Have one in ten women left work due to menopausal symptoms?

Broadcast 10 September 2025

This week's "More or Less" BBC Radio 4 programme investigated the widely cited and influential finding in the 2022 Fawcett Society Report Menopause and the Workplace that "one in ten women have left work due to menopausal symptoms". The discussion with Dr Gillian Paull, Visting Senior Fellow at CASE, explored the possible flaws in this statement. 

As Gillian explained to Tim Harford in the programme, there are two main concerns with the way the "one in ten" finding has been presented. 

First, the survey used in the Fawcett Society report was only among women aged 45 to 55 who had previously experienced or were experiencing menopausal symptoms. As is has been reported that only around 80% of women experience menopausal symptoms, the one in ten survey respondents translates into a lower proportion of all women. 

Second, the survey question from which the one in ten number was drawn asked women whether they had "left a job due to their menopause symptoms". A positive answer could mean they moved between jobs rather than ceasing to work altogether as interpreted by some of the headlines reporting on the Fawcett Society study.  The survey also found that 3% of respondents had "retired early due to menopausal symptoms", which is a more clearly defined measure of leaving work altogether but was answered positively by substantially less than one in ten. 

In addition, Gillian reported that analysis she conducted using Labour Force Survey data suggests that it is highly unlikely that as many as one in ten women leave work due to menopausal symptoms. Menopausal symptoms are not identified as a specific health issue in the LFS (a serious omission) but are most likely captured within the proportion of women inactive (not working or unemployed) due to long-term health problems.  The increase in this proportion between ages 45 and 56 equates to 7% of female workers at age 45 not working at age 56 because of long term health problems. Not only is this 7% less than the one in ten, but it covers all sources of long health problems and not just the menopause.

The headlines using the "one in ten" figure may be helpful in raising awareness of the impact of the menopause on women’s work. But there is a risk that overstating the role that the menopause plays may miss other factors which inhibit paid work for women in this age group, such as caring responsibilities for elderly parents or other types of ill-health. Focusing on leaving work altogether might also mask adverse impacts of changing jobs on pay and seniority.  

For these reasons – and in the spirit of the "More or Less" programme - it’s important to get the numbers right and to know exactly what they are saying.

The "one in ten" finding was investigated by Gillian and co-researchers as part of the research project ‘Menopause in UK public discourse: visibility, content, factors and implications’, funded by the Leverhulme Trust (Project Number 268080), and led by Professor Catherine Rottenberg at Goldsmiths, University of London and Professor Shani Orgad, Department of Media and Communications at the LSE.

The full account is available via the LSE Blogs. 

You can listen at the "More or Less" podcast in this link (at 17:15).