It’s exciting to see menopausal health and employee wellness receiving more notice in the media, such as in a recent Harvard Business Review (HBR) article titled “How Companies Can Support Employees Experiencing Menopause.” The piece highlights businesses like Bristol Myers Squibb, Lululemon, Linklaters, Adobe, and WeightWatchers for their policies to better support employees who are experiencing menopause, from “offering paid time off…for symptoms associated with menopause” to “plan[ning] companywide events that spark conversations about menopause.”
Even so, many questions nagged at me as I read the article: “What about the other side? What about the workplaces that haven’t yet adopted these kinds of policies and the individuals who are still advocating for this support? How would they view this? Is it progress? Or is there still more work to be done?”
With these questions in mind, I reached out to multiple representatives from the companies mentioned in the HBR piece, as well as to individuals I know are involved in this area of menstrual health. That’s how I met Alison Acerra, a registered dietitian and the founder of Alison Acerra Nutrition, a business bridging the gap between hormonal health and employee wellness. Here’s what I learned from our conversation.
This Is a Major Issue
More than 1 million women across America currently experience menopause, which is defined by the NIH National Institute on Aging (NIA) as “the point in time 12 months after a woman’s last period.” The NIA explains that during the transition to menopause, known as perimenopause, “hormone levels vary greatly…and women may experience a range of unpleasant symptoms, such as hot flashes and sleep problems.” Women transitioning to menopause tend to be between 45 and 55, and the transition lasts up to seven years. When we consider that women of this age group had a 75.2% labor force participation rate in 2022, and women between 35 and 44 had a similarly high labor force participation rate of 76.3%, we realize that workplace leaders need to have a conversation around support for menopausal symptoms, particularly because women continue to enter the workforce. Acerra put it perfectly: “Whether [companies] are aware of this issue or not, it’s happening.”
As women continue to struggle to balance and maintain their hormonal health, their ability to thrive in the workforce suffers hugely. A 2023 study of over 400 women employees found that “65% stated that symptoms had affected their work performance,” “35% reported career development decisions were influenced,” and 11% explained they missed more than four days of work due to symptoms.
This research comes from Ireland, but findings from the United States show similar patterns; both Acerra and the HBR article reference another study, one from the Mayo Clinic, that found that “American companies face menopause-related losses of $26 billion annually, including an estimated $1.8 billion worth of lost working time alone.” What’s more, menopause symptoms are getting worse: hot flashes are more common and more debilitating, and environmental stressors simply exacerbate the suffering.
Breaking Stigmas Starts with a Conversation
One quote from the HBR article that really stuck out for me was a statement from a woman named Andrea, who said, “The last thing you want to do is bring more attention [to experiencing menopause] or feel more vulnerable.” I asked Acerra what she thought about ways to reduce the stigma. Her response was that, first and foremost, we should work to normalize these conversations, starting with individuals whom we know and trust, like family and friends. She said that having these conversations more generally in our lives will make it easier to begin integrating them into the workplace.
Once that time does arrive, a great place for workplaces to begin is with their employee resource groups, which are specifically designed to be a safe space for sharing experiences in community with other women. For example, older women can share their stories with the younger generations to prepare them for their own perimenopausal and menopausal journeys. However, Acerra adeptly added, we don’t have to be vulnerable about our own personal experiences; instead, we can learn from each other and build a supportive community around these common points of frustration and struggle. After all, the hesitancy to begin talking about such issues might stem from a fear of retribution or embarrassment. She reminded me that what progress requires most is a willingness to learn and spread knowledge.
Knowledge Is Powerful
According to Acerra, any woman looking to change the way her workplace views and supports menopause should first become more educated about these issues. Her business, Alison Acerra Nutrition, is one example of an organization that provides educational webinars and coaching sessions on topics ranging from what to expect from perimenopause to the specific tools individuals can employ to optimize their experiences. She offers informational sessions on nutrition, movement, sleep, medicinal qualities of food, and more as the components of an activity she calls “cycle syncing,” or how to align nutrition, mindset, and lifestyle with your natural hormonal cycle in order to increase your resilience to stress and to prevent burnout.
Other opportunities for learning include executive coaching sessions where leaders can not only come to understand how hormonal health plays a role in the productivity and well-being of their women employees but also how to build and incorporate policies that support a “culture of inclusivity” for these workers. Acerra said that through self-education, an employee can “know what [their unique] circumstance is and advocate for more of [the necessary] services and resources.”
Supporting Treatment Is a Fantastic Place to Start
I asked Acerra about her thoughts on some companies’ decisions to cover “preventive screenings to address symptoms, visits to certified menopause specialists, and the costs associated with medication, hormone therapy, and other treatments to address symptoms,” as described in the HBR article. She was very supportive of these strategies, noting how maintaining hormonal health is incredibly important for protecting bones, the brain, and the heart, as well as for preventing breast cancer. For example, hormone replacement therapy (HRT), defined by the Columbia Medical Center as a treatment that “replaces hormones that are at a lower level when menopause begins,” is one of the common interventions provided by clinicians to individuals experiencing menopause, and it helps to manage “vasomotor symptoms, like hot flashes, night sweats, trouble sleeping, memory concerns, and generalized joint aches,” as well as to reduce “the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and osteoporosis.”
However, Acerra noted that in her experience, individuals are often unaware of the benefits of HRT or have been misled about how it works, and others have not been offered the opportunity to take hormones at all. Doctors tell these patients, instead, to “just deal with it,” when they hear about women’s debilitating symptoms, or they prescribe an antidepressant. It can be challenging for women to find the care they need, so it would be “fantastic,” said Acerra, if employers could help connect their employees with networks of specialists and bettereducated providers.
There Is Always More We Can Do
The HBR made note of other ways companies can support their employees beyond these more direct health-care-related strategies, such as by expanding “fertility and maternity benefits… to cover employees going through menopause,” or by offering “paid time off…for symptoms associated with menopause.” Acerra backs these policies and encourages leaders in the workplace to consider offering “flexible work arrangements” so that women do feel comfortable taking time off and seeking the help they need without sacrificing productivity. She emphasized that spreading knowledge and facilitating discussion are crucial first steps for any organization looking to be more supportive of their employees. “With more awareness, there is more empathy,” she stated.
In the end, menopause is becoming a reality for more employees every day, and it is clear from conversations such as the one I had with Acerra that one of the most important things anyone can do is simply to learn more. Create places where employees of all levels of seniority can feel safe and secure in discussing the challenges they are facing. Offer educational resources to break down the stigma around topics that we see as taboo and embarrassing. Normalize conversations about health and wellness, and practice empathy while advocating for the necessary changes to promote better employee health and well-being. After all, as Acerra told me, “This is a real opportunity for employers to meet employees in an area where they are genuinely struggling and seeking these services.”
Aynsley Szczesniak (she/her) is a secondyear Bob and Janitta Carithers Honors Carolina Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studies Biology and Mathematics on the premedical track. She’s the Founder and CEO of the global nonprofit Speak Out Sisterhood and the Student STEM Programs Chair of AWIS North Carolina.
This article was originally published in AWIS Magazine. Join AWIS to access the full issue of AWIS Magazine and more member benefits.