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Building the Adora Menopause Calculator: Evidence & Research

Updated: 7 days ago

By Jean Ledger, PhD (Adora's Head of Research) and Jo Findlay (Senior Health Economist)




The McKinsey report, Closing the Health Gap (2024), states that ‘menopause has a substantial impact on women’s ability to work’ and is associated with premature departure from the workforce.


There is still a lot we don’t know and fully understand about the complex relationship between women’s ageing, menopause transition¹ and their working lives, but new evidence is becoming available. Research suggests that around half of women that have menopause symptoms will experience them as severe or bothersome and that these symptoms can have impacts upon a woman’s working life. In fact, the more severe the symptoms, the worse the impact on a woman’s life and her experience at work. A report by the NHS Confederation, Create Health Foundation and London Economics (2024), suggests that there are around 60,000 women unable to work in the UK because of the impact of menopausal symptoms on their physical and mental health. 


We have built a calculator as a tool for employers to estimate the size and cost of the menopause for their workforce and to help them identify how many of their staff could benefit from increased workplace support.

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Making sense of the evidence


To build our calculator, we first performed a search of academic research studies and publicly available reports that have examined the menopause and workplace impacts, including searching for evidence on the costs of rehiring staff, and estimated productivity losses (UK Parliament, 2022). Whilst there are significant gaps in the literature and much less is known about the impact on work of women struggling with menopause symptoms, especially at a younger age, there are some useful resources we can draw upon.


In one key study using data from the National UK Child Development Study (NCDS), a large dataset that follows people across their life, researchers found that 53.5% of women aged 50 had at least one bothersome menopausal symptom (Evandrou et al, 2021). They report that just over 1 in 10 (13.6%) of women experiencing at least one bothersome symptom exit employment between the ages of 50 and 55. However, whilst women with severe symptoms such as hot flushes, joint pains, depression were more at risk of leaving the workforce, this was related to other factors, such as whether they had a partner that was in employment or general ill health. That is why taking a personal approach to menopause support is important. No journey is exactly the same. 

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For our calculator, we have therefore based our estimate on the 50+ group because the average age of menopause in the UK is 51 years. The figures we have used as part of our calculator for women aged 50+ are as follows:


  • 53.5% of women aged 50+ experience at least one severe menopausal symptoms 

  • 13.6% of women aged 50+ experiencing at least one severe menopausal symptom left employment


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Evidence for younger women

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Whilst there is stronger statistical evidence in those aged 50 and over, this is not to say that women under 45 do not experience bothersome symptoms as part of the perimenopause, and at work. A number of women experience early menopause (before age 45) or premature menopause (before aged 40) (NHS, 2025)


A survey by CIPD (2023) in 2,185 women aged 40 to 60, found that nearly half (42%) experience symptoms related to the menopause and 1 in 6 women were considering leaving their roles ‘due to a lack of support in relation to their menopause symptoms’². We have used this data to inform an estimate on the number of women aged 40 and over that could be experiencing menopausal symptoms.


How to use the calculator and limitations


HR teams and companies may find it useful to use the calculator to estimate how many staff could be impacted by menopause symptoms from the age of 40 onwards. Specifically, it can help estimate how many might be at risk of leaving work due to a struggle with particularly troubling symptoms as they age. This calculator will provide estimates based on the best available evidence. We know that there are many complex reasons why women may decide to leave work or reduce their hours, and not everyone can afford to do this. Another limitation is that there will be differences in the impact of menopause across different sectors (for example, more women work in health, social care and education) so the impacts for the NHS as an employer will be very different to a private sector organisation with a lower proportion of female workforce. 


In addition, the estimate does not include possible costs around sick leave or women attending work but not feeling at their best due to severe symptoms. . 


Clearly there is a need for more research in this area (Verdonk et al, 2022; Conti et al, 2024). At Adora, we are working on a number of projects to contribute to improvements in women’s health and quality of life.




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  1. Menopause is a natural transition that many women experience, typically between the ages of 45 and 55. Menopause is associated with a wide range of symptoms which can last for many years. Examples are hot flushes, brain fog, night sweats, sleep disruption - to name but a few.

  2. ​As this is a survey of employed women this does not count for the women that have left the workforce entirely and we know that there are an estimated 60,000 women in the UK not in work because of the impact of their menopausal symptoms (NHS Confederation, 2024) 

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