Just because work gets done, does it mean that a woman is coping with the menopause transition?
The Work Still Gets Done
“No one brought it to my attention, so I obviously managed to, you know, fool them that I was still functioning properly, even though I knew I wasn’t.” Rachel, interviewed for the MARIE-UK study (Hinchliff et al., 2026).
No one said anything to Rachel but that doesn’t tell us how hard the experience was for her.
What It Takes to Get Through the Day
“I felt like within a week or two, my brain was definitely functioning in a way that it was nonfunctional. Definitely, completely non-functional, to the point of thinking ‘I’m really not doing my job because I can’t think my way through anything’” - Phoebe, interviewed for the MARIE-UK study (Hinchliff et al., 2026).
Hinchliff and colleagues interviewed 50 UK women aged 43–67, 41 of whom were in paid employment. Participants described memory and concentration difficulties, reduced confidence and efforts to conceal perceived difficulties at work.
“I don’t feel like I can take on as much anymore just because my brain just can’t, it just gets too full too quickly and I forget things a lot, so I have to write things down.” (Rose)
Finding a workaround, like Rose did, can help deal with the immediate issue but still leave the wider difficulty in place.
The interviews show how work felt to the women describing it. They don’t tell us how much extra time the work took or whether output changed.
When Asking for Help Feels Risky
One person interviewed (Isabelle) reported that she disclosed her symptoms to her line manager. The company that she worked for had menopause awareness sessions. Isabelle asked for an occupational health referral which her manager granted but put the reason down as poor performance. There had been no discussion of her performance prior to asking for the referral.
Isabelle said that she remembered her manager trying to be sympathetic and suggesting she take a demotion. Instead of hearing a sympathetic conversation all she could focus on was “poor performance”.
What could have been an opportunity to provide support instead became a situation where the employee focuses not on what might be done to mitigate their situation but on the words “poor performance” and what that actually means for them.
What Silence Can Hide
In an environment like the one Rachel described at the beginning of this article, no raised a concern with her.
A manager who hasn’t heard about issues being experienced has very little basis for judging what might really be happening.
A woman could describe to her manager what challenges she is facing without mentioning menopause symptoms. The manager may treat this as an ordinary workplace issue. They might even put it back on the woman to find a solution themselves.
This leaves the woman with a decision to make. Would including menopause in the conversation provide the manager with additional context? And does that mean she will get the support she wants? And how does that information change the way her manager views her?
This is a difficult decision to make. Even if a company has things like menopause awareness sessions, or a menopause policy in place, the individual woman is going to experience that support in different ways depending on the working environment she is in. Even a sympathetic manager might offer solutions that impact the woman negatively, being offered a demotion for example.
Knowing a support system exists in one thing, knowing how a request for support will be received is another.
A finished piece of work tells one aspect of the story. Work is being done. What it doesn’t tell is what it is costing the employee to do it and whether that is sustainable. The question for employers is, can an employee ask for support before a deadline is missed, before the issue becomes visible?
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“Knowing a support system exists in one thing, knowing how a request for support will be received is another.”
This is so true. Another troubling variation is speaking with a manager and having them try to be helpful with “what support can I provide”. Very often it feels like the onus is on the woman who is experiencing menopause to come prepared knowing what support is available and what support to request. A firmly believe that line managers’ should be provided with mandatory menopause awareness training. This training should include the organization’s specific menopause support options.