Recap: The Future of Menopause 2035 - how the workplace will change over the next decade

Hi everyone,

Thank you again for joining us for The Future of Menopause 2035: How the Workplace Will Change Over the Next Decade. I wanted to follow up personally—both to recap the conversation and to share the resources many of you asked for.

This conversation with Anna Butterworth, Founder & CEO of Ultra Violet Agency, stayed with me because it put clear language and structure around something many women already feel: menopause is not a personal issue or a fringe benefit conversation—it is a systemic workforce design challenge hiding in plain sight.

Whether you are a senior leader, an HR or benefits decision-maker, a founder or operator, a clinician or coach, or someone navigating this transition personally, this conversation has implications for how we build organizations—and how we value experience—over the next decade.

Below are the core insights that emerged from the session—distilled into what I believe are the six most important takeaways.

Six Key Takeaways from the Conversation

1. Menopause Is a Universal, Under-Designed Life Stage

Menopause is the only health transition experienced by nearly all women—yet it remains chronically under-researched, under-funded, and poorly supported. Women now spend more years in peri- and post-menopause than in their reproductive years, making this a dominant—not peripheral—health and workforce issue. Symptoms often begin in the late 30s or early 40s and are frequently misdiagnosed as stress, anxiety, or burnout.

Bottom line: If organizations are waiting to address menopause as an “older worker” issue, they are already too late.

2. The “Second Life” Reframe Changes Everything

One of the most powerful shifts Anna introduced is the idea of menopause as a “second life”—not something women fade into, but something they step into. This reframes menopause from a problem to be managed into an aspirational life stage marked by agency, preparation, and potential.

We are already seeing early signals of this shift, particularly among younger women who are preparing earlier and expecting workplaces to evolve with them.

3. The Wisdom Workforce Is the Most Undervalued Asset in Business

A central theme of the session was the Wisdom Workforce: experienced women leaving or downshifting not because they lack ambition or capability, but because workplaces were never designed for this stage of life.

The economic impact is staggering. We are already losing an estimated $150 billion annually in global productivity due to menopause-related symptoms—through absenteeism, disengagement, stalled advancement, and women exiting the workforce entirely.

This is not about altruism. It is about retaining experience, judgment, and institutional memory at a time when organizations can least afford to lose them.

4. Menopause Support Is About Structure, Not Just Benefits

The conversation made an important distinction between:

• Clinical or benefits-based solutions (telehealth, HRT access, menopause care), and

• Structural workforce design (how work is organized, evaluated, and progressed)

True leadership requires both. Supporting women through menopause is not just about offering a benefit—it’s about rethinking role design, flexibility, performance expectations, and how contribution is valued over time.

5. Employers Are Early—but the Pressure Is Building

Menopause benefits are still far behind fertility benefits in adoption, but the trajectory is familiar. As we saw with fertility:

• Change starts with employee demand

• HR leaders respond

• Insurers and benefits platforms follow

• Cultural normalization precedes policy change

Importantly, younger employees are already watching how organizations treat women as they age—and factoring that into where they choose to build their careers.

6. Individual Action Is the Catalyst for Systemic Change

Policy and corporate change does not start at the top—it starts with education, language, and individual advocacy.

What moves systems:

• Educating yourself and others

• Talking to HR and benefits leaders

• Normalizing the conversation at work and at home

• Sharing resources with partners, managers, and peers

As we saw with fertility, when enough people ask, systems begin to move.

If this conversation sparked questions about how menopause shows up in your organization, your team, or your own life, I’d encourage you to start one conversation this week—with HR, with a manager, with a partner, or with yourself.

Resources from the Session

For those who want to go deeper, here are the resources Anna referenced—all in one place:

• Watch the Recording

• LinkedIn Profiles from the Chat

• List of Companies that have Menopause programs for their employees

• 📘 The Future of Menopause 2035

• 📚 UltraViolet Agency Reports (Free)
  Including FemTech Futures 2035, referenced during the discussion.

• 🧭 The Future Menopause Archetypes Framework
  A practical framework for understanding different menopause experiences and needs. Use exclusive code IWH40 for 40% off (valid through Feb 1, 2026):

• 📰 Related Articles

  • Menopause Mode: Making Work Inclusive for Midlife Women

  • What Happens as Women Start Their “Second Life”

• 📊 $150B Lost Productivity Statistic
  Source and data reference.

• 🤝 Working with UltraViolet Agency
  For organizations interested in consulting, workshops, or strategic foresight around women’s health and the future of work, you can contact Anna and her team directly at:
  [email protected]

A Final Thought

This conversation is exactly why we host these sessions at In Women’s Health—to connect lived experience, research, and systems-level change in a way that is practical, human, and actionable.

If there is one message I hope stays with you, it’s this:

Supporting women through menopause is not a “nice-to-have.” It is a leadership decision.

It signals how an organization values experience, how it thinks about longevity, and whether it is truly prepared for the demographic, cultural, and economic realities of the next decade.

Thank you for being part of this conversation—and for helping push it forward in your workplaces, communities, and lives.

Cheers,
Jodi

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