Brain Gain not Brain Drain: Enabling Female Leaders to Thrive during perimenopause
Over the years, as I’ve supported my wife through the professional challenges of her medically induced menopause, I’ve delved deep into the realms of menopause, perimenopause, leadership, systems dynamics, and enabling female leaders. And when I say deep, I mean it—I’ve read A LOT. I remember being astounded by how little attention was given to menopause in the workplace, which sparked my journey into this field.
To illustrate, I took a sample of my menopause literature: five books totalling over 1,000 pages. Take a wild guess at how many of those pages dealt with employment, the workplace, and managing menopause symptoms at work. A quarter? 200? Maybe you’re more cautious and guess 100? More? Less? The answer: 49 pages. Out of 1,000. And my personal highlight from those 49 pages? The advice to ask for more frequent toilet breaks.
That’s about 5%. Now, I totally understand that when discussing menopause, there’s a whole lot to cover. We need to understand the biology, the symptoms, the psychological impacts, treatment options, etc. But only 5% on the workplace?! That hardly seems representative of the challenge. Sure, many strategies for managing menopause will be useful at work, but considering that (peri)menopausal women are the fastest-growing segment of the workforce and that around 8 out of 10 women going through menopause are in work, we need to think about this more carefully.
When I deliver training on mental health and trauma-informed practice, I talk a lot about the bio-psycho-social model. This model suggests that mental health isn’t just down to biology or traumatic life events but is also influenced by our social environment. Our mental and emotional well-being is interconnected with all the different strands in our life. It makes sense—the better our social support system, the better we can withstand life’s tricky experiences. Social health plays a crucial part in our well-being. The hug we get, the talk we have, knowing we can call that one person at any time, the colleague putting a cup of tea in front of us, the shared experience, the human connection. Yet, a lot of (peri)menopause information centres on the biological change, with a side order of potential psychological impact, from anxiety to reduced self-esteem.
Compare this to the other two big biological changes in a woman’s life: puberty and pregnancy. Biological, sure, big psychological impact, of course—but during both of these phases, we give equal weight to the social impact. Puberty is naturally the phase where we shift our gaze from our parents to our peers, and as a society, we support young people in navigating this social transition. In pregnancy, we are all too aware not just of the physical toll but also that the entire social fabric of a woman’s life is about to be turned upside down. There is both legal protection at work and an informal outpouring of support. The social element matters.
It baffles me that we don’t talk more about how we can support women in navigating their physical and psychological experience more practically in their main social setting, namely the workplace. And I don’t mean that lovely two-hour ‘menopause for people managers’ training that tells you to be aware of symptoms and discuss flexible working options (or, you know, allow for more frequent toilet breaks…). All of that has a part to play, but from a workplace perspective, my aim is not to ensure that everyone knows that when Heather over there has a red face, she might have a hot flush. My objective is to ensure that every member of my workforce can deliver their best. Considering that the average woman experiencing perimenopausal symptoms is in her mid-to-late forties, that is my expert workforce.
Some of those measures are practical, ensuring air conditioning, flexible working, good HR policies—and some are cultural. The cultural shift to the workplace seeing itself as an element of an employee’s social health structure is powerful, regardless of whether we talk about mental health or perimenopause or both simultaneously. This is what I centre my menopause training for staff, people managers and leadership teams around, expanding beyond symptoms and policies. Entering a dialogue with our female workforce creates a secure social framework for them and, in turn, gets the best from them. Think brain gain instead of brain drain.
For female leaders going through perimenopause, this means being empowered to fully relax into their greatness while undergoing physical and psychological changes without having to battle or ‘manage’ their social environment. Instead, they can use it to propel themselves and their teams further.
So, here’s my message to all the fabulous female leaders out there: Menopause is not the end of your professional journey; it’s a transition that, with the right support, can lead to even greater heights. Let’s turn this period of brain fog into a time of brain gain. And to organisations, let’s ensure we’re creating environments where our female leaders can thrive, not just survive. Embrace this journey together and make it a powerful chapter in professional stories.
