Menopause symptoms adding to demands on women leaders

Menopause symptoms can leave women leaders feeling depleted at work, with researchers warning that employers risk creating unnecessary barriers to career progression when the impact goes unrecognised or unsupported.

Research from Durham University Business School found women experiencing more severe menopause symptoms reported greater feelings of depletion, which in turn were associated with nostalgia for their premenopausal selves.

That nostalgia appeared to have a more complex effect. It was associated with greater empathy towards employees, but the researchers also found an association with greater psychological withdrawal in one part of the study.

The findings are particularly relevant for employers because menopause can coincide with the stage of women’s careers when they are progressing into more senior positions, where cognitive and emotional demands may already be high.

Professor Olga Epitropaki, one of the researchers, said: “As this stage in life often coincides with a career advancement into senior roles, menopause is a particularly important consideration for women and for employers.

“Leadership involves considerable cognitive and emotional demands, which may be exacerbated by menopausal symptoms. Understanding how menopause intersects with leadership experiences is therefore essential for informing organisational policies that support women’s well-being and career progression.”

Researchers initially surveyed 341 full-time women in leadership positions who were experiencing menopause symptoms, asking them to recall a menopause-related incident from the previous month.

Among participants, 66 per cent reported hot flushes, 57 per cent sleep disturbances, 44 per cent psychological changes and 29 per cent cognitive difficulties. Physical pain was reported by 28 per cent and menstrual changes by 10 per cent.

Many experienced multiple symptoms, with participants describing experiences including severe hot flushes during meetings and fatigue that made it difficult to function at work.

Women experiencing more severe symptoms reported greater depletion. Higher levels of depletion were then linked with greater nostalgia for their premenopausal selves, which was associated with both increased empathy towards employees and greater psychological withdrawal.

The researchers subsequently conducted three experiments involving a total of 450 women leaders.

These found that more severe menopause experiences increased feelings of depletion; greater depletion increased nostalgia for the premenopausal self; and nostalgia increased empathy towards employees. However, experimentally induced nostalgia did not significantly increase psychological withdrawal.

The distinction is important because the findings challenge a simple narrative that menopause either negatively or positively affects women’s leadership.

Instead, the researchers describe nostalgia as potentially “bittersweet”, helping restore a sense of psychological continuity and positive self-value while potentially drawing attention to perceived changes in energy, capability or control.

This research adds another dimension to the growing focus on menopause support at work. It suggests policies and benefits alone may not be sufficient, if organisations fail to consider how symptoms interact with workload, leadership expectations, career progression and employees’ ability to perform demanding roles.

Professor Maria Kakarika said: “Rather than treating menopause solely as a medical or personal issue, we conceptualise it as a self-regulatory challenge that intersects with the cognitive and emotional demands of leadership.”

The researchers argue that menopause remains largely absent from wellbeing and leadership development conversations despite women’s participation in the workforce.

The findings suggest employers should consider menopause support not only as part of employee health and wellbeing provision, but also within management development, job design and approaches to retaining and progressing experienced women.

The study, “Menopausal, Depleted, and Nostalgic”: The Bittersweet Effects of Menopause for Women Leaders, has been published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior.