One in ten women have left a job because of menopause symptoms.
If your business doesn’t have a clear approach, you’re losing experienced people and leaving yourself open to discrimination claims with uncapped awards.
Menopause-related tribunal claims have more than tripled in recent years, from 64 in 2022 to over 200 in 2024.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission published specific guidance for employers in 2024 and tribunals are paying close attention to how you handle this.
With World Menopause Day on 18 October, now is a good time to check where you stand.
Understanding this from a legal point of view
Menopause doesn’t have its own protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. Though, where symptoms are substantial and long-term, they can meet the legal definition of disability. That triggers an employer duty to make reasonable adjustments.
If you don’t make them, you’re exposed to disability discrimination claims. Employees can also bring claims under sex discrimination or age discrimination, since menopause is connected to both.
And, if someone feels forced out because their symptoms weren’t accommodated, that’s a potential constructive dismissal claim.
Discrimination awards are uncapped.
In Lynskey v Direct Line in 2023, a tribunal awarded over £64,000 after the employer failed to adjust performance targets for an employee whose work was affected by severe menopause symptoms. The tribunal criticised the company for a lack of compassion. That was a single case. The trend is accelerating.
What reasonable adjustments look like
The adjustments that prevent claims are usually straightforward. What matters is that you actually respond when an employee tells you that they’re struggling.
Common examples include:
- Flexible start and finish times to manage fatigue or sleep disruption
- Access to a fan or cooler workspace for hot flushes
- More frequent or flexible breaks
- Temporary adjustments to workload or targets during severe symptom periods
None of this requires a big budget. It requires managers who know how to handle the conversation when it comes up.
Where employers get caught out
The issue we see most often is absence management.
If your sickness absence policy triggers warnings based on a set number of days and menopause-related absence is counted the same as general sickness, that’s potentially discriminatory. You need to consider whether those absences should be recorded separately and whether your trigger points need adjusting.
The other common issue is managers who don’t know how to respond.
An employee raises the subject, the manager feels awkward and the conversation stalls. The employee feels unsupported, performance drops and eventually she leaves or raises a grievance. That pattern shows up repeatedly in tribunal decisions.
Why it matters commercially
Women aged 45 to 55 are the fastest-growing demographic in the UK workforce. Many are in experienced or senior roles. Losing them costs you far more than any adjustment would have.
Replacing an experienced employee can cost two to three times their salary when you factor in recruitment and lost knowledge. Supporting someone through menopause properly costs almost nothing by comparison.
How we can help
We can help you to develop a menopause policy and train your managers on handling requests sensitively and legally. We’ll also review your absence triggers to make sure that they’re not inadvertently discriminatory.
If you’re not sure what your obligations are, get in touch for a practical conversation.