Perimenopause in the Workplace: The Next Blind Spot in Performance Strategies?

Organizations have been in-vesting in diversity and inclusion for years.
And yet, one topic remains largely avoided.

A discreet, uncomfortable, sometimes taboo subject: perimenopause and menopause. The elephant in the room.
This silence is not neutral. It comes at a cost.

A transition affecting the core of leadership

Perimenopause and menopause do not affect “early-career” Talents.
They concern experienced women, often in key positions: leadership, strategic expertise, governance, and knowledge sharing and mentoring.
It is precisely at this stage of professional maturity, when influence is strong and value creation is at its peak, that the following may emerge:

fluctuations in energy
sleep disturbances
heightened and persistent sense of cognitive overload
a reassessment of one’s relationship to work and priorities.

Reducing this phase to a purely medical issue is a mistake still too often made by organizations.
What is at stake runs deeper: a rebalancing of multiple dimen-sions: physical, psychological, identity-related, and profess-sional.
And any major transition left unsupported brings a degree of fragility, here, an invisible vulnerability.

Some realities

In Switzerland due to perimenopausal symptoms : :

20 % of women scale back their working hours
16% switch employers
13% step away from their careers
1 in 3 are affected at work
40% fear repercussions on their professional future
47% hide their symptoms

An organizational risk: silent disengagement

In companies where the topic remains taboo, the effects do not disappear. They shift. They take the form of :

gradual withdrawal from responsibilities
self-censorship, with a direct impact on decision-making
reduced self-confidence and visibility
chronic fatigue that is often misinterpreted
early departures or constrained repositioning.

For HR leaders and executive committees, the stakes are clear: losing - or seeing self-limitation among senior female - represents a major strategic risk.
This is not a matter of comfort. It is about continuity of career paths and the preservation of critical talent capital.

A natural extension of DEI policies

Organizations have made progress in enabling women’s access to leadership roles.
The next step is to secure longevity in those roles.
A mature DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) policy does not stop at entry into leadership. It supports employees throughout their entire lifecycle.
Integrating perimenopause and menopause into HR strategy means:

aligning DEI commitments with real career trajectories
normalizing complex life transitions
strengthening psychological safety
improving retention of strategic talents.

Turning this transition into a performance driver

The goal is not to medicalize the workplace or to open a new activist front.
It is to support natural transitions (regardless of gender) with the same rigor applied to any critical career phase.

This may involve, for example:

creating safe spaces for dialogue, including access to individual coaching
raising awareness among managers to prevent misinterpretation
improving understanding of signals within teams to better adapt management practices
integrating the topic coherently into health and talent policies.

The true strength of this approach lies at the intersection of individual support, organizational health, and talent development.

Supporting these transitions

Supporting these personal transitions makes it possible to :

secure career paths during this period, because there is a meaningful “after”
sustain long-term engagement (particularly as senior talent is increasingly valuable)
strengthen managerial maturity across the organization
transform a potentially destabilizing period into an opportunity for strategic repositioning.

A leadership issue

The question is no longer: Should we talk about menopause in the workplace?
But rather: Can we still afford to ignore it?

Organizations that actively address this topic - UK being a leading example of best practices - send a strong signal: they are capable of integrating human realities into their performance model.
Isn’t the ability to address difficult topics what ultimately distinguishes short-term–driven organizations from those building sustainable performance?

What about you?

How does your organization support these transitions?
Let’s take a closer look at your situation together.

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