GOV.UK tells employers to conduct a menopause risk assessment by identifying workplace hazards and conditions that can make symptoms worse or make it harder for an employee to cope.
The guidance points employers toward practical changes in the working environment, from ventilation and break patterns to shift timing, uniforms and access to water and toilets.
What the assessment is meant to do
A menopause risk assessment asks a simple question: what at work could intensify symptoms, and what can be changed before those symptoms start affecting attendance or performance? The guidance is relevant across sectors, but it is especially important in jobs with heat, heavy uniforms, shift work, limited bathroom access, long periods without breaks, high stress or rigid attendance expectations.
Those conditions can aggravate common perimenopause and menopause symptoms, including hot flushes, sweating, sleep disruption, fatigue, palpitations, headaches, irritability and reduced concentration. The point is not to treat every symptom as a workplace issue on its own. It is to identify which job conditions make those symptoms harder to manage.
A usable checklist for employers
A proper assessment should turn into specific action, not sit in a policy folder. It should review the role, the environment and the adjustments that follow.
A practical checklist includes:
- Temperature and ventilation: check whether hot areas, poor airflow or heavy personal protective equipment are making symptoms worse.
- Uniforms and dress codes: review whether clothing is too warm, restrictive or difficult to adapt for comfort.
- Toilets and water access: make sure workers can get to a toilet when needed and can drink water at their workstation.
- Rest breaks: look at whether long periods without breaks are causing symptoms to flare and whether break patterns can be made more flexible.
- Shift patterns: review early starts, night work, rotating shifts and any timing that worsens sleep disruption or fatigue.
- Workload: consider temporary changes if concentration, headaches or exhaustion are affecting safe performance.
- Attendance expectations: check whether rigid rules are forcing people to work through symptoms or hide them.
The assessment should also ask who may be affected, which tasks are most difficult, what changes are possible and how the changes will be reviewed. It should follow up, not make a single adjustment and assume the issue is fixed.
What the UK policy framework already says
The menopause risk-assessment guidance sits inside a wider policy shift. In March 2024, Helen Tomlinson, the Government’s Menopause Employment Champion, and the Department for Work and Pensions published Shattering the Silence about Menopause: 12-Month Progress Report. The report made clear that when it refers to menopause, it includes perimenopause and menopause, and it set out a four-point plan for workplace action.
The Department for Work and Pensions also hosts a Menopause in the Workplace Literature Review on GOV.UK. Separate GOV.UK guidance covers occupational health advice for employees experiencing menopause and workplace adjustments for employees experiencing menopause. Taken together, those pages frame menopause as part of standard workplace management, not an optional wellbeing add-on.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has also placed the issue in a compliance context. In its later briefing on the Employment Rights Bill, it said: “In February 2024, we published information for employers on how they can support women experiencing menopause in recognition of these impacts.” The statement links menopause support to equality duties as well as day-to-day management.
Why managers need to be part of it
Acas calls for early and regular follow-up conversations with workers about their needs. Employers and line managers should invite workers to speak privately about how menopause is affecting them at work and what could help.
That is where many policies fail in practice. A risk assessment only works if managers know how to use it, know when to revisit it and know how to respond when symptoms change. Acas says managers should be trained to talk about menopause, which turns the issue into a line-management skill rather than a one-off HR referral.
Training does not have to be elaborate to be useful. It should give managers enough confidence to discuss symptoms discreetly, spot workload or roster problems, and escalate cases that need occupational health input. It also helps prevent the common mistake of treating menopause as a performance problem when the real issue is a workplace setup that can be changed.
Why employers should care about the numbers
The scale of the issue is already large enough to affect planning. The Local Government Association cites Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development research finding that two-thirds, or 67%, of working women were affected by menopause at work.
The Menopause Society’s 2024 consensus recommendations say women aged 50 and older are the fastest growing demographic group in many countries, and that some women may experience moderate to severe symptoms for a decade or longer. For workplaces, that means perimenopause is not a short disruption that passes in a few months. It can overlap with peak responsibility years, line-management roles and physically demanding jobs.
What a good assessment prevents
If employers ignore symptom-triggering conditions and leave staff to cope alone, the likely result is presenteeism, sick leave or turnover. A menopause-specific risk assessment gives employers a structured way to reduce those losses before they harden into absence and recruitment problems.
It also gives staff a better chance of staying productive without pushing through avoidable flare-ups. Better ventilation, a more flexible break pattern, a review of shift timing, temporary workload changes, permission to drink water at a workstation and a uniform policy check are not grand interventions. They are the sort of changes that can prevent a bad week from becoming a long absence.