We Know What Good Looks Like. Now We Need Law to Make It the Standard.

The EU must create a workplace policy on perimenopause.

The case for EU-level workplace policy on perimenopause is not speculative. The evidence base is robust, the economic argument is clear, and crucially the solutions already exist. A handful of forward-thinking employers have shown what’s possible. The question is no longer whether this can be done. It’s why it isn’t required of everyone.

Companies Leading the Way

In 2019, Channel 4 became the first UK media organisation to introduce a dedicated menopause workplace policy. Following its launch, 78% of staff said they felt better about the organisation. Channel 4 subsequently made the policy freely available to thousands of other employers across sectors. (Channel 4, 2019, updated 2024)

Vodafone rolled out a global menopause commitment across all its markets, commissioning a 5,000-person comparative survey across the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, and South Africa and embedding a dedicated employee network within its broader mental health toolkit. (Vodafone, 2021)

Zurich Insurance took a whole-organisation approach: mandatory menopause training for over 700 managers, menopause cafés, an employee assistance programme toolkit, flexible working options, and workspace adjustments. Critically, they framed it not as a women’s issue but as an organisational one. (Community Trade Union, 2022)

What these programmes share is not complexity or cost. It’s intentionality. Flexible working. Workspace temperature adjustments. A named Menopause Champion in HR. Manager training that gives people the language and confidence to have these conversations without fear.

The Policy Framework We Need

The European Menopause and Andropause Society (EMAS) published its Menopause and Work Charter in 2021, providing a peer-reviewed clinical basis for employer frameworks across the EU. It recommends collaboration between occupational health and HR functions, and explicit non-discrimination policies covering menopausal symptoms. (Rees et al., Maturitas 151, 2021)

Building on this, and on the existing but insufficient EU legal architecture, the following actions are needed:

EU Policymakers: Amend Framework Directive 89/391/EEC to explicitly name perimenopause and menopause in employer risk assessments. Issue an EU Recommendation setting minimum standards for policies, training, and workplace adjustments, linked to Pay Transparency Directive reporting.

National Governments: Mandate menopause policies for employers with 50+ employees. Clarify in equality law that severe symptoms may constitute a disability. Require occupational health screening for women over 45.

Healthcare Systems: Embed mandatory menopause content in undergraduate medical curricula across the EU. Train GPs and occupational physicians to close the HRT prescribing gap.

Researchers: Establish a standardised European data collection framework through Eurostat, EIGE, and EU-OSHA. Commission longitudinal research disaggregated by ethnicity, disability, and socioeconomic status.

The Cost of Inaction

The numbers make the case starkly. The UK estimates £1.5 billion per year in unemployment costs attributable to menopause, plus £191 million in absenteeism and £22.4 million in presenteeism. (UK Government Literature Review, 2025) 

Germany faces €9.5 billion in annual losses. (FP Analytics / Bayer, 2023) Global productivity losses reach $150 billion.

These are not inevitable. They are the price of policy inaction.

The tools exist. The evidence is overwhelming. The companies showing what’s possible have done so without legislative compulsion. Imagine what becomes standard when compulsion arrives.

What is now required is political will — and the legislative framework to make support the rule, not the exception.

Sources

Channel 4 Menopause Policy (2019, updated 2024)

Vodafone Menopause Commitment (2021)

Community Trade Union — Zurich Insurance Case Study (2022)

Rees et al., Maturitas 151:55–62 (2021) — EMAS Menopause and Work Charter

UK Government Literature Review on Menopause and the Workplace (2025)

FP Analytics / Bayer — MenoSupport Report (2023)

AARP Menopause in the Workplace Survey (2023)