Okay, let’s get real for a second. 👀 Last Tuesday, during a Zoom call with my team, I literally felt like a human volcano. My face turned beet-red, sweat pooled in places I didn’t know could sweat, and I accidentally muted myself to frantically fan my neck with a notebook. The kicker? I was presenting Q3 sales projections. That’s when I decided: We need to talk about menopause at work. Like, actually talk about it.
For years, I’ve watched brilliant women disappear from leadership roles right as they hit their professional prime. My former mentor “ghosted” her own promotion track at 49. My cube neighbor started “working from home” 4 days a week last winter. We all politely pretended not to notice, but here’s the tea ☕: 1 in 4 women consider leaving their jobs during menopause according to recent studies. That’s 25% of our workforce evaporating because we’re too awkward to say “hot flash” in a Slack channel.
Let’s break this down. Menopause symptoms last 7 years on average – that’s longer than most people stay at the same company! Yet 60% of women say they’ve never discussed it at work. Why? Because we’ve been conditioned to treat our biology like a dirty secret. I’ve literally heard women refer to it as “the M-word” in hushed tones, like Voldemort in a pantsuit.
Last month, I experimented with radical honesty. When brain fog made me forget a client’s name mid-pitch (mortifying), I said: “Apologies, my perimenopause brain is serving scrambled eggs today – let me reintroduce everyone.” The result? Three female clients later confessed they’d been struggling in silence. The male CEO? Turns out his wife was up nights with joint pain – he became our biggest flexible-hours advocate.
Practical magic time 💫:
– I negotiated a “thermal ceasefire” – our office thermostat now stays at 68°F (RIP to my wool-blend-wearing colleagues)
– We created a “Wellness Windows” policy: 15-min symptom-management breaks no questions asked
– HR added menopause specialists to our healthcare plan (pro tip: phrase it as “hormonal health support” if leadership gets squeamish)
But here’s the real revolution: When I started saying “estrogen” as casually as others say “cortisol,” something shifted. The 24-year-old intern asked insightful questions about long-term health planning. The 55-year-old CFO finally got her sleep issues addressed. We’re not just surviving menopause at work – we’re redesigning what supportive workplaces look like.
So next time you feel a hot flash coming on during stand-up? Name it. Claim it. Watch how many women (and allies) exhale in relief. Our bodies aren’t professional liabilities – they’re the reason we’ve got decades of wisdom to contribute. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go applaud my HR director… while strategically sitting near the AC vent. ❄️👏