Menopause shouldn’t be an invisible tax on women in the workplace
Menopause is a journey every woman, everywhere, undertakes.
At Maven Clinic, the women’s and family health company I founded and where I serve as CEO, our platform has served women going through menopause since 2015. But last year, when the U.K. created a panel to understand how to support menopausal employees in the workforce, we saw the demand for workplace benefits skyrocket.
As our team came together to upgrade our menopause offering globally, the degree to which this complex and deeply personal condition is rendered almost completely invisible by society came into renewed focus.
By 2030, more than 47 million women globally are expected to enter menopause each year. Menopause symptoms can vary enormously, but they can be severe: disrupted sleep, debilitating joint pain, depression, and anxiety. In the U.K., nearly one in three women who were going through menopause said they had taken sick days for their symptoms, and a quarter of women with serious symptoms said it had caused them to leave their jobs.