5 minute read
Author: Megan Hayward, The Menopause Concierge®
October is National Safe Work Month in Australia, and this year’s theme is Safe work is for life. If we genuinely mean that, we need to talk about something that has been largely absent from workplace safety conversations: biology, particularly women’s biology. Because biology does not magically switch off when we walk through the workplace door, put on our boots or open our laptops.
Menopause in the workplace might look like:
- Early starts + disrupted sleep
- Heat + PPE + hot flushes
- Heavy bleeding or UTIs + toilet access + period product access
- Brain fog + safety-critical decisions
- Joint pain + physical work + sitting/ standing for long periods
- Migraine + light or noise sensitivity
- Fatigue + travel or site commutes
- Anxiety + presentations or meetings
- Cognitive overload + project deadlines
None of these symptoms mean a woman has suddenly lost her skill, experience or capability. She has not suddenly lost twenty years of experience, become less intelligent or less valuable because she is experiencing symptoms. Her available capacity may simply be different on a particular day. Sometimes, the environment has also become harder to navigate. A temporary change in capacity is not a loss of capability
Safety is about the task, not the assumption. Menopause is not automatically a safety risk. However symptoms can interact with the way work is designed, the environment in which it happens and the demands of a particular task and where work happens in safety-critical environments, it is more important.
Symptoms may have very different implications for an office employee versus an emergency responder, driver, rail worker, machinery operator, pilot or site-based trade. The objective is neither to make assumptions about someone’s ability nor to overlook a genuine safety risk. It is to identify appropriate controls that protect the worker and those around them.
Workers should be able to raise a concern without feeling that acknowledging a symptom means admitting they are incapable of doing their job. And managers need to understand that a change in performance is information. It is not automatically a capability problem. And from a worker’s perspective, people should not have to disclose more personal information than is necessary to facilitate appropriate workplace support.
So, we must make work, work better and this is where biology-informed work design becomes important. Menopause is a natural biological transition. The type, severity and duration of symptoms can vary, and workplace needs can change over time. The question in a safety context needs to be “What is happening in the work that is creating or amplifying a barrier?”
From a management perspective, it is no longer enough simply to recognise menopause. We must understand how workplace design, systems, environments and work demands can interact with menstrual and menopausal health.
ISO 45010:2026 provides guidance for organisations on integrating menstruation and menopause into occupational health and safety management, including workplace practices, management, workplace design and worker wellbeing. It also addresses performance and absence management, encouraging organisations to consider underlying factors and how workplace practices may unintentionally disadvantage workers experiencing menstrual or menopausal symptoms.
The other thing is reasonable workplace adjustments are bigger than flexibility, the best adjustment is the one that removes the actual workplace barrier, so any conversation needs to consider the environment, time, tasks, and tools & support that are available. There are multiple control levers to pull here.
This conversation is actually bigger than menopause. While we understand that menopause primarily affects women, it is also true that some transgender men and non-binary people can experience menopause. So, menopause support is not simply a wellbeing initiative. It intersects with work design, safety, inclusion, performance, retention, and workforce participation.
Safe Work Australia’s Model Code of Practice: Managing the Work Environment and Facilities provides guidance on safe, healthy and accessible workplace facilities. Alongside this, some jurisdictions are strengthening requirements around women’s amenities. In Queensland, for example, construction requirements introduced in 2025 strengthened provisions for designated female toilets and associated amenities. Which is brilliant. But as a woman who is frequently on job sites, it would just be great to have a toilet there for women. If you want women in a work environment, that’s a pretty basic requirement. Just saying!
At the same time, Australian WHS laws increasingly recognise psychosocial risks, including sexual and gender-based harassment, as matters requiring proactive risk management. The definition of workplace safety is expanding and really, it has to, because the global baseline is moving.
The UK is charging ahead with workplace menopause action planning. Across Europe, there is growing recognition that workplace inclusion cannot stop at maternity and must consider women’s health throughout the working life. And now we have an international ISO standard specifically addressing menstruation and menopause at work.
For multinational organisations, this is a huge leap forward, when you consider that global organisations often establish common workplace standards across jurisdictions, which means menopause support increasingly starts to look less like an optional “women’s benefit” and more like ‘standard workplace infrastructure.’
So, what does this mean for Australia? Well, we know we are facing skills shortages and we need experienced workers. We need women to remain in, progress through, and return to the workforce.
We can no longer seriously talk about workforce participation while designing workplaces around the assumption that biology is irrelevant. A biology-informed workplace does not treat menopause as a problem located inside the woman. It understands the interaction between: biology + work design + workplace culture + safety + systems and looks for ways to remove unnecessary barriers to participation.
This is not about creating a special menopause system sitting beside the organisation. It is about making the systems we already have more responsive to biological realities.
Because safe work is not just about getting through today without an incident. It is about protecting people’s lives, health and futures. And if safe work really is for life, then that has to include the whole working life and therefore biology belongs in the safety conversation.
The question I am asking you to consider now: is your workplace designed to safely support the workforce you actually have?
Awareness to Action.
Megan Hayward | The Menopause Concierge®
#OccupationalHealthAndSafety #MenopauseAtWork #WomensHealthAtWork #FutureOfWork #WorkplaceSafety #GenderEquality #WorkforceParticipation #ISO45010 #BiologyInformedWorkplaces
