What is menopause?
Menopause occurs when someone stops having menstrual cycles and can no longer get pregnant naturally. It is a natural stage of life that affects most people with menstrual cycles (eg women or transgender people) and symptoms generally last for around four years. While menopause usually starts between the ages of 45 and 55, it can happen earlier or later.
Menopause and the Equality Act 2010
The Equality Act 2010 protects staff against workplace discrimination, harassment, and victimisation. It sets out certain ‘protected characteristics’, including disability, age, sex, and gender reassignment.
Menopause is not one of the protected characteristics. However, if a member of staff is put at a disadvantage and treated less favourably because of their menopause symptom, this may amount to discrimination if it is related to one of the protected characteristics.
Note that under the Employment Rights Act 2025, large employers must now take proactive steps to address these disadvantages (more below).
For more information, read Equal opportunities and discrimination.
Is menopause a disability?
The law defines a disability as a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on the ability of a staff member to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
Menopause has various physical and psychological symptoms that can last for several years, including:
-
anxiety
-
depression
-
memory loss
-
problems with concentration
As a result, menopause may be considered a disability if its symptoms have a long-term adverse effect on the ability of a staff member to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
If someone has a disability, employers must make reasonable adjustments in the workplace to remove or reduce any disadvantage the staff member may have. For example, recording absences due to menopause differently from sickness absences or allowing staff members to change their working patterns.
If staff members affected by a disability are treated less favourably and put at a disadvantage because of their disability, this is disability discrimination.
For more information, read Disability and reasonable adjustments.
Menopause and age discrimination
As with disabilities, staff members are protected from being treated less favourably or put at a disadvantage because of their age. As menopause typically affects those between the ages of 45 and 55, any less favourable treatment because of menopause may result in age discrimination.
However, employers should bear in mind that people may go through menopause at any age (eg if they go through medical menopause or early menopause). Care must be taken to prevent any form of age discrimination relating to menopause (eg staff making fun of a young colleague for going through early menopause).
Menopause and sex discrimination
Any unfair treatment because of a staff member’s sex may lead to a claim for sex discrimination. Examples of sex discrimination related to menopause include:
-
any unwanted behaviour relating to someone's menopause symptoms, such as jokes about being in a ‘menopausal state’
-
an employer taking a woman’s menopausal symptoms less seriously than a man’s health condition with similar symptoms when considering staff performance
Menopause and gender reassignment
Staff members are protected from being put at a disadvantage or treated less favourably because of planning to go through, going through, or having gone through the process of reassigning their gender. Employers need to bear in mind that transgender men may be affected by menopause.
If a transgender man affected by menopause is subject to less favourable treatment than a woman going through menopause, this may give rise to a claim for discrimination based on gender reassignment.
Menopause and health and safety
Employers have a general legal duty to take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of staff. This includes regularly carrying out a risk assessment to determine workplace health and safety risks and how to minimise or reduce them. When carrying out risk assessments, employers should consider all staff, including those affected by menopause. Specifically, employers should ensure:
-
menopause symptoms are not worsened by the workplace or work practices
-
that the workplace is appropriate for staff affected by menopause (eg by making changes enabling staff to manage their symptoms while working)
Menopause-related considerations that a risk assessment may cover include:
-
the fit and/or material of workplace uniforms and whether these may be too hot or cause discomfort to staff going through the menopause
-
workplace temperature and ventilation
-
available break rooms where staff can rest
-
any manager training on menopause-related health and safety issues
For more information, read Health and safety and Employer health and safety responsibilities for staff working from home.
Menopause reporting requirements
To prevent all forms of unfavourable treatment, the Employment Rights Act 2025 has introduced new transparency requirements for large businesses to ensure consistent menopause support across the workforce. As part of this, employers will need to start making clear menopause action plans.
Does this apply to my business?
The requirement depends on the size of your workforce:
-
large employers (250+ employees) - you are currently encouraged to publish a menopause action plan on a voluntary basis. However, this is set to become a mandatory legal obligation from Spring 2027
-
smaller employers (under 250 employees) - reporting remains entirely voluntary. You are not required to publish a plan, but you are encouraged to follow the same principles to help prevent discrimination claims and improve staff retention
What should a menopause action plan include?
Menopause action plans should be evidence-based. If you are a large employer, you must select and report on at least one specific action you are taking to support staff.
The plan should outline your approach to:
-
workplace adjustments - explaining steps you have taken to adapt the physical environment, such as providing ventilation, temperature controls, or access to private rest areas
-
flexible working - detailing how your policies allow staff to manage fluctuating symptoms through adjusted hours, hybrid working, or increased breaks
-
manager training - providing evidence that you have equipped your managers with the skills to hold sensitive and supportive conversations
-
absence management - information on how you record menopause-related sickness to ensure it is handled fairly and does not unfairly trigger disciplinary action
How should I prepare?
Large employers are expected to publish these plans on their own website and submit them via the government's gender pay gap reporting service. Even if you are reporting voluntarily, you should ensure that your HR records can track the effectiveness of your support measures.
If you are unsure whether your current procedures meet these new standards, you can Ask a lawyer for an audit of your HR policies.
How to support staff going through menopause
Employers can take several steps to support staff affected by menopause.
Open communication
To help support staff going through menopause, employers are encouraged to have regular conversations with their staff. This can help understand staff members' needs and provide the support they need to work effectively.. This can help understand staff members’ needs and provide the support they need to work effectively. For large employers, documenting these communication efforts is a core part of a menopause action plan.
Staff members should be given the opportunity to speak with someone they are comfortable with. Spending on the circumstances, this may be:
-
their manager or supervisor
-
a member of the HR department
-
a trade union representative
-
the employer’s menopause or wellbeing champion (more below)
Workplace training
Employers should provide workplace training to managers, supervisors, and team leaders to ensure they understand:
-
the laws around menopause how menopause may affect staff
-
how menopause may affect staff
-
how to talk to staff about menopause (including how to deal with menopause-related issues sensitively and family)
-
what workplace support is available (including that changes can be made)
Providing such training can help encourage open communication between employers and staff and can foster a positive work environment. Under new reporting rules, evidence of manager training is a key measure used to demonstrate compliance.
Workplace flexibility
Employers should consider the staff member’s particular role and responsibilities and how these may be made more difficult by menopause symptoms. This is especially important if staff:
-
work long shifts
-
their position doesn’t have much flexibility
-
cannot take regular bathroom breaks
Not only should such factors be considered in a workplace risk assessment, but employers should also consider them when providing greater workplace flexibility. Employers should speak to affected staff members and try to make possible changes to the workplace. For example:
-
allowing staff to work from home
-
allowing greater flexibility around working hours (eg starting and finishing work at different times, or taking rest breaks, to help manage symptoms)
-
changing certain job-related duties and responsibilities
Having a Flexible working policy in place can help staff understand their flexible working rights and make Flexible working requests.
When assessing a staff member’s performance, employers should also make sure to consider any performance issues that may have been caused by menopause symptoms.
Managing menopause-related absences
Any menopause-related absences should be handled sensitively and fairly. To prevent indirect discrimination menopause-related absences should be recorded separately from other types of absences. Recording menopause-related absences in a staff member’s overall attendance record could trigger unfair disciplinary procedures if used for attendance-based 'trigger points'.
While there is no right for staff to have time off to attend menopause-related medical appointments, employers should allow staff to attend such appointments. Depending on what is written in their Employment contract or relevant workplace policies, such time off may be paid or unpaid.
Creating and updating HR policies
To ensure their processes and procedures cover menopause-related issues, employers should review and update existing HR policies, including any:
Employers can consider creating a specific workplace Menopause policy to:
-
facilitate open communication
-
inform all staff about what the menopause is and its effects
-
support affected staff, by setting out what support is available
Having a wellbeing or menopause champion
A wellbeing or menopause champion is a member of staff who is confident in speaking about menopause and can help support affected staff members. Appointing a champion is a key way for large businesses to meet their new transparency duties. Having a menopause champion can help provide:
-
advice to affected staff
-
general menopause-related information to the business (eg through awareness workshops)
-
a point of contact to staff who aren’t comfortable speaking to their manager
-
a workplace support network
-
advice on menopause-related aspects of workplace risk assessments
