Recently, menopause has gone from taboo to mainstream, with celebrities turning “the change” into a status symbol and vocal clinicians becoming household names. Those brave women paved the way for more conversation, catalyzing focus and research on women’s health, and we should all be grateful. But what happens in media and pop culture rarely transfers to corporate culture. 

As a 22-year corporate veteran, I (Kacy) make my living studying and speaking to employees in organizations. From New York to Houston, and from manufacturing associates to CFOs, I have encountered very few women who want to talk about menopause at work. Those who have talked about it typically described closed-door conference room confessionals with work friends they trust.

I knew why it took me years to talk about my own struggles with menopause at work: In 2021, I had never ever heard of perimenopause, and thought I was just losing my mind, which seemed like career suicide for someone responsible for designing well-being strategies for 50,000 people globally. I sought care on my own, and became increasingly curious about how other women were handling menopause at work. 

At a conference, my team from The Fuchsia Tent and the Society for Women’s Health Research , Syreen’s organization, bumped into each other and discussed how to practically make menopause mainstream. Soon, we were coleading a study on menopause at work. We couldn’t have anticipated how much we’d learn from this study, or that one of our most surprising findings would be that comfort does not equal disclosure when it comes to menopause and work.

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