The Mayo Clinic has put a price tag on the cost of menopause symptoms in the workplace. A new report put out by the Clinic says the symptoms such as hot flashes, aches, mood changes and sleep disturbances have cost an estimated $1.8 billion in lost work time per year and $26.6 billion annually when medical expenses are added.

"A full 13% of the women we surveyed experienced an adverse work outcome related to menopause symptoms, and about 11% were missing days of work because of these symptoms," Dr. Stephanie Faubion. M.D. and director of Mayo Clinic Women's Health, says. "We also found some racial and ethnic differences on a sub-analysis of the results, though more research is needed in this area, in larger and more diverse groups of women."

The findings, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, identified an association between menopause symptoms and adverse work outcomes, including lost work productivity, with the severity of menopause symptoms strongly predicting the odds of an adverse work outcome.