional phase with potential for personal growth and professional contribution, Ko says. Instead of viewing menopause as an ending, workplaces can help position it as a phase of empowerment and continuity for women.

Organizations looking to address menopause in the workplace can start with simple steps, outlines Ko, such as promoting open discussions, educating staff, and providing flexible policies as well as offering uniform flexibility and reviewing health benefits to cover non-hormonal and mental health treatments.

“Menopause is having a moment, but it has turned into a movement,” she added. “The workplace can be a great avenue to close the menopause knowledge gap and change the narrative from one that is negative and women being in a state of decline to what menopause is truly about: this wonderful stage of life where many women report feelings of new freedom and flourishing.”