A look into how menopause can shape people's experiences at work
We gathered the views of 71 women in Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Spain through a survey conducted in 2025–2026 on menopause and how it shapes people’s experiences at work.
There is a particular kind of self-doubt that can creep in when work, after years of competence and experience, suddenly becomes harder. You are more tired than you used to be, with concentration demanding more effort. A meeting room feels unbearably warm; sleep has been poor again. You reorganize your day around the hours when you know you will have more energy. Often, the first instinct is not to question the workplace, but yourself.
Our survey of 71 women in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and Spain offers another way to look at that question. 82% told us that menopause had affected their everyday working lives. Women spoke about hot flashes, exhaustion and mood swings, but also brain fog, insomnia, headaches, anxiety, physical pain, unpredictable bleeding and urinary leakage. Some described changing how they organised their work; others needed time away. One participant told us that menopause had contributed to her leaving a role she had held for ten years. These are personal experiences, but they point to something bigger than the individual.
Bodies change over the course of a working life. The problem is that most workplaces do not change with them. We still tend to design work around an imagined worker whose energy is consistent, whose body is unobtrusive and whose needs remain largely unchanged from one decade to the next. Anyone who falls outside that model is expected to find a way to keep up, often quietly. That is why menopause is not simply a health or “women’s issue”, but a workplace design issue. Supporting someone through menopause is not about making work easier or lowering expectations. It can be as practical as flexibility, appropriate leave, informed managers, access to occupational or medical support, and a culture where someone can say what they need without fearing they will be seen as less capable.
Beyond the person experiences menopause, there is a strong organisational reason to get this right. At the point when many women experience menopause, they may also bring decades of knowledge, judgement and professional experience to their organisations. Creating conditions that allow them to remain healthy and effective is not an act of generosity. It is part of retaining skilled, experienced people.
Perhaps, then, the question our survey leaves us with is not simply how menopause affects women at work, but “who have we designed our workplaces for, and who are we still asking to adapt themselves to fit them?”
Menopause belongs in workplace conversations, policies and planning. Not because every woman will experience it in the same way, or require the same support, but precisely because good workplaces recognise that people do not remain physically unchanged throughout their working lives. The “ideal worker” is, after all, a myth. People age, bodies change, lives change. A workplace designed around the assumption that they do not will inevitably leave people behind. Work should be designed for human beings in their true, changing nature.
The survey took place under Menopower, an initiative by RESET and MITRA – Cyprus Menopause Centre.
Menopower was created to address an often-overlooked gap in the way workplaces in Cyprus understand and respond to menopause. Despite being a common stage of working life, menopause is still rarely reflected in workplace conversations, management practices or organisational policies. Through education, awareness-raising and institutional change, the initiative is working towards workplaces where women experiencing menopause have the understanding and support they need to remain well and thrive at work.
