Why employers should prioritise women’s health

Abingdon Health is proud to work in partnership with a number of female-led entrepreneurs and in this article  Jasmine Tagesson, COO of the leading female health tech company Hormona, discusses with us why companies should prioritise women’s health.

Industries all over the world lose time and productivity to hormone health issues. And while medicine is slowly waking up to the importance of hormone health, employers now have a unique opportunity to support women’s health long before they need to see a doctor.

Women make up a huge percentage of the workforce – almost 50 per cent in many countries, including the UK, USA, the EU, Australia and Barbados. And yet almost 90 per cent have experienced anxiety and stress related to hormone issues in the workplace.

Of those, 25 per cent have taken time off work due to those issues. That’s a lot of lost days, productivity and creativity for any economy.

But for women, it’s also lost career progression, earnings potential and, when those issues lead to the decision to stop work altogether, it’s lost independence.

Hormone issues can appear at anytime, and affect women from their first period to their last, and beyond. And menstrual and reproductive factors including PCOS, PMDD, endometriosis, fibroids and PMS are just the tip of the hormone health iceberg.

Thyroid dysfunction, perimenopause, and type 2 diabetes also come under the hormone umbrella, and all can bring with them debilitating physical and emotional symptoms.

Some companies, including Channel 4 in the UK, are seizing the opportunity to not only support women’s health, but also reduce absenteeism and increase long-term employee retention at the same time. How? With comprehensive policies that guarantee period and menopause leave, and fertility, miscarriage, and pregnancy support, among other things.

All of those things can be essential to supporting workplace health and cohesion. But daily support – and the knowledge that it exists – is just as vital. As is access to expert answers to health concerns, one-on-one appointments with qualified healthcare professionals, nutritional advice, symptom reduction programmes, a supportive community and at-home testing.

Which is why women’s health start-up Hormona not only added all of those things to our industry-leading hormone tracking app, but also launched a hormone health programme specifically for employers.

Hormona believes that fully rounded hormone health support is the future of women’s healthcare and that employers are in a unique position to affect massive change. Because when women in the workplace are in control of their health, the world benefits.

Hormona’s Hormone Management Package offers an innovative, 360-degree approach to employee healthcare that includes all of the vital support mentioned above. But that sits alongside a powerful hormone and menstrual cycle tracking tool, exclusive breathwork and meditation sessions, cycle-specific recipes and symptom-reduction programmes, all found on the app and instantly accessible to users.

The expert-led team also hosts regular in-person events, education sessions, and webinars that are available to all employees as part of the package.

With scientifically proven support from the Hormona app and programme, employees can identify potential health problems in the early stages, reduce the likelihood of time off and help speed up diagnosis and treatment.

More importantly, a dedicated hormone management programme gives women the space, confidence, and security to discuss health issues in a safe environment, one that is separate from, but still part of, their workplace.

Jasmine Tagesson and Karolina Löfqvist, co-founders of Hormona

Not only do employers have the opportunity to drive the future of women’s healthcare, programs like Hormona’s also give them the power to put that healthcare in their female employees’ hands.

Trusted information, data that comes from the users themselves, and the knowledge that someone is taking them seriously, can have an enormous impact on their mental health, creativity and, crucially, productivity. As your great-grandmother would’ve said, look after the pennies, and the pounds will take care of themselves.

That’s exactly what a hormone management programme can do. By being proactive, providing a forum and practical solutions, employers can be on the front line of a 360-degree healthcare revolution.

And in the same way that hormone balance can be entirely individual, so too can Hormona’s management programme. Tailoring care to the needs of a company and its employees helps ensure no one is left out of the hormone health conversation. Eventually, all companies will run this way. Because a healthier female workforce drives growth, innovation and, eventually, the economy. And the sooner we can improve health outcomes, the better for us all.

Hormona is proud to partner with Abingdon Health to further the research and development of its hormone health projects; making full use of Abingdon’s CDMO services from start to finish.

We are also extremely supportive of the work Abingdon does to support women in STEM, with a workforce that’s over 54 per cent women and over 56 per cent of its leadership positions held by females.