Guidance

Offer occupational health advice for employees experiencing menopause

Published 4 March 2026

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

© Crown copyright 2026

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/offer-occupational-health-advice-for-employees-experiencing-menopause/offer-occupational-health-advice-for-employees-experiencing-menopause

Purpose of this action

The aim of this action is to help employees manage menopause symptoms while they are at work. This proactive approach can help reduce health-related barriers that often affect women.

Benefits and evidence

Expert, impartial advice and occupational health services can help you provide the right support at the right time. This may support productivity and help you manage health conditions among your employees.[footnote 1]

Offering employees tailored menopause support may help improve their job satisfaction. It may also help them stay engaged at work and be more likely to stay. Research has found that employees who receive support are less likely to say that menopause symptoms negatively affect them at work.[footnote 2]

Some employers have reported finding that the benefits of investing in their employees’ health and wellbeing through occupational health services outweighed the costs. These reported benefits included improved retention, reduced sickness absence, and increased productivity.[footnote 3][footnote 4]

Research from 2022 showed that only 19% of women who responded to a large survey knew about the support offered in their workplace.[footnote 5] Therefore, promoting advice is essential. 

Such support may also help employees with other health conditions related to menstrual health. For example, a lack of support may lead employees with conditions including polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), endometriosis and fibroids to leave their jobs or consider leaving.[footnote 6]

Implementing this action

To offer advice for employees experiencing menopause, you can:

  • find an occupational health provider (if you do not already have one)
  • work with your occupational health provider to get expert guidance on menopause – you may consider expanding this to cover other conditions relating to menstrual health
  • speak with your insurance provider (if you have one) about the menopause support available 
  • ask employees for feedback on your existing support to tailor future services to your organisation and employees’ needs
  • train your managers and HR staff so they understand your menopause support and can help others
  • actively promote available support through specific campaigns and internal communication channels to improve awareness

Tracking progress

You might want to consider tracking the progress of this action by:

  • tracking employees’ awareness and understanding of your occupational health offer
  • looking at how many people use occupational health services by age and sex
  • tracking absence and retention rates among employees, particularly women aged 40 to 60 years
  • using anonymous surveys or exit interviews to get feedback on how satisfied employees are with the support
  • using your data and feedback to regularly adjust and improve what you offer

You should gather data before you start this action. This can help you monitor any changes for your target group, such as women aged 40 to 60 years.

Data privacy

Some or all of the equality information you collect is likely to be ‘special category personal data’, meaning it has special legal protections. 

Ensure that you are complying with the UK’s data protection legislation when you collect and analyse employees’ data.

Get advice and approval from your organisation’s privacy or data protection expert before you start.

  1. Department for Work and Pensions, and Department for Health and Social Care (2019) Employers’ motivations and practices: A study of the use of occupational health services. ↩

  2. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (2023) Menopause in the Workplace. ↩

  3. Department for Work and Pensions, and Department for Health and Social Care (2019) Employers’ motivations and practices: A study of the use of occupational health services. ↩

  4. Department for Work and Pensions (2024) DWP Employer Survey 2024. ↩

  5. Department for Work and Pensions (2025) Menopause in the Workplace Literature Review.  ↩

  6. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development(2022) Menstruation and support at work. ↩

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