Menopause costs women nearly $2B in work and medical expenses

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.

According to the Proceedings article, the findings highlight a critical need to improve medical treatment provided to women and an opportunity to make the workplace environment more supportive for women experiencing menopause symptoms.

Dr. Juliana Kling, a co-author of the report, told the NY Times that: “Black women tended to have higher menopause symptoms, and higher percentages of Black women and Hispanic women reported adverse work outcomes related to menopausal symptoms compared to white women.”

Overall, 13% of the more than 4,000 women surveyed experienced an adverse work outcome related to menopause while 11% were missing days of work because of the symptoms.

The survey was conducted from March 1, 2021, through June 30, 2021, and symptoms were assessed by the Menopause Rating Scale (MRS). The mean total MRS score was 12.1, indicating moderate menopause symptom burden. The mean age of the 4,440 participants was 53.9 years, with the majority being white (93%), married (76.5%) and educated (59.3% with a college degree or more).

Read more: The benefits of building a more female-friendly and inclusive workplace

A total of 597 women (13.4%) reported at least one adverse work outcome due to menopause symptoms, and 485 women reported missing one or more days of work in the preceding year due to symptoms.