We’re about to hit peak menopause. A huge rally is being planned at Parliament Square on Tuesday – with a host of celebrities, from Mariella Frostrup to Davina McCall and Rod Stewart, shining a spotlight on to the issue. Labour’s Carolyn Harris is leading the charge in parliament, with cross-party support for her calls for better care and free prescriptions for hormone replacement therapy.
But I’d like to stop the focus on the suffering for a second, and make an economic argument instead. Simple maths shows us that the criminal neglect of the menopause in our health sector is costing the UK economy £10bn, as women walk out of their jobs at this time in their lives, according to analysis by the menopause support app Balance, using data from the Office of National Statistics and the Fawcett Society. One in 10 women surveyed for Channel 4 who worked during the menopause said they had quit their jobs due to symptoms, while 14% had reduced their hours and 14% had gone part-time. Imagine if these women had got the help they had needed – perhaps by being given the new, safer, body-identical hormone replacement therapy, and stayed in work? That’s a massive recruitment and training saving for workplaces.
