{"id":12899,"date":"2024-09-13T15:04:02","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T15:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=12899"},"modified":"2024-09-13T15:25:08","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T15:25:08","slug":"heres-what-workplace-menopause-guidelines-could-look-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=12899","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s What Workplace Menopause Guidelines Could Look Like"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Menopause Society announced a new initiative to support workers during this life stage. Whether employers implement it is another story.<\/p>\n

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Two years ago, Dr. Stephanie Faubion stood at the microphone at a meeting of the Menopause Society thinking, \u201cThis is going to be a problem.\u201d Someone in the room had asked a question about the challenges of going through menopause in the workplace, and the conversation had turned to ways employers could step in. Dr. Faubion, the organization\u2019s medical director, worried that asking for additional provisions for women would fuel more gender discrimination \u2014 if women required special treatment, employers would have more reason to not hire or promote them. \u201cWhat are we going to do, give women a cold room?\u201d she remembers saying.<\/p>\n

But last spring, she and other researchers published a study on the costs of<\/a> menopause at the office that helped change her thinking. Women were missing work \u2014 $1.8 billion worth of working time each year. Some quit altogether because of menopause. \u201cI was like, alright, we can\u2019t just bury our heads in the sand over this,\u201d Dr. Faubion, director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Women\u2019s Health, said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have do something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, the Menopause Society rolled out an initiative<\/a> providing employers with guidance on how to support women going through menopause. It includes tips for managers to talk about menopause at work and policies employers can consider, like ensuring that the health care plans they offer cover treatment options for menopause symptoms.<\/p>\n

The program, called Making Menopause Work, also provides suggestions for making it easier for menopausal employees to get through the workday, like flexible bathroom breaks for those dealing with unpredictable or heavy bleeding<\/a>, and improving ventilation and using uniforms made with breathable fabrics so that hot flashes are less uncomfortable. There are talking points<\/a> workers can bring to their employers and an assessment<\/a> to gauge how well a workplace responds to menopause.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The initiative is the latest symbol of growing recognition that menopause takes a toll on women in the workplace. This year, Britain\u2019s Equality and Human Rights Commission stated that employers are legally obligated to make \u201creasonable adjustments\u201d<\/a> for women experiencing menopause symptoms if they are severe enough to amount to a disability. In 2021, the European Menopause and Andropause Society released its own recommendations<\/a> urging employers to address menopause in the workplace through measures like explicitly covering menopause in sick time policies, and allowing women in customer-facing jobs to take breaks to manage symptoms like hot flashes. Some companies in the United States and abroad have started offering menopause-specific benefits.<\/a><\/p>\n

The question now is whether all this will translate into actual change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cynic in me is like, \u2018Yeah, good luck with that,\u2019\u201d Dr. Faubion said.<\/p>\n

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The Menopause Society announced a new initiative to support workers during this life stage. Whether employers implement it is another story.Two years ago, Dr. Stephanie Faubion stood at the microphone at a meeting of the Menopause Society thinking, \u201cThis is going to be a problem.\u201d Someone in the room had asked a question about the challenges of going through menopause in the workplace, and the conversation had turned to ways employers could step in. Dr. Faubion, the organization\u2019s medical director, worried that asking for additional provisions for women would fuel more gender discrimination \u2014 if women required special treatment, employers would have more reason to not hire or promote them. \u201cWhat are we going to do, give women a cold room?\u201d she remembers saying.But last spring, she and other researchers published a study on the costs of menopause at the office that helped change her thinking. Women were missing work \u2014 $1.8 billion worth of working time each year. Some quit altogether because of menopause. \u201cI was like, alright, we can\u2019t just bury our heads in the sand over this,\u201d Dr. Faubion, director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Women\u2019s Health, said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have do something.\u201dToday, the Menopause Society rolled out an initiative providing employers with guidance on how to support women going through menopause. It includes tips for managers to talk about menopause at work and policies employers can consider, like ensuring that the health care plans they offer cover treatment options for menopause symptoms.The program, called Making Menopause Work, also provides suggestions for making it easier for menopausal employees to get through the workday, like flexible bathroom breaks for those dealing with unpredictable or heavy bleeding, and improving ventilation and using uniforms made with breathable fabrics so that hot flashes are less uncomfortable. There are talking points workers can bring to their employers and an assessment to gauge how well a workplace responds to menopause.The initiative is the latest symbol of growing recognition that menopause takes a toll on women in the workplace. This year, Britain\u2019s Equality and Human Rights Commission stated that employers are legally obligated to make \u201creasonable adjustments\u201d for women experiencing menopause symptoms if they are severe enough to amount to a disability. In 2021, the European Menopause and Andropause Society released its own recommendations urging employers to address menopause in the workplace through measures like explicitly covering menopause in sick time policies, and allowing women in customer-facing jobs to take breaks to manage symptoms like hot flashes. Some companies in the United States and abroad have started offering menopause-specific benefits.The question now is whether all this will translate into actual change.\u201cThe cynic in me is like, \u2018Yeah, good luck with that,\u2019\u201d Dr. Faubion said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12901,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12899"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12902,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12899\/revisions\/12902"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}