May 06, 2026
Why Menopause Support Needs Greater Depth – and Greater Discretion
Menopause remains one of the most underserved areas of women’s health in the workplace. Globally, women make up roughly half the workforce and represent a significant proportion of the most experienced talent in organisations. Yet for many, navigating menopause at work still means navigating it in silence.
Despite growing awareness campaigns and a steady increase in employer policy commitments, the day-to-day reality for many women tells a different story. As an integrative wellbeing coach, I have become accustomed to the reticence with which women approach this subject at work. This is often because workplace cultures don’t enable open conversation without an unspoken undercurrent of fear. Fear of being judged, being seen as less capable, or being quietly sidelined.
This is particularly significant when we’re asking women to disclose personal experiences of emotional challenges – imposter syndrome, anxiety, brain fog – which are among the most common, and least visible, manifestations of this profoundly transitional phase of life.
Cultivating Empathy Through Lived Experience
As someone in my late forties, I have intimate, visceral experience of what I’ve come to call the ‘Bermuda Triangle of vocabulary’ – an apparent vacuum into which words disappear mid-sentence. For someone who has led meetings and spoken at events throughout their career, this has been deeply unsettling. My own experience has given me greater compassion for the tensions women hold. Especially when they begin to notice career plateaus or feel less visible, despite having a breadth of expertise and skill that should be placing them at their peak.
The data reflects what I hear in my coaching work. A 2024 report by HR consultancy hoomph found that 70% of women surveyed felt unsupported by their employers throughout the menopause journey, with 15% considering leaving their jobs as a direct result. Similar findings have emerged globally. A 2023 Mayo Clinic study estimated that menopause symptoms cost US businesses approximately $1.8 billion in lost working time annually. Meanwhile, research by the Fawcett Society in the UK and CIPD surveys consistently show that a significant proportion of women have reduced hours, turned down promotions, or left the workforce entirely because of inadequate support.
These statistics represent a systemic talent and wellbeing risk that organisations across every sector are largely failing to address.
The No-Go Area
Women in sectors that have traditionally been more male-dominated – engineering, technology, finance, construction – often find that menopause remains a no-go area of conversation. Even where broader wellbeing cultures exist, there is frequently what I’d describe as a ‘double bind’. Women are invited to be vulnerable, yet risk that vulnerability being used against them, particularly in conversations about career progression.
In the coaching space, I repeatedly hear that the absence of psychological safety makes honest conversation about menopause symptoms impossible. Erosion of confidence is a consistent theme, which is deeply at odds with the reality that women in midlife are often at the peak of their professional capability. The internal and external don’t match, and that incongruence is both uncomfortable and isolating.
Bridging the Gap Between Transactional and Transformative Support
Legislative pressure is beginning to build in some markets. In the UK, organisations with more than 250 employees will be required to publish Menopause Action Plans by spring 2027 under the Employment Rights Act 2025. In Australia, menopause has gained recognition within national workplace health frameworks. And in the US, some states and employers are beginning to offer menopause support voluntarily. The direction of travel, globally, is towards greater accountability.
Government and regulatory guidance typically covers training managers, offering occupational health advice, establishing peer support networks, making reasonable workplace adjustments, and reviewing relevant policies.
While these are meaningful steps, my concern is that they are easily fulfilled on paper without creating any tangible cultural shift. If a woman doesn’t have a strong or trusting relationship with her manager, no policy will make a sensitive conversation about her emotional wellbeing feel safe or possible.
Looking at Menopause Strategies through a Broader Lens
Policy and operational interventions are necessary but not sufficient. They need to be complemented by the kind of meaningful, relational conversations that acknowledge the full complexity of women’s inner experience during this phase.
Invitations to vulnerability must be met with trust, discretion, and integrity. This is non-negotiable. Where that assurance cannot be given, women will rightly protect themselves by staying silent.
Women in midlife are not at the end of their leadership journey. They are often in its richest phase, with deep experience, collaborative capability, and hard-won perspective. Failing to support them through menopause leads to real consequences for retention, institutional knowledge, and the quality of experience delivered to customers.
The Practical Imperative
Cultural shifts take time, intentional alignment, and accountability. Discretion is fundamental to any meaningful conversation about emotional wellbeing. Psychological safety is the precondition for everything else.
This can be built through internal interventions alongside support from external specialists who bring objectivity and can provide genuine confidentiality. Organisations operating across multiple geographies need to be especially attentive to how cultural context shapes what is possible locally – what works in one country’s workplace culture may need significant adaptation in another.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t need to have all the answers. But you do need to create spaces that allow curiosity, honest conversation, and human connection. When intentions and behaviours are congruent, people feel safe. Policies and procedures matter. But they are not a substitute for depth, integrity, and relational trust.
Natalie Nuttall is an integrative wellbeing coach, working alongside women navigating deeply transitional phases of life. With 15 years of experience in women’s health, she co-founded a perinatal mental health charity in 2011 after personal experience of postnatal anxiety and depression. She also co-created a national partnership supporting systemic change in the health landscape. Natalie now works with women in her private practice as well as alongside businesses in the intersection between culture, leadership and wellbeing.
