As little as up to 5 years ago, menopause barely featured in workplace conversations. If it came up at all, it was quietly, between colleagues, rarely in front of a manager and almost never in an HR policy document. Today, it's a boardroom topic and from 2027, it will be a legal one too.
As a Registered Nutritional Therapist who works with both individuals and employers on menopause support since 2018, I've watched this shift happen in real time. Here's what's changed, what's coming, and why the businesses that get ahead of it now will be in a very different position to those that wait.
Then vs Now: A Five-Year Shift
Five years ago:
Menopause was rarely named explicitly in workplace wellbeing policies and symptoms like brain fog, fatigue and hot flushes were often managed silently, or not at all. Requesting a workplace adjustment for menopause symptoms meant explaining and often justifying something deeply personal
Due to the lack of understanding of menopause, many women feared becoming victims of ageism by disclosing that they were experiencing symptoms. Manager training on menopause back then was almost unheard of outside a handful of forward-thinking organisations.
Today:
Menopause is a recognised DEI and retention issue, discussed at senior leadership level, where symptoms can meet the legal definition of a disability under the Equality Act 2010, as confirmed in employment tribunal case law. Employers are now actively seeking training, policies and workplace adjustments and now, for the first time, government legislation is putting formal structure around all of it
What's Actually Changing in 2027
The Employment Rights Act 2025, which received Royal Assent in December 2025, introduces a new requirement for larger UK employers: the Menopause Action Plan.
Here's what it means in practice:
Employers with 250 or more employees will need to publish a Menopause Action Plan alongside their existing gender pay gap reporting. The plan sits within a broader Equality Action Plan and must set out the evidence-based steps the organisation is taking to support employees experiencing menopause
From April 2026, this is voluntary and a chance for employers to prepare and get it right. From spring 2027, subject to secondary legislation, it becomes mandatory for qualifying employers. Employers will then need to select actions from a government-recommended list, and training managers is expected to carry some of the strongest evidence behind it
Smaller organisations won't be legally bound by the reporting requirement, but the direction of travel is clear: menopause support is moving from "nice to have" to baseline good practice across every sector.
The Gap Most Employers Still Have
A published action plan is a good start. But a document alone doesn't change what happens in a one-to-one when someone is struggling, or whether a manager knows how to respond when an employee discloses symptoms for the first time.
In my experience, the organisations that get real value from this shift rather than just compliance on paper are the ones who build genuine capability across four areas:
1. Physiology education: a shared, accurate understanding of what's actually happening in the body during perimenopause and menopause. Line managers especially need to be aware of this as a point of reference in order to have appropriate conversations
2. Manager coaching: the confidence and language to be supportive conversations, not avoid them
3. Workplace adjustments - practical, often low-cost changes that make daily working life manageable
4. Nutrition and lifestyle support - the piece that's often missing entirely, despite growing evidence for its role in symptom management. HRT, while hugely beneficial is not a panacea and many women either don’t wish to or are unable to take it
Leave any one of these out, and the action plan risks becoming exactly the kind of tick-box exercise the legislation is trying to move employers away from.
Why This Work Matters to Me
I didn't come to menopause nutrition as a purely clinical interest. Before I trained, I went through surgery for endometriosis and fibroids, followed by an early menopause years before most of my peers were even thinking about it. I remember what it was like to be navigating brain fog, fatigue and hormonal upheaval in the middle of a demanding corporate career, and not having the language or the permission to talk about any of it at work because it simply wasn't a conversation anyone was having.
That experience is what led me into nutritional therapy in the first place. It's also why, when I design training for employers now, it never stops at "here's what to eat." It has to cover the physiology so people understand what's actually happening in their or their team members bodies, the workplace adjustments that make daily life manageable, and the manager coaching that makes it safe to speak up in the first place; because I know firsthand what it costs when that conversation doesn't exist.
Getting Ahead of 2027
Whether your organisation falls within the mandatory reporting threshold or not, the businesses that start building real menopause support now not in 2027, when the deadline hits will be the ones with the retained talent, the trusted managers, and the culture to show for it.
If you're an HR or L&D lead starting to think about your Menopause Action Plan, I'd love to talk about how training that covers physiology, manager coaching, workplace adjustments and nutrition together can give you a genuine head start. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Jo x