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Menopause at work: Women face challenges but receive minimal support, study reveals
Women cited working during menopause to be challenging reporting both physical and emotional symptoms
Women in the workforce face ‘significant’ challenges due to menopause, but receive minimal support from employers, according to a new survey from Carrot Fertility.
Carrot, a US fertility healthcare and family-forming benefits provider, commissioned the survey ahead of Menopause Awareness Month to understand the effects of menopause on careers, identify the support available and bring more awareness to menopause.
An estimated one billion women worldwide will have experienced menopause by 2025, with millions more going through perimenopause.
Of the 1,000 people experiencing perimenopause or menopause across the US who were surveyed, the vast majority of respondents (79 per cent) describe working during menopause as challenging, more than other common life stages, including starting a new job (75 per cent describe as challenging), starting a family (70 per cent), or getting a promotion (62 per cent).
When asked what age decade is the most challenging for being in the workplace, respondents ranked their 50s as number one, well ahead of second-ranked 20s, according to the study.
Most women reported the need to take time off or faced other serious challenges in the workplace during menopause and perimenopause.
More than half of women (54 per cent) have encountered at least one menopause-driven work challenge, including loss of work time and job security concerns.
Among the nearly 40 per cent of respondents who took time off due to perimenopause or menopause symptoms, 71 per cent lost more than 40 hours of work time, and 30 per cent reported losing more than a month of work time altogether.
Of those who took time off, 59 per cent felt they needed to conceal the reason for the time away.
Other workplace challenges tied to menopause reported by respondents include perceived losses to credibility in the workplace, worries over job loss due to menopause stigma, and lost work friendships.
“We’ve made tremendous progress around the ability to understand and address the fertility challenges impacting younger individuals in their work life, but we are woefully behind when it comes to supporting employees with their fertility healthcare needs as they age,” said Tammy Sun, founder and CEO, Carrot Fertility.
“The findings of this report spotlight the real challenges menopausal women in the workplace struggle with, including lost productivity and concerns over job security. The survey also validates the need for employers and business leaders to provide age-inclusive fertility benefits for employees.”
Most women surveyed were unfamiliar with workplace menopause benefits but highly supportive of the concept, with 82 per cent of respondents see such benefits as valuable.
When asked what type of menopause benefits they deem valuable, a large majority of respondents cited fundamental benefits, such as medical care and support, counselling and therapy, and support groups, as well as other offerings like menopause mentoring and office menopause rooms to manage their symptoms.
While there is high support for employer-provided menopause benefits from people experiencing menopause and perimenopause, such offerings are rare and typically limited to flexible scheduling.
Only eight per cent say their employer has offered significant support for menopause, compared to 59 per cent who report no support at all. Among the 21 per cent whose employers have offered significant or minor support, flexible scheduling is the most common.
The survey showed if employers opted to offer menopause benefits, they would gain significant advantages, including employee retention.
Other advantages for employers who offer benefits are increased job satisfaction and productivity. Among the respondents, 92 per cent have at least one reason for believing menopause benefits should be provided by employers, such as employee retention and workplace fairness.
Few respondents feel prepared for menopause, with 65 per cent describe their experience as difficult and only eight per cent report feeling very prepared and informed for the overall experience of menopause.
Despite the lack of preparedness, women shared that they’ve experienced both physical and emotional symptoms during menopause, including hot flashes, fatigue, night sweats and weight gain.
Mood changes and anxiety were the most commonly reported emotional and mental health symptoms.
The findings of Carrot’s survey highlight the perception that discussing menopause at work is taboo, and the significant impact menopause has on respondents’ personal and professional relationships.
The majority of people surveyed shared that they feel uncomfortable discussing menopause at work, having to seek support from other sources instead.
“The dramatic hormonal changes stemming from menopause can result in symptoms that negatively impact people physically, mentally, and emotionally, in both their personal and professional lives, as confirmed by this survey,” said Dr Asima Ahmad, MD, MPH, co-founder and chief medical officer at Carrot Fertility.
“What’s also crystal clear from this survey is the diversity of support and benefits women in the workplace deem critical to their productivity, ranging from medical care to counselling and emotional support groups. We hope employers are taking note.”
Carrot aims to help employers and health plans provide equal access to fertility care regardless of age, race, income, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or location.
Earlier this year, the company developed a new line of clinically-validated, age-inclusive fertility benefits for employees going through every stage of menopause and low testosterone.
Customers have now the option to add support for menopause and low testosterone as part of their fertility benefits package, having access to providers through a specialised network, clinically supervised education and intimate group support.
The Scottish government has launched a national review into whether NHS IVF access should be extended to single women.
The review will also consider whether wider access should be offered to couples who have children from previous relationships.
Health secretary Angela Constance said: “Access to NHS IVF treatment should be fair, timely and reflect the way people’s lives and families look today.”
Most single women are not currently eligible for NHS IVF treatment in Scotland.
Campaigners have welcomed the review.
Katie Rollings of Fertility Action said: “It’s an essential and long-awaited decision that will impact a huge number of people who are struggling to grow their families.
She said there is “no evidence” that having two parents rather than one determines whether a child will thrive.
She added: “What matters is whether a child is loved, safe, supported and has stable, positive relationships around them.”
Figures from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority show Scotland is the only UK nation where NHS-funded IVF cycles outnumber privately funded cycles.
In 2024, more than 6,000 cycles of fertility treatment were carried out among more than 4,000 patients in Scotland. Both figures were slightly lower than the record highs recorded in 2022.
The past 20 years have also seen a rise in the number of same-sex female couples and single women receiving fertility treatment.
In 2024, 625 IVF cycles were carried out for women in same-sex couples in Scotland, with more than one third funded by the NHS.
There were 330 cycles involving single women, of which 50 were NHS-funded.
In England, single women can access IVF through the NHS, although eligibility varies according to the local health trust’s policy.
Current Scottish rules state that couples are eligible if they have been living in a stable relationship for two years and neither partner has been sterilised.
Couples where one partner already has a child can be eligible, but those where both partners have children from previous relationships are not.
Eligibility rules also require a body mass index above 18.5 and below 30, and state that couples must not smoke, drink alcohol or take drugs during treatment. The mother must be under 42.
The Scottish government said the review would also examine consistency of access to fertility preservation, including during cancer treatment, as well as reducing waiting times for donor eggs and sperm.
Same-sex female couples already have access to NHS IVF, but they can face long waits for donor eggs or sperm, as can heterosexual couples who require donor treatment.
The National Fertility Group will lead the review and make “costed, demand-modelled recommendations”, which are due to be published by early summer 2027.
The group will include fertility experts from Scotland’s four NHS-assisted conception units in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee.
Prof Sarah Martins Da Silva, an NHS consultant and chair of fertility medicine at Dundee University, said there were questions to be answered in a resource-stretched NHS.
“As a fertility specialist I’m never going to be disappointed if the criteria is widened,” she said.
“But with single people, as an NHS clinician looking at the competing demands we have, I’d ask the question about whether being single is a health condition that needs to be funded.”
Da Silva said NHS waiting lists were full of couples who require donated eggs or sperm because of medical conditions including cancer and could face longer waits.
“It’s slightly a disservice to them,” she said.
“There would need to be a real investment and resource without making everybody wait an extraordinary long time.
“With the current financial environment we work in, if you’re talking about new money, where would that come from?”
She said she would welcome changes that encouraged more people to donate eggs or sperm and questioned whether arguments about children needing two parents were necessarily relevant to the debate.
“On the one hand bringing up a child is quite an expensive process, and if you don’t have that support, it can be very difficult.
“But on the other hand, many people start off as a couple and divorce.”
Da Silva also welcomed plans for the review to consider eligibility for couples who already have children, describing the move as “fantastic”.
The FDA has granted accelerated approval to AstraZeneca drug Etcamah for certain adults with advanced breast cancer carrying an ESR1 mutation.
Etcamah, also known as camizestrant, was approved in combination with a CDK4/6 inhibitor, either abemaciclib, palbociclib or ribociclib.
The treatment is for adults with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative, locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer when an estrogen receptor-1 (ESR1) mutation is detected during aromatase inhibitor and CDK4/6 inhibitor therapy using an FDA-authorised test.
ESR1 mutations are acquired resistance mutations that tumours may develop during treatment with aromatase inhibitors, a type of endocrine therapy commonly used as a front-line treatment for locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer.
Fewer than 5 per cent of patients have the mutation when HR-positive metastatic breast cancer is diagnosed, according to the FDA. After disease progression on an aromatase inhibitor, nearly 40 per cent have the mutation.
Acting FDA commissioner Kyle Diamantas said: “Women living with metastatic breast cancer face an uphill battle as their tumors continuously evolve to escape treatment.
“We owe them every weapon in our arsenal.
“Today’s approval delivers a win to these patients by granting them a targeted therapy designed specifically to overcome resistance, giving them more time before their disease progresses.”
The accelerated approval programme allows earlier approval of drugs that treat serious conditions and fill an unmet medical need based on surrogate or intermediate endpoints.
For Etcamah, approval was based on how long patients lived without their disease worsening, measured from when the resistance mutation was first detected in their blood.
The FDA said it has not yet been confirmed whether intervening when the mutation is detected, rather than waiting until disease progression is confirmed, results in a clinically meaningful benefit. Confirmatory studies are therefore required to verify and describe clinical benefit.
Angelo de Claro, director of the FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence, said: “I commend both the FDA and the sponsor for their commitment to advancing cancer care and securing this accelerated approval.
“This marks the first FDA approval of a cancer therapy guided by the detection of a resistance mutation in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) before imaging tests show that the disease is progressing.
“But additional evidence is needed to confirm clinical benefit.”
Circulating tumour DNA, or ctDNA, consists of small pieces of tumour DNA released into the blood and can allow earlier molecular detection of resistance mutations.
The FDA also authorised the Guardant360 CDx assay as a companion diagnostic to identify patients with breast cancer who have ESR1 mutations for treatment with camizestrant.
Efficacy was assessed in a clinical trial comparing a switch to Etcamah plus a CDK4/6 inhibitor with continued treatment using an aromatase inhibitor plus a CDK4/6 inhibitor.
Estimated median progression-free survival was 16 months in the Etcamah group, compared with 9.2 months in the aromatase inhibitor group.
Etcamah’s prescribing information includes a boxed warning about the risk of irregular heart rhythm when taken with certain other medicines. It also includes warnings about an abnormally slow heart rate and potential harm to an unborn baby.
The FDA convened its Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee for the application on 30 April 2026.
Entrepreneur
Last chance to save on Women’s Health Week and Women’s Sport Summit: Early Bird pricing ends 11 September
Early bird pricing for W Group’s two flagship October summits – Women’s Health Week Europe 2026 and Women’s Sport Summit Europe 2026 – closes on 11 September.
Both events take place at Emirates Stadium, London, bringing together founders, investors, corporates, and industry leaders shaping the future of women’s health and sport.
Women’s Health Week Europe 2026
7-8 October | Emirates Stadium, London
This year’s edition will be Women’s Health Week Europe biggest one yet: with 700+ attendees, 80+ speakers, and 20+ sponsors, it will also feature two stages – a Global Stage covering market trends and policy, and a Scale Stage focused on company-level growth and commercialisation. WHW takes place across two days of content, business matchmaking, and dealmaking.
Agenda highlights include:
- Where Capital Flows: Funding Trends in Women’s Health – with Merete Clausen (EIF), Ekaterina Gianelli (Calm/Storm), Henriette Hessen (Verdane), Jemma Day (British Business Bank), Ravit Warsha Dor (Telus Global Ventures), Tim Davis (LSEG)
- Six Feet Under-funded: Surviving the Valley of Death in Women’s Health – with Patric Stenberg (Gesynta Pharma), Valentina Milanova (Daye), Amber Vodegel (28x)
- The Women’s Health Label – Gift or Curse? · Live Debate – with Juan Camilo Arjona Ferreira (organon), Marissa Fayer (DeepLook Medical), Christian Lautner (Heal Capital), Annie Theriault (CBIV), Ida Tin (Clue)
- Passport to Scale: Taking Your Women’s Health Business Global – with Vanessa Carpenter (Femtech Across Borders), Annie Theriault (CBIV), Victorine Lançon (Daya Ventures), Dr Mridula Pore (Peppy)
Early bird pricing (ends 11 September):
| Ticket type | Early bird | Standard |
| Startups, Scaleups, Investors, Non-Profits, Government | £599 + VAT | £699 + VAT |
| Corporates, Payors & Providers | £1,799 + VAT | £1,999 + VAT |
| Service Providers & Consultants | £3,299 + VAT | £3,499 + VAT |
Register for Women’s Health Week Europe | See the full agenda for WHW
Women’s Sport Summit Europe 2026
6 October | Emirates Stadium, London
The first-ever Women’s Sport Summit expands W Group’s expertise in connecting key decision-makers to the sports industry.
WSS brings together rights holders, brands, investors, athletes, and media to accelerate commercial growth across the sector.
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- Women’s sport through the investor lens: what gets funded – and why – Hugo Sever (APEX Capital)
- Rethinking ROI: what are we measuring that doesn’t actually matter? – Fi Watherston (Metro Bank), Silvia Keiser (Billie Jean King Cup), Gabriel Akin-Odujobi (Crux Football), Tammy Parlour (WST)
- Beyond the 90 minutes: matchday as a commercial product, not just a fixture – Maggie Murphy (Aston Villa Women FC), Sam Feasey (Diageo/Guinness), Molly Miller (OneFootball), Megan Feringa (The Athletic/The New York Times)
Early bird pricing (ends 11 September):
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Register for Women’s Sport Summit Europe | See the full agenda for WSS
Attending both events?
For group tickets or to attend both summits this October, contact Callum, W Group’s Client Success Lead, at [email protected].
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