The world’s first international workplace standard on menstruation and menopause has been launched as new research reveals seven in 10 women want employers to adopt a clear approach to supporting reproductive health at work. Yet six in 10 say their organisation has never proactively discussed menopause support.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has launched ISO 45010 – Occupational health and safety management — Menstruation and menopause in the workplace — Guidance, the world’s first International Standard designed to help organisations better support employees experiencing menstruation and menopause at work. Published on 7 September 2026, the new global guidance aims to move employers beyond awareness towards practical action by addressing workplace culture, policies and procedures, manager training, workplace design and adjustments that can help employees manage symptoms while remaining healthy and productive at work.
It comes amid growing evidence that inadequate workplace support can affect not only employee health and wellbeing, but also absence, productivity, career progression and the retention of experienced women. International research from the British Standards Institution (BSI) involving 6,494 women across seven countries found that 68% believe employers have a role in supporting people experiencing menopause and menstruation-related health issues, while seven in 10 want their employer to have a clear process and approach.
Yet despite greater public awareness, six in 10 respondents said they had never heard their employer proactively talk about menopause support. The potential economic benefits of addressing that gap are significant too. Economic analysis carried out by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) for BSI suggests that greater employee confidence in raising menstrual and menopausal health challenges at work could deliver a UK productivity premium worth almost £300 million a year.
FROM AWARENESS TO PRACTICAL WORKPLACE SUPPORT
Designed for organisations of all sizes and sectors, ISO 45010 provides guidance for leaders, managers, HR professionals and occupational health and safety practitioners on identifying workplace factors that may affect employees experiencing menstruation or menopause. The recommendations cover workplace culture, policies and procedures, manager awareness and training, workplace design, practical adjustments and measuring and evaluating the impact of interventions. Additional guidance is provided for small and medium-sized organisations.
The international standard also goes further than the original British Standard introduced in 2023, with additional guidance around disclosure and privacy, expanded terminology, a broader range of practical workplace actions and two new annexes – including a workplace charter template and guidance showing how ISO 45010 aligns with ISO 45001. Sergio Mujica, Secretary-General at ISO, said leaders are increasingly recognising that supporting employee wellbeing means responding to the diverse needs of today’s workforce.
“ISO 45010 provides internationally agreed recommendations to help organizations better understand the factors that can affect employees experiencing menstruation and menopause, and identify practical actions to support them,” Mujica said. “Recognising that menstruation and menopause affect millions of people throughout their working lives, ISO 45010 will be made available at no cost, to maximise global access and adoption. By removing financial barriers, organizations of all sizes, regardless of location or resources, can access and implement the standard, helping employers create supportive working environments.”
MENOPAUSE SUPPORT GAP PERSISTS
The arrival of an international standard follows years of evidence showing a disconnect between employers becoming more aware of menopause and women actually feeling supported at work. Anne Hayes, Director of Sectors at BSI, said the organisation’s research highlighted why internationally agreed guidance is so important. “Our research shows that conversations around menstruation and menopause are becoming more common in workplaces. But despite three years of progress after the foundational British standard on menopause and menstruation was published in 2023 there is still a significant gap between awareness and action,” Hayes said.
BSI’s latest UK findings underline that disconnect. Just 38% of employees who have experienced menopause, perimenopause or menstrual-health challenges feel confident their employer would support them in finding a solution. Only one in 10 would feel confident discussing the issue with a male line manager, fewer than one in five with HR, while almost half said their employer offered no support at all.
That gap has been repeatedly reflected in research covered by Fair Play Talks. In 2021, six in 10 working women experiencing menopausal symptoms said they wanted more support from their employer, while almost half had not spoken to anyone at work about what they were experiencing.
Concerns about the consequences for women’s careers were already emerging. Research involving Standard Chartered Bank and the Financial Services Skills Commission explored how menopause could affect women’s progression into senior leadership. Later findings showed that around one-quarter of women experiencing menopause in financial services were considering leaving the industry.
WOMEN LEAVING JOBS BECAUSE OF MENOPAUSE
By 2022, the retention consequences were becoming harder for employers to ignore. One in five women had left or considered leaving a job because of menopause symptoms, while separate research found that menopause support for women remained lacking across many workplaces.
Another employer study found that more than one-third of companies had experienced employees leaving because of menopause. That prompted growing calls for organisations to “smash the taboo” surrounding menopause at work and recognise hormonal health as both a personal and workplace issue.
STIGMA STILL PREVENTS WOMEN ASKING FOR HELP
Greater awareness has not necessarily translated into greater confidence among affected employees. In 2023, research found that the majority of women still feared discussing menopause symptoms at work. Another study that year found eight in 10 women struggled to manage menopause symptoms at work, highlighting how symptoms can collide with workload, working environments and concerns about how disclosure might affect careers.
And in 2024, research highlighted how more than half of the workforce can be affected by menopause, while workplace support remained critically lacking. Most recently, Fair Play Talks highlighted on World Menopause Day 2025 why employers must provide better support for women going through menopause, amid mounting recognition of the impact poor support can have on careers, wellbeing and retention.
A GLOBAL BENCHMARK FOR EMPLOYERS
ISO 45010 potentially marks an important shift because it positions menstruation and menopause not simply as an individual health concern or optional wellbeing benefit, but as an occupational health, inclusion and workforce management issue. The standard sits within the ISO 45000 occupational health and safety family and can be integrated with organisations’ existing health and safety management systems, including ISO 45001.
That means menopause and menstruation support can increasingly become part of the way organisations manage workplace health and safety generally, rather than existing as a separate HR initiative or annual awareness campaign. For organisations concerned about losing skilled and experienced women from their workforce and leadership pipeline, there is also a strong business case.
BSI says greater confidence in discussing menstrual and menopausal health could generate a productivity benefit approaching £300 million annually in the UK alone. Its wider economic research found that employees who feel less confident discussing health challenges tend to take fewer but longer periods of sickness absence, ultimately accumulating more sick days.
The original British Standard also appears to have generated significant demand. Published in May 2023, it was BSI’s most downloaded standard that year and has since been downloaded more than 13,000 times across 147 countries and territories, according to BSI.
Organisations adopting it have included Virgin Media O2, M&S, the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland and the Welsh Parliament. Sarah Sim, Director, Standardization at the Swedish Institute for Standards (SIS), said developing the international version required global collaboration. “Developing ISO 45010 brought together experts from different countries, sectors and disciplines to build international consensus around guidance that can be applied in workplaces worldwide,” Sim said.
WHAT SHOULD EMPLOYERS DO NEXT?
For employers, having a menopause policy is increasingly unlikely to be enough on its own. The more important question is whether employees know support exists, feel safe enough to use it and experience meaningful change when they ask for help.
Organisations should consider the following:
Review existing policies against ISO 45010
Employers should examine whether health, wellbeing, absence, flexible-working and inclusion policies adequately cover menstruation, perimenopause and menopause – and whether written policies translate into practice.
Train managers
Line managers need enough knowledge and confidence to have sensitive conversations and respond appropriately without making assumptions about what an individual needs.
Make adjustments easy to request
Depending on the person and the role, support might include flexibility over start and finish times, additional breaks, home working where appropriate, adjustments to duties or workload, changes to uniforms, access to rest areas or better temperature control.
Examine the physical working environment
Accessible toilets, drinking water, appropriate uniforms, ventilation, temperature control and the ability to take breaks can all make a meaningful difference.
Protect confidentiality and privacy
ISO 45010 contains specific guidance around disclosure and privacy. Employers need to establish clear processes that govern what health information they share, with whom and for what purpose.
Handle absence sensitively
Organisations should consider whether existing attendance processes inadvertently disadvantage employees experiencing fluctuating symptoms.
Create psychologically safe conversations
Employers should not wait for individual women to initiate every conversation. The fact that so many employees have never heard their employer proactively discuss menopause illustrates why visible organisational communication matters.
Offer more than one route to support
Not everybody will feel comfortable approaching a direct manager. HR, occupational health, employee assistance programmes, trained menopause champions or employee networks can provide alternatives.
Consider job design as well as policy
Employers should examine whether working hours, shifts, uniforms, physical demands, travel expectations or workplace conditions exacerbate symptoms unnecessarily.
Include menstruation, not just menopause
One of the important aspects of ISO 45010 is that it looks across menstrual and menopausal health, rather than treating menopause as an isolated life-stage issue.
Measure what works
Awareness campaigns and policy launches are inputs, not outcomes. Employers should assess employee awareness, confidence accessing support, absence, retention and career outcomes to understand whether interventions are actually helping.
UK EMPLOYERS FACE GROWING EXPECTATIONS
The publication is also timely for UK employers. BSI says the new guidance comes ahead of plans for larger UK employers to be required to publish Menopause Action Plans from spring 2027, further increasing expectations that organisations demonstrate how they support affected employees rather than simply acknowledging the issue.
For employers, ISO 45010 can therefore provide a practical framework through which to assess existing provision before those requirements take effect.
WHAT CAN WOMEN AND OTHER AFFECTED EMPLOYEES DO?
Employers should take responsibility for creating supportive workplaces rather than shifting that responsibility onto individual employees. But women and others experiencing menstruation, perimenopause or menopause can take steps to help identify and access the support they need.
Keep track of how symptoms affect work
Recording patterns such as disrupted sleep, concentration problems, fatigue, migraines, heavy bleeding, temperature changes or anxiety can help identify which aspects of work are creating difficulties.
Find out what support already exists
Check workplace policies, occupational health provision, flexible-working arrangements, employee assistance programmes and any menopause or wellbeing networks.
Focus on what would help.
Employees do not necessarily have to arrive with a diagnosis or complete solution. Identifying practical challenges – such as difficulties commuting following severe sleep disturbance or needing more regular breaks – can help frame the conversation around workable adjustments.
Choose who you feel comfortable speaking to
That may be a line manager, HR, occupational health, employee network lead or another designated workplace contact.
Ask for arrangements to be reviewed
Menopause and perimenopause symptoms can fluctuate. Adjustments that help at one stage may need to change later.
Consider putting agreed adjustments in writing
Employers should record what has been agreed to prevent misunderstandings and make future reviews easier.
Seek appropriate healthcare advice
Symptoms can vary considerably between individuals, and women experiencing symptoms that concern them should seek appropriate medical advice about their health and treatment options.
Know that discrimination protections may apply
Menopause is not itself a standalone protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, but unfair treatment connected to symptoms can potentially engage protections relating to characteristics such as sex, age and disability, depending on the circumstances.
WHY THIS MATTERS FOR RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS
For years, the workplace conversation around menopause has centred on raising awareness and breaking stigma. Those things still matter – particularly when large numbers of women remain reluctant to discuss symptoms and many employers still do not proactively communicate what support is available.
But ISO 45010 points towards the next stage: organisations need to embed that awareness into how they design and manage work itself.. That means looking beyond World Menopause Day campaigns and standalone policies to examine manager behaviour, working patterns, physical environments, confidentiality, absence processes, occupational health, job design and career progression.
The economic case adds another dimension. If greater confidence discussing menstrual and menopausal health could contribute to a UK productivity premium of almost £300 million a year, support should not be viewed merely as an employee benefit or inclusion initiative. It is also connected to retention, absence, productivity and employers’ ability to keep experienced women in the workforce.
After years of research showing women reducing their hours, turning down opportunities, struggling silently or leaving jobs because they could not get the support they needed, the arrival of the world’s first international standard provides organisations with a common framework through which to turn good intentions into measurable action.
The question for responsible employers is therefore shifting. It is no longer simply “Do we talk about menopause?” It is “Have we designed a workplace in which people experiencing menstruation and menopause can continue to thrive?”
Click here to find out more about ISO 45010 and read the Occupational health and safety management – Menstruation and menopause in the workplace – Guidance.
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