April Haberman’s business reflects the growing interest in how menopause intersects with the workplace. She is the co-founder and CEO of MiDOViA, which aims to help companies develop and implement menopause support services for their employees. Several states have introduced legislation mandating workplace accommodations for menopausal employees, but for most women in the U.S., their employer determines whether they have support at work during menopause.
We talked to Haberman about the current landscape of menopause in the workplace and what steps employers can take to support their menopausal employees.
This interview had been edited for length and clarity.
What are some of the biggest challenges women going through menopause face at work? Symptoms and symptom management. One of the symptoms that we hear about most often is fatigue. And brain fog … the woman who goes into that meeting with brain fog, and she can't remember the presentation that she has practiced. Or the woman running on three hours of sleep.
Hot flashes can really affect women if they're experiencing them in a severe manner and on a regular basis. When you're experiencing a hot flash in the middle of a meeting, and it's very visible, it can be very embarrassing for women, especially in workplaces where there's not an embracing culture or a supportive culture.
How does this affect women in the workplace? What happens is women end up shrinking … there's still a lot of stigma and shame. The hardest part of all of this is the timing of menopause. in the U.S., the average age to reach natural menopause is 51. We're talking about women who are typically either at the height of their careers or very stable. You’ve got senior leaders, knowledgeable individuals, highly skilled individuals … quitting work, reducing hours, not taking that promotion.
What is the business case for companies to support women through menopause? Mayo Clinic estimates that there's 1.3 million women that enter menopause in the U.S. every single year. It’s costing organizations $1.8 billion dollars a year in just menopause symptoms alone and lost productivity, and then you add the medical costs onto that, and it increases to $26.6 billion.
A lot of people may see this a personal health issue. Why should workplaces address menopause? I understand when women say, "Why are you bringing this up? That's my own personal issue. I don't want my employer to know you're surfacing brain fog and lost productivity, and I don't want that.” They don't want to be seen through that narrow lens. They don't want to be seen as lesser, unproductive. There is still a lot of ageism in the workplace, unfortunately, so there are barriers here for women.
But it becomes a workplace issue because of who it affects and when. Women over 45 are the fastest-growing workplace segment of the workforce right now, and menopause lands right when many of them are moving through those senior leadership roles. When you fail to support them, it comes back to losing those employees and them suffering in silence. White-knuckling it through menopause is not the answer.
What kind of workplace policies and structures are most helpful for women going through menopause? First and foremost, even before a policy is written, you have to normalize [menopause]. Manager training is probably one of the most important things that organizations can do. A manager who acknowledges that menopause exists, that it’s a normal life stage, has already, no pun intended, changed the temperature in the room … low-barrier flexibility really helps employees.
I want to go to my manager and say, ‘I'm not sleeping very well.’ I don't have to tell them that it's because of menopause because if everyone in the organization understands what menopause is and they've been trained, it goes without saying.
And then policies … signaling to your employees that you care. But make sure that employees know that the policy exists and that it's an active policy … it has to be living and breathing.
We want women to get the help that they need so that they can return to the workplace and thrive.
The ISO has just come out with new international workplace standards for menopause and menstruation. What’s the significance? This one's really personal for me because I served on the U.S. working group. It's a milestone. It is the world's first international standard giving organizations guidance on how to support employees going through menstruation and menopause. The standard really sets that global agreed-upon bar … what good actually looks like. So companies can stop guessing.
Hear more from April Haberman as well as other menopause workplace experts at our upcoming Women’s Health Summit. Grab your tickets today!
