Misunderstood menopause costs the economy millions a year

THE menopause is costing the economy millions of pounds every year because employers don’t understand it, a Government report has said.

The study from the Government Equalities Office found one in 10 women in their early 50s suffer “severe symptoms” from the menopause which affect their work. A conservative estimate was that the absence of these 174,200 women aged between 50 and 54 cost the economy at least £7.3million in “absence-related costs”.

But this estimate failed to include other costs like “symptom-related lateness for work, lost productivity due to medical appointments during working hours [and] women who reduce their working hours due to symptoms”.

It warned that it was important the Government established a more rounded estimate of the cost of the menopause to the economy. The report said managers had to do more to understand the menopause. The report found that “evidence exists of women being ridiculed, harassed and criticised by colleagues and managers as a result of their menopausal symptoms – or just because they are aged 40 or over and therefore stereotyped as “hysterical”, “histrionic” or “menopausal-ish”. It said there was a “social responsibility case for greater organisational attention to [menopausal] transition, in order to ensure mid-life women have the highest possible quality of working life”.

It added that “gendered ageism seems to be the cause of many of the problems which working women experience during transition. This requires changes in prevailing values, beliefs and norms in organisations”.

The report warned employers that women were already protected against workplace discrimination “on the basis of either their sex or their age”. It added: “The legal case for organisational attention to the menopause transition is clear.”