It’s not every day that a FTSE 100 boss tells you about her nightly hot flashes.
But for 45-year-old Liv Garfield, the chief executive officer of British water utility Severn Trent Plc, it’s a way to demystify a natural phenomenon affecting menopausal women—a growing cohort at companies around the world. With menopause driving scores of women out of the workforce each year, addressing it is essential, says Garfield.
“To not employ swathes of women from 45 to 60 has got to be a real issue—otherwise you’re missing all the insight from that particular generational category,” she said in an interview. Her company was among the pioneers of “menopause education” in 2018.
Symptoms of menopause start in women between the ages of 45 and 55, or earlier in rare cases. Menopause—which begins when a woman has gone 12 months without a menstrual period—can bring hot flashes, night sweats, loss of sleep and mood swings. That can lead to embarrassing episodes in front of colleagues, reduced ability to concentrate and even erratic behavior. Some women will have no issues or mild ones. For others, the effects can be debilitating.
Women in this age group account for 11% of the workforce in the Group of Seven most-industrialized nations, having steadily risen over the last three decades. Globally, menopause-related productivity losses can amount to more than $150 billion a year, according to Reenita Das, a partner and senior vice president for healthcare and life sciences at consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. Plug in the additional costs to the healthcare system and the total price tag of menopause could be higher than $810 billion, she said. Das said those numbers will continue to rise, with about a quarter of the world’s female population turning menopausal in 2030.
Some governments and companies are beginning to take note.
The U.K. is leading the way, with menopause landing on the Bank of England’s radar. Governor Andrew Bailey said in April that, although previously not considered “part of the world of work,” menopause can no longer be ignored. On Wednesday, Labour lawmaker Carolyn Harris called for a “menopause revolution” with an all-party parliamentary group set up to overhaul “menopause rights, entitlements and education.”