Talk of women's health concerns, from periods to pregnancy to menopause, used to be taboo. And, while it's not exactly watercooler conversation yet, employers have increasingly realized that recognizing and supporting the full spectrum of women's health needs is beneficial to fostering employee health and positively influencing hiring, retention, and productivity. As benefits professionals and HR teams, you play an important role in accomplishing this, starting with understanding the needs of the women in your workforce (or the women dependents of your employees), ensuring that your organization offers the right benefits for employees and their families, and educating workers about these benefits to encourage adoption and utilization.

In order to offer relevant and high-value benefits for all employees, you need to first understand who is using your benefits and what they need. For women, that means understanding how the hormonal changes they experience throughout their lives can affect their health and wellbeing. For example, did you know that hormonal changes put women at increased risk for serious or chronic health conditions like diabetes, stroke, obesity, and even breast cancer? Fortunately, giving women employees the resources to manage everyday health can go a long way toward preventing the onset of these conditions.