Menopause research: the impact on women’s health and wellbeing

About this menopause research

We – My Menopause Centre and BritainThinks – welcome the Department for Health and Social Care’s call for evidence to collect views on women’s health and are presenting a joint, evidence-based submission. In 2021 we completed a piece of qualitative and quantitative research with men and women across the UK. This was to develop a holistic understanding of perceptions and experiences of the menopause. This work, alongside other published data, forms the basis of our submission.

Our submission references the themes outlined in the submission guidance and provides an overview of our expertise in women’s health, specifically the menopause.

Who we are

My Menopause Centre is an online website that provides free, evidence-based information and advice on all stages of the menopause transition. This includes the 38 symptoms of the menopause, and an algorithmically driven questionnaire that provides a personalised menopause assessment. My Menopause Centre also provides an online (private) menopause clinic, run by doctors who specialise in menopause treatment.

BritainThinks is a global insight and strategy consultancy dedicated to putting the people that matter to its clients at the heart of their thinking. BritainThinks works across a range of issues and sectors but has particular expertise in the healthcare space. Its clients include DHSC, NHS England, the Richmond Group of Charities, and the Cabinet Office.

Key findings on the impact of menopause

Menopause is a natural stage of life, but everyone’s experience is different. Some people have few symptoms, while others find that symptoms affect their health, relationships, social life, and work.

NHS guidance says menopause symptoms usually last for seven to nine years, although they can continue for longer and may change over time. Our 2021 research with BritainThinks found low levels of preparation and awareness. It also showed how stigma could discourage women from seeking support.

Are women being heard about menopause?

Research indicates that women do not feel they are listened to within the healthcare system. It also suggests that the pervasive menopause taboo deters women from seeking help. When they do access healthcare, they can negatively impact their interactions with HCPs.

Menopause education and awareness

The menopause taboo feeds directly into low awareness of the menopause as a women’s health issue and low knowledge and understanding of this phase in women’s lives. This feeling also occurs amongst women. Only one in four of the menopausal or postmenopausal women surveyed by My Menopause Centre and BritainThinks felt prepared for the menopause, and over half underestimated the physical and mental/emotional symptoms^[1].

However, our research also highlights the importance of education and information in enabling women to feel empowered to talk about their health. It also shows that women who feel prepared for menopause have better outcomes.

The impact of menopause at work

Multiple studies show the negative impact that menopause symptoms can have on women’s workforce participation, including engagement, retention, and performance:

• On average, women missed 3.27 days^[2] of work each year due to their symptoms, with a potential productivity loss of around 14m working days. Almost half the employed women who took time off because of the menopause (47%) would not tell their employer the real reason.
• Various research studies also suggest that, for some women, their symptoms are leading them to consider reducing their hours, leaving their jobs altogether, or are the reason they have left their jobs.

Women also do not feel supported at work (a survey by Nuffield Health found 72% of female workers suffering symptoms said they felt unsupported at work, even though 1 in 5 said their symptoms have a detrimental impact on their work^[3]) and there is an appetite for menopause policies and access to advice and support.

 What our 2021 research found about COVID-19

While it’s too soon to properly understand and assess the full implications of COVID-19 on women’s experience of the menopause, there is nonetheless evidence that Covid-19 has had an impact, albeit in complex and mixed ways.

What needs to change

Drawing on our recent research with men and women across the UK, BritainThinks and My Menopause Centre have identified 5 actions that we believe are needed to improve the experiences of the millions of women who are going through the menopause transition:

1. Reframe the menopause – by reframing what it means to be middle-aged, tackling ageist stereotypes, and helping women to be prepared for the menopause, it can be a time of positive change in life. Preparation requires building knowledge and understanding of the stages and symptoms of the menopause, and the evidence-based treatment options available.
2.  Encourage women to seek help for their menopause symptoms. To do this we need to raise awareness of the symptoms of the menopause, tackle the stoicism and embarrassment around them and, importantly, get the facts around the pros and cons of HRT out there.
3. Ensure all healthcare professionals are educated about the menopause. When women do then ask for help, they are fully informed and able to address all aspects of their treatment.
4. Make all workplaces menopause-friendly. By developing and implementing a menopause policy, this can be championed from the most senior levels of the organisation to become embedded in the organisation’s culture.
5. Make the menopause everyone’s business. By tackling the taboos around it and showing that it affects not ‘just’ the 50% of the population who experience it. This extends to everyone around them – their families, friends, and employers. Educate, inform and engage everyone, men and younger women in particular, to drive real and sustainable change.

Women’s Voices

The available research indicates that many women do not feel they are listened to within the healthcare system, are not satisfied with the support they are getting from their GP. It also suggests that the pervasive menopause taboo affects women’s interactions with the healthcare system. This makes women less likely to seek help and means that some HCPs are not comfortable when they do.

• Research conducted by ComRes on behalf of the BBC^[4] indicated that, of women with symptoms of the menopause, 59% consulted their GP and 41% did not. Of those that consulted their GP, almost 4 in 10 (39%) did not find their GP useful in helping them with the symptoms of the menopause (very useful 23%, fairly useful 38%).
• Research carried out by not-for-profit healthcare provider, Nuffield Health showed that:
  • 38% of women sought help from a GP
    • however, a quarter of those who visited a GP said the possibility of the symptoms being menopause-related failed to come up.
  • “HRT can relieve most perimenopause and menopause symptoms. Its benefits and risks vary according to factors including age, medical history, and the type of HRT used, so treatment decisions should be personalised.”:
    • a third of women who visited a GP were not made aware of hormone replacement therapy
    • just 20% who visited a GP were prescribed HRT
    • a third were told HRT was unsuitable for them
    • one in seven women (14%) said they turned it down due to the belief that it is dangerous.
• Women using My Menopause Centre have also described feeling unheard, having symptoms dismissed, or struggling to access appropriate advice. Their experiences highlight the importance of an individual assessment, as menopause symptoms and mental health conditions can overlap. NICE advises against routinely offering SSRIs, SNRIs, or clonidine as a first-line treatment for vasomotor symptoms alone. However, depression should be assessed and treated in its own right, whether or not someone is also experiencing menopause symptoms.^_.
• It is further supported by the qualitative element of the research delivered by My Menopause Centre and BritainThinks, which provides evidence of the impact of the menopause taboo on interactions with HCPs.
  • Women interviewed in the research described embarrassment when discussing their symptoms as a barrier to seeking help, especially when talking to a younger or male GP.
  • When they overcome this embarrassment at attending their GP practice, women described feeling dismissed or that their GP did not understand – or was uncomfortable discussing – the full range of symptoms they were experiencing.

“I thought, if something’s not right, I need to go to the doctors and the first thing they wanted to do was to give me some form of antidepressants – I knew that I wasn’t depressed.”

“Some 30-year-old male doctor joyfully printed me off some info on how to prepare yourself for sleep: dark room, no blue light. Gosh, I could do this on my own. When I mentioned vaginal dryness to him, he went into a spin. And I was like ‘No, I don’t need this’.”

This data highlights the need to ensure all healthcare professionals are educated about and comfortable discussing the menopause. Meaning that when women do ask for help they are fully informed and able to address all aspects of their treatment.

Information and education on women’s health

The increase we are seeing at the moment in public and national conversations about the menopause is much needed and very welcome. However, our research shows the long-standing menopause taboo is still very much in place: 47% of the public agree it is a taboo topic in UK society – rising to 72% of perimenopausal and menopausal women^[5].

This taboo feeds directly into low awareness of the menopause as a women’s health issue, and low knowledge and understanding of this phase in women’s lives, including amongst women themselves. Only one in four of the menopausal women we interviewed feel – or felt – prepared for the menopause. Over half underestimated the physical and mental/emotional symptoms. As one of our participants explained:

“I don’t think we speak about it. Menopause is almost like a bad word. I don’t remember my mum or aunties talking about it. So no one ever knows enough.”

In wider society, knowledge and understanding is even lower: 2 in 5 (43%) of the public agree they don’t know much about the menopause and just a third (33%) say that they would know how to support a woman who is going through the menopause. This lack of knowledge, coupled with difficulties talking about menopause, has real-world impacts.

However, our research also highlights the importance of education and information in enabling women to feel empowered to talk about their health and shows that women who feel prepared for menopause have better outcomes.

• While only 1 in 4 women say they feel/felt prepared for the menopause, those who say they feel prepared are far more likely than other women to say that menopause can be a positive change in women’s lives (54% vs 26%) and less likely to say they feel/felt under pressure just to cope with the symptoms (24% vs 71%) and less likely to say they feel/felt more isolated from others as a result of the menopause (12% vs 44%).

This finding highlights the importance of building knowledge of the menopause amongst younger women so that they’re prepared for what’s to come. In our survey, over half (53%) of women aged 18 – 44 interviewed agree they ‘don’t really know much about the menopause’, compared to 20% of women aged 45 – 64.

This data also highlights the need to make the menopause everyone’s business by tackling the taboos around it and showing that it affects not just the 50% of the population who experience it, but everyone around them. Educate, inform and engage everyone, men and younger women in particular, to drive real and sustainable change.

Women’s health in the workplace

Multiple studies show the negative impact that the symptoms of the menopause can have on women’s workforce participation, i.e. engagement, retention and performance

More recent research supports the broad findings of our 2021 submission. In the CIPD’s 2023 survey, 67% of working women aged 40–60 who had experienced menopause symptoms said they’d had a mostly negative effect at work. More than a quarter reported a negative effect on their career progression.

Government guidance published in 2026 also reports that one in ten women who work during menopause leave their jobs because of their symptoms. It recommends practical, individual support, including suitable workplace adjustments, risk assessments, and clear policies.

Our 2021 research indicated that to be effective, policies and support needed to be championed from the very top of the workplace. One workplace manager interviewed described the transformational effect the CEO talking about her experience had.

“They do drop-in sessions and the CEO was really good and open about her situation and that encouraged other people to be open, and that opened up a lot of doors.”

This data clearly highlights the need to make all workplaces menopause-friendly by not only developing and implementing a menopause policy. But also championing this from the most senior levels of the organisation so that it becomes embedded in the organisation’s culture:

• Raising awareness
• Training managers
• Sharing information
• Normalising the conversation
• Making workplace arrangements
• Creating an inclusive culture

This is, of course, in addition to the general awareness-raising and education that needs to happen.

Research, evidence, and data

We echo the DHSC’s view that while we have a world-class R&D system in the UK, women have been historically underrepresented in research. More research, data and evidence is needed to tackle this gender data gap, and to enable analysis of women of different ages and from different socioeconomic and ethnic groups.

As it relates to the menopause, more data is needed on the impact of the symptoms of the menopause on women’s health and quality of life, as well as the range of effective treatment options.

This is particularly important as life expectancy increases and women live ever more of their lives postmenopausal. It’s not hard to imagine that the day will come when a woman will live a majority of her life postmenopausal. Understanding the implications of hormonal changes on her physical and mental health and wellbeing is critical to ensuring that we extend healthy life expectancy for women.

Impact of COVID-19 on women’s health

This section reflects research conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic and shouldn’t be read as an assessment of current menopause services or working arrangements.

While too soon to properly understand and assess the full impact of COVID-19 on women’s experience of the menopause, and the implications, there is nonetheless evidence that Covid-19 has had an impact, albeit in complex and mixed ways.

Our quantitative research – conducted in April-May 2021 – found that 47% of the menopausal women interviewed said that the COVID-19 pandemic has made the emotional symptoms of the menopause worse. And 43% that it has reduced the amount of support available to help them with their symptoms.

• Encouraging women to prioritise their health and wellbeing and to see a HCP to help with their menopause symptoms is key. As is ensuring that the support is being provided by the healthcare community

However, in our qualitative research, some women discussed how working from home, and reduced pressure to socialise had made it easier to cope with some of the physical symptoms. For example, removing the fear of embarrassment as a result of having a hot flush in public.

“Had I been at work [in school] I would have asked my colleagues ‘How did you do it’?”

This reinforces the very individual way that the symptoms of the menopause are experienced,  that a ‘one-size-fits-all approach’ to menopause care is not appropriate, and the benefits of a flexible working policy for women in employment.