Rhode Island passed the first US state law making menopause a distinct workplace policy issue in 2026. State senator Lori Urso sponsored the bill after her own menopause symptoms forced her to resign from a previous role. Illinois followed in August 2026 with its Menopause Equity and Care Act. Philadelphia has an ordinance coming into force in January 2027. Three different jurisdictions, three different mechanisms, one shared signal: lawmakers are stepping in because workplaces have not kept pace.
UK employers do not need to wait for new legislation to catch up. The Equality and Human Rights Commission's guidance on menopause in the workplace sets out three protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 that menopause symptoms can engage. Symptoms with a long-term and substantial impact on someone's ability to do normal daily tasks can amount to a disability, triggering a duty to make reasonable adjustments. Menopause-related treatment can also amount to direct or indirect discrimination on the grounds of age or sex. Health and safety law requires employers to carry out a workplace risk assessment where menopause symptoms are a factor.
The EHRC's own research found that 67% of working women aged 40 to 60 with menopausal symptoms reported a negative impact on their work. 79% said their concentration suffered. One in ten left their job entirely because of their symptoms. Almost half, 46%, said they felt less physically able to do their job.
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A 2023 Mayo Clinic study of 4,440 employed women aged 45 to 60 found that 13.4% reported adverse work outcomes linked to menopause symptoms, and around 11% missed work entirely because of them. Researchers estimated the cost to US employers at $1.8 billion in lost work time, rising to $26.6 billion when medical costs are included. The UK does not have an equivalent national figure. Given similar rates of symptom severity, there is little reason to assume the picture here is any better.
Many UK employers already have a menopause policy. Fewer have checked whether anyone actually uses it. A policy that sits in a folder next to a diversity statement changes nothing for the person who needs a later start time after a sleepless night, or a desk away from a radiator. The adjustments that help most people are usually small, and usually already covered by the flexible working and reasonable adjustments frameworks most organisations have in place. A menopause policy on its own does not fix this. Line managers need to know how to apply it. People need to trust that asking will not cost them their next appraisal.
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At Human by Practice, we see the same pattern in every culture diagnostic we run: written policy and lived experience routinely disagree, and menopause is one of the clearest examples of it. The fix looks like the fix for flexible working, disability adjustments, and every other example of an unused policy. Line managers need training to spot the request behind the request. HR needs a way to check adjustments are actually being used, not just written down. Menopause needs to be treated as ordinary business, not something that only comes up in October for menopause awareness month.
The US legislative wave will not cross the Atlantic in the same form, but the underlying pressure will. Employment tribunals are already treating menopause-related dismissals and comments as sex, age, or disability discrimination cases. The EHRC guidance gives employers a clear standard to work to now, before a tribunal sets one for them. Organisations that build menopause support into their existing inclusion and wellbeing infrastructure will be the ones with evidence of reasonable adjustments already in place when it matters. A bolt-on scheme launched for one awareness month will not get them there.
Human by Practice runs culture diagnostics that show where policy and practice diverge, and trains line managers to handle exactly these conversations with confidence. Menopause is one part of that picture. Getting it right protects people, and it protects the organisation.