The menopause conversation your organisation isn't having — and what it's costing you

Women in their 40s and 50s represent some of your most experienced talent. Menopause is affecting their experience in ways your organisation probably doesn't know about.

Approximately one in ten women has left a job due to menopausal symptoms. I say 'approximately' because the research varies, and I'd encourage you to seek current data from the CIPD or Fawcett Society for your sector. But the pattern is consistent: women at the peak of their capability and experience are leaving workplaces that aren't equipped to support them.

And organisations, for the most part, don't know it's happening.

Why women don't tell you

In my therapy room, women navigating perimenopause and menopause describe managing their symptoms entirely in secret. Not because they want to — because they don't know how disclosure will be received. Because they've never seen another woman in their organisation be open about it. Because the culture, however progressive it claims to be, has never sent a clear signal that this is a conversation that can happen.

So they perform their way through brain fog, disrupted sleep, anxiety, and loss of confidence. They get quieter. They get less visible. Sometimes they leave — and 'personal reasons' or 'a new opportunity' goes into the exit interview data.

What the research tells us

Menopause affects women during what is often the most valuable period of their professional life — with decades of experience, established relationships, and deep institutional knowledge. The cost of losing this talent, or of retaining it in a significantly diminished state, is substantial.

The organisations getting this right are not doing anything complicated. They are normalising the conversation. They are training managers to respond with curiosity rather than discomfort. They are reviewing flexibility policies with a specific eye to women managing variable symptoms.

Where to start

If you don't know what the menopause experience looks like inside your organisation — if you've never had a genuine, confidential conversation about it — that's the place to begin. Not with a policy. With listening.

The Women at Work Listening Project is designed to surface these conversations before they become departures. nataliemccandless.com/working-with-me-organisations