What if your company could boost its bottom line by over 20%?
Companies with gender-diverse executive teams do just that – achieving 21% higher profitability and 27% higher value creation than their counterparts in the bottom quartile for gender diversity (1).
Yet, at the point when women are reaching the peak in their careers, armed with decades of hard-earned experience and wisdom, many are quietly exiting the workforce or facing a performance crisis – creating an expensive talent drain and a diversity gap in the organisations they work for.
The culprit? Perimenopause – and our collective failure to address it properly.
The perimenopause performance paradox
An estimated 4.3 million UK working women aged 40 – 60 are experiencing perimenopause right now. The perimenopausal transition lasts on average seven years but can last up to 14 years, making up a significant period during a woman’s working life (2).
The paradox is this – at the age when women often reach the peak of their careers, the hormonal transition that takes place causes a shift in their neurobiology – something that frequently impairs performance at a time when they should be feeling most knowledgeable, confident and capable:
- Two thirds (67%) of working women age 40 - 60 reported perimenopause symptoms had a negative impact on them at work (3, 4). Of those -
- 79% said they were less able to concentrate
- 68% said they experienced more stress
- 49% felt less patient with clients and colleagues
- 46% felt less physically able to carry out work tasks
The result, is that the performance and careers of millions of women are impacted, often catastrophically, because they don’t have the right advice and support around perimenopause and menopause.
Female leaders are silently struggling with reduced energy, efficiency and productivity – often accompanied by anxiety, mood swings and loss of confidence. The increased effort and emotional labour to push through is astronomical. As physiology imbalances grow in perimenopause, this creates an overwhelming pull on leadership and stress capacity – reducing the individual’s capacity to perform at the level they are capable.
As a result, high-value, high-potential women are burning out, taking time out, opting out and being pushed out.
The Hidden Costs for Organisations
What does this look like at the organisational level?
- High-potential women unable to perform at their full capacity
- Intellectual capital quietly walking out the door
- Recruitment and onboarding costs rising as women leave roles prematurely
These are not individual problems—they’re systemic challenges. But they are also opportunities.
The tick-box trap
Last year, the Equality and Human Rights Commission released guidance for employers stating that menopause symptoms could be considered a disability – obliging employers to make reasonable adjustments under certain circumstances, and protecting women from discrimination (4).
Whilst this marks immense progress, it has created an epidemic of box-ticking exercises that only go a small part of the way in supporting women, and fail to address the performance and diversity challenges faced by the companies they work for. Policies and provision of adjustments such as flexible working arrangements, education & wellness training and wellness support, are an incredible step forward. They open up dialogue and create psychological safety.
However, this approach is based on the assumption that severe, career-limiting symptoms are normal and inevitable. This narrative is not only inaccurate; it is disempowering and risks creating greater inequalities. When the current approach stops at surface level, women continue to suffer in silence – step down or resign, at a time in their career when they should be stepping up.
“The Company Would Be Better Off With Someone Younger”
When we open up conversations, women’s experiences highlight just how wrong we’re getting it –
Take the case of a senior HR director who recently resigned from her position. For years, she had prided herself on her exceptional memory, particularly her ability to remember every employee’s name – a skill that had earned her respect and built trust throughout the organisation. But as perimenopause began, she noticed this ability slipping away as anxiety – a symptom unfamiliar to her – crept in. Her company was understanding of women in perimenopause; she had numerous conversations about what she was experiencing. Whilst these conversations on the surface felt inclusive, they ultimately fell short of addressing the underlying issue: due to the cognitive changes, she didn’t feel like she could fulfil her professional duties. She quietly resigned in the belief that “the company would be better off with someone younger”!
Sadly, this is not an isolated case, but a narrative that’s being played out across workplaces daily.
“The increase in awareness about menopause is great. I now have the flexibility to hibernate at home on days I need more space. But I’m not coping, and I feel the only way out is to put something down – my career. I just can’t cope anymore” – Compliance Director, Financial Services
We can do so much more to support women who find themselves in these positions, and better yet to support women before they reach this point. By employing an evidence-based strategies we can support women to stop fighting against their physiology and start working with it, optimising it to find a new sense of balance and rediscover their peak performance.
Forward thinking companies are turning this challenge into a competitive advantage
What looks like a crisis is actually an opportunity in disguise. Forward-thinking organisations are discovering that perimenopause support is not about ticking boxes, but is instead about unlocking untapped potential and supporting their female employees to thrive – turning exit ramps into bridges. As a result, they are closing diversity gaps and boosting leadership continuity, organisational momentum and profitability in the process.
The most successful approaches move beyond accommodation to empowerment – helping women to understand and optimise their changing physiology rather than simply pushing through it. This is at the core of the work my team and I do – setting women up for success by enabling them to perform at their peak every day through a fresh evidence-based, data-led approach.
Sources
- https://www.consultancy.uk/news/15619/diversity-can-boost-financial-performance-of-business-by-more-than-30
- https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/menopause/what-menopause
- https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/reports/menopause-workplace-experiences/
- https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/guidance/menopause-workplace-guidance-employers
