By Cheryl Guest – Part of the Women in Technology Series
There is a version of this blog I could write that stays safely in the abstract. Statistics, policy recommendations, a neat list of employer best practices. Useful, perhaps, but not honest. So instead I want to start here: I am going through menopause. I am writing this as someone in the middle of it, not looking back from the other side. And that feels important to say, because menopause affects around half the population, hits many women at the peak of their careers, and has for too long been treated as something to be quietly managed, hidden, or pushed through without complaint. The workplace has, in the main, not covered itself in glory on this one.
“I am writing this as someone in the middle of it, not looking back from the other side.”
That is beginning to change. But not fast enough, and not universally enough. And given that this series is about the real experience of women in professional life, not a sanitised version of it, it felt important to address it directly.
What women are actually experiencing
Before we talk about menopause and the workplace, it helps to be clear about what women are actually experiencing. Menopause is not a single moment. It is a transition that can span years, beginning with perimenopause, which can start a decade or more before periods stop, and continuing well beyond. The symptoms are wide-ranging and, for many women, genuinely debilitating.
Hot flushes and night sweats are the ones most people know about. But the list goes further: disrupted sleep, brain fog, difficulty concentrating, memory lapses, anxiety, low mood, joint pain, and a loss of confidence that can feel completely at odds with everything you have built in your career. For women in demanding professional roles, this combination can be particularly cruel. You are trying to lead, to deliver, to show up at your best, while simultaneously fighting a body and a mind that feel, at times, like they are working against you.
What makes this harder is that many women do not immediately connect what they are experiencing to menopause. Symptoms can creep in gradually, and for women in their early to mid-forties especially, it can take time to join the dots. In the meantime, they may be questioning their own performance, their own capability, wondering whether they are losing their edge, when in reality, they are navigating a significant hormonal transition with very little support or acknowledgement from the world around them.
I want to say that clearly, for anyone reading this who recognises themselves in those words:
“There is nothing wrong with you. What you are experiencing is real, it is common, and it is not a reflection of your ability or your worth.”
Menopause and the workplace: The silence that makes it worse
For a long time, talking about menopause and the workplace was simply not done. It was filed alongside other aspects of women’s health that were considered too personal, too uncomfortable, or too likely to undermine how seriously you were taken.
The result of that silence has been costly. Women leaving roles they loved because the combination of unmanaged symptoms and an unsupportive environment became untenable. Women stepping back from opportunities, convinced the fog they were experiencing was permanent. Women suffering in silence, isolated by the very thing they most needed to be able to talk about.
The stigma runs deep. There is an irrational but very real fear, for many women, that raising menopause in a professional context will change how colleagues or managers perceive them, that it will become a lens through which their performance is viewed, or worse, a reason to be sidelined. That fear does not come from nowhere. It comes from a working culture that has historically not handled these conversations well.
“The antidote is not just policy. It is culture. And culture is built by the conversations leaders are willing to have openly.”
What good menopause support at work looks like
When it comes to menopause and the workplace, the good news is that creating a genuinely supportive environment does not require a complete overhaul. Much of it comes down to awareness, openness and a few practical adjustments.
Start with the conversation. The single most powerful thing an employer can do is make it clear that menopause is a topic that can be raised without fear. That might be through training for managers, through visible advocacy from senior leaders, or simply through the language used in internal communications. When people feel safe to speak, they seek help sooner and struggle less in silence.
Flexibility matters enormously. Disrupted sleep is one of the most commonly reported and most impactful symptoms of menopause. A woman who has been awake since 3am is not going to perform at her best after a 7.30 commute and a full day of back-to-back meetings. Flexible start times, the option to work from home when needed, and a culture that measures output rather than presence can make a significant difference to someone managing this day to day.
“These are not expensive interventions. They are human ones.”
Practical adjustments are often small but significant. Access to cool, well-ventilated workspaces. Flexibility around uniform requirements where relevant. Understanding from a line manager that a request to step out, or a moment of losing a train of thought, is not a performance issue. These are not expensive interventions. They are human ones.
Signpost proper support. Occupational health, employee assistance programmes, and access to credible information about treatment options, including HRT, which has been significantly reappraised in recent years and is now recommended as a safe and effective option for many women, should be visible and easy to access. Do not assume people will find their way to support without being pointed towards it.
Check in, without making it awkward. For managers: if someone on your team is going through this, a quiet, private, non-intrusive check-in means more than any policy document. You do not need to have all the answers. You just need to make it clear you are paying attention and that you care.
The career cost of poor menopause support
This is where menopause and the workplace stop being a private matter and become a business one.
Here is the piece of this that I find most frustrating, and that I think deserves to be said plainly.
Menopause most commonly affects women in their late forties and fifties. These are also, very often, the years in which those women are at the height of their experience, their capability and their professional influence. They are the years when many women step into their most senior roles, take on their biggest responsibilities, and have the most to contribute.
“This is not just a welfare issue. It is a strategic failure.”
The idea that this is also the moment when the workplace feels least equipped to support them is not just a welfare issue. It is a strategic failure. Organisations that lose women at this stage of their careers, or that push them into smaller roles because they have not been adequately supported, are losing exactly the talent they can least afford to part with.
This is a retention issue. It is a diversity issue. And for any organisation serious about having women in senior leadership, it is an issue that demands a serious response.
A note to women reading this
“If you are in the middle of this and finding it hard, I see you. Because I am right there with you.”
The professional world has not always made space for this conversation, which means many of us have learned to absorb it quietly and carry on. I have had days where the brain fog, the broken sleep and the relentless need to just keep going have felt like a lot to hold alongside everything else a senior role demands. But you do not have to manage this alone, and you do not have to pretend it is not happening.
Talk to your GP about what options are available to you. Seek out communities and support groups, there are more of them than ever, and the conversations happening in those spaces have opened up in ways that were unthinkable even a decade ago. And if your workplace is not supporting you as it should, you have every right to ask for what you need.
“Your experience, your capability and your career are not diminished by this transition.”
In many ways, what you are navigating right now, with everything else on your plate, is further evidence of exactly how much you are capable of.
What we can all do
Whether you are a leader, a manager, a colleague or a business owner, there is a role for you in this.
Educate yourself. Create space for the conversation. Advocate for flexible, human-centred working practices. And if someone trusts you enough to tell you what they are going through, respond with the care and practicality that they deserve.
“The conversation we are finally having about menopause and the workplace is long overdue. Let us make sure it leads somewhere.”
About the Author
Cheryl Guest is the Chief Operating Officer at Unique IQ, an award-winning provider of home care management software. With over a decade of leadership experience in technology and operations, Cheryl is passionate about empowering women in tech, driving innovation in social care, and creating cultures that value purpose as much as performance.
To read more of Cheryl’s Women in Technology blogs, visit the series page.