Keep the experience.
Remove the barriers.
She’s the one who knows the client history. The one who spots the risk everyone else misses, mentors the new manager, and remembers exactly why that decision was made five years ago.
Last night, she slept four hours.
Today she’s in a bright, loud, overheated office. Her body is fighting to regulate its temperature while her brain works overtime to filter out the noise. A detail slips past her—one she’d normally catch. A meeting swallows lunch. Her water bottle sits empty. By mid-afternoon she’s doing two jobs at once: the work itself, and making sure no one notices how hard the work has become.
Her capability didn’t disappear. The conditions she’s working in changed.
PeriOS by Veraluna Wellness moves employers from awareness to action. Through leadership webinars, interactive workshops, company learning programs, and hands-on consulting, we help managers respond with confidence and respect, help HR teams build systems that actually work, and help organizations protect both their people and their performance.
Built for employers, HR teams, people managers, benefits leaders, employee-relations professionals, and workplace wellbeing teams.
Awareness is a starting line—not a strategy.
You may already offer flexible work, health benefits, leave, an EAP, and an accommodation process. But do your employees know those resources apply when perimenopause or menopause starts affecting their work? Do your managers?
When no one is sure, silence fills the gap. Responses vary from manager to manager. Avoidable performance concerns surface. Promotions get passed up. Experienced people quietly leave. And the organization mistakes a temporary barrier for declining capability—losing the very knowledge, judgment, and leadership it spent years building.
Supporting an employee doesn’t mean lowering the bar. It means asking whether a reasonable change in how the work happens could help them clear it.
A fan. A quieter workspace. Protected breaks. A flexible start time. Written follow-up. Occasional remote work. The “cost” of these is often tiny next to the cost of repeated errors, absence, stalled advancement, recruiting, onboarding—and walking institutional knowledge out the door.
A menopause-supportive workplace doesn’t ask managers to become clinicians. It gives leaders a clear process: listen, protect privacy, explore appropriate support, and connect employees with the right resources.
“I know I can do this. Why is it suddenly so hard?”
The employee who seems distracted may have been awake since 2:00 a.m. after repeated night sweats. The leader who pauses to find a familiar word may already be wondering if colleagues think she’s lost her edge. The colleague who slips out of a meeting may be cooling down, changing menstrual protection, managing a migraine—or heading off a visible symptom before it becomes someone’s joke.
Loud open office
Difficulty concentrating tips into cognitive overload.
Bright lighting
A migraine-prone employee struggles to stay at the screen.
Hot or stuffy space
A hot flash becomes much harder to manage.
Back-to-back meetings
No lunch, no water, no restroom, no recovery—so an already-tired employee hits the afternoon running on empty.
Rigid early start
After a night of broken sleep, a fixed 7 a.m. start means arriving exhausted and fighting fog all morning.
One chair, all day
Joint and muscle aches often increase during the transition. With only a desk chair and no other seating or room to move, discomfort builds hour by hour.
Not every missed detail is about menopause—and the research doesn’t say it is. What it does show is that sleep changes, memory difficulty, hot flashes, anxiety, fatigue, and poor concentration are among the symptoms employees most often say affect their work.[1][2] A 2025 systematic review found moderate-to-high-quality evidence linking menopausal symptoms and poorer sleep with lower at-work productivity.[3]
The humane response and the performance response aren’t opposites. Usually, they’re the same: identify the barrier, make a proportionate adjustment, keep accountability, and check whether it’s working.
Perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause are not the same thing.
“Menopause” often gets used as shorthand for an entire life transition. Knowing the difference helps leaders, HR, and managers drop assumptions and have better-informed conversations.
Perimenopause
The transition leading up to menopause. Hormones and cycles can fluctuate, and symptoms can begin while someone is still having periods. It can last for years and may bring changes in sleep, temperature regulation, concentration, memory, mood, energy, or bleeding.
At work, capacity can feel unpredictable: fully on one day, struggling the next after a night of broken sleep or repeated hot flashes. Unpredictability is not a lack of commitment.
Menopause
A single point in time. Natural menopause is reached after 12 consecutive months without a period, when pregnancy, medication, or another health condition isn’t the cause.
It’s confirmed looking back—not a year-long phase, and never a diagnosis a manager should try to make.[28]
Postmenopause
Every year after that milestone. Some symptoms ease; others persist or change.
That’s why support should follow the barrier an employee describes—not a manager’s idea of when symptoms “should” be over.
Early and late perimenopause can look very different at work.
Clinicians and researchers often divide the menopausal transition into an early and a late stage, based mainly on changes in the menstrual cycle.[30] These stages aren’t a checklist for managers. They do explain why the same employee can have very different needs from one year to the next.
Periods continue, but the pattern starts to shift
Cycles become more variable: the length of consecutive cycles differs by seven days or more, and that keeps happening.[30] Hormone levels can swing widely from month to month.
What it can look like at work: new sleep problems, anxiety or irritability, heavier or less predictable periods, or a sense of being “off” that’s hard to name. Because periods haven’t stopped, many people don’t connect these changes to perimenopause. They may blame themselves, or a manager may read it as a motivation or performance problem.
Longer gaps between periods, and symptoms often peak
Periods may skip for 60 days or more at a time. Hot flashes and night sweats are more likely in this stage, which typically lasts about one to three years before the final period.[30]
What it can look like at work: hot flashes during meetings, broken sleep that drags down focus and memory, fatigue, and bleeding that’s hard to plan around. This is often when employees most need practical adjustments such as temperature control, schedule flexibility, and easy restroom access.
Timing and symptoms vary widely from person to person, and symptoms can begin before cycles visibly change. Staging is a clinical tool. In the workplace, the useful question is always about the barrier the employee describes, never which stage they might be in.
Menopause can also happen earlier, or result from surgery or medical treatment. Periods aren’t always a reliable marker for people using certain hormonal medications or who have had a hysterectomy. Not everyone has significant symptoms, and not everyone who experiences menopause identifies as a woman.
This is already your workforce.
Not a niche group. Not a someday issue. In 2025, women made up nearly half of everyone employed in the United States—and much of your experience is concentrated in menopause-relevant age bands.
women employed in the U.S. in 2025—47.1% of all employed people 16 and older.[27]
U.S. women ages 45–60 estimated to be working full time, per the Mayo Clinic workplace study.[4]
of women ages 45–54 were employed in 2024—and 58.8% of women ages 55–64.[29]
women in the U.S. reach menopause every year.[28]
Age bands help with workforce planning, but they aren’t a clinical measure. You can’t tell from age whether someone is in perimenopause, menopause, or postmenopause—and a manager should never try to diagnose. The takeaway is simpler: a large share of your experienced people will move through this transition while they’re leading teams, serving customers, and carrying knowledge you can’t easily replace.
Why this belongs on the leadership agenda
This isn’t about lowering expectations. It’s about protecting the conditions that make strong performance possible.
In a Mayo Clinic study of 4,440 employed U.S. women ages 45–60, more severe menopause symptoms were strongly associated with adverse work outcomes. Researchers estimated $1.8 billion a year in U.S. losses from missed workdays alone.[4] That figure doesn’t capture the harder-to-measure costs: presenteeism, lost confidence, declined promotions, reduced hours, unwanted turnover.
A 2025 U.S. workplace study found sleep changes, memory changes, hot flashes, and anxiety were the symptoms most often reported as affecting performance—touching concentration, stress, confidence, and patience. Yet only 9% of respondents with current symptoms said they’d received any workplace support.[1]
Retain experienced talent
Cut avoidable attrition among people whose knowledge, relationships, and leadership are hard to replace. Replacing a skilled employee means rebuilding trust, context, team rhythm, and institutional memory—not just recruiting. A targeted adjustment that keeps someone performing is a capacity investment, not a concession.
Sustain performance
Address barriers before they turn into absence, presenteeism, disengagement, or a preventable performance issue. If someone is missing details after weeks of poor sleep, don’t just ask “why is this happening?” Ask “what change would reduce error risk while she seeks care?” Written recaps, protected focus time, or a quieter space can reinforce expectations, not replace them.
Prepare managers
Give people leaders respectful language, clear boundaries, and an escalation path they can use with confidence.
Build consistency
Replace manager-by-manager improvisation with a fair, repeatable organizational response.
Unlock benefits value
Help employees find appropriate care and close gaps between benefit design, communication, and real-world access. Benefits deliver little value when people can’t find them, don’t know they apply, or fear asking will hurt their careers.
Get ahead of change
Prepare for a fast-moving landscape, including Illinois’ Menopause Equity and Care Act.
The numbers leaders can use—responsibly.
estimated annual U.S. loss from workdays missed due to menopause symptoms (Mayo Clinic).[4]
The Menopause Society’s combined annual U.S. estimate for lost productivity and excess healthcare spending.[5]
of employed Mayo respondents reported at least one adverse work outcome—missed work, reduced hours, quitting, retiring, or changing jobs.[1][4]
the odds of an adverse work outcome for those in the highest symptom-severity quartile vs. the lowest (Mayo).[4]
lower hourly productivity (and 10.9% lower annual) in a claims-based study of employees diagnosed with menopause symptoms vs. matched controls. An older observational study: it shows burden, not a guaranteed loss for every employer.[14]
annual salary: the broad employee-replacement-cost range cited by The Menopause Society. A general turnover estimate, not menopause-specific.[5]
These figures describe economic exposure—not guaranteed savings. A credible business case uses your workforce, absence, turnover, benefits, and replacement-cost data, rather than multiplying a national estimate by headcount.
Start where you are. Build from there.
Every organization begins in a different place. Choose a focused introduction, role-specific skill building, a coordinated company program, or hands-on implementation support.
PeriOS: Peri/Post-Menopause Readiness Webinar for Illinois Employers
The essential starting point. This webinar frames perimenopause and menopause as workforce issues and equips employers, HR, and people leaders to recognize workplace barriers without diagnosing anyone, handle sensitive conversations well, protect privacy, and connect employees to the support you already have. You’ll also get a clear introduction to the Illinois Menopause Equity and Care Act and a focused 30–60–90 day readiness plan.
Participants will learn
- Why menopause belongs on the workforce and leadership agenda
- How symptoms can create barriers without determining capability
- How bias and misattribution can skew performance conversations
- What managers should—and shouldn’t—say
- How to protect privacy and avoid unnecessary medical disclosure
- The difference between everyday flexibility and formal accommodation
- Practical workplace adjustments that work
- What to review across policy, benefits, communication, and training
- What Illinois employers should know about Public Act 104-0793
Includes
- Anonymous readiness poll
- Employer-focused scenarios
- PAUSE manager response framework
- Organizational readiness checklist
- 30–60–90 day action plan
- Live Q&A
Turn awareness into skill.
Less lecture, more practice. PeriOS workshops use discussion, realistic scenarios, guided decision-making, and reflection tailored to your organization. Book a single workshop or combine several into a company learning series.
Manager Ready
Responding to menopause-related workplace conversations
Managers are usually the first person an employee approaches—and the moment where a supportive process either starts strong or falls apart. This workshop gives leaders a repeatable way to respond without diagnosing, minimizing, overpromising, or asking for unnecessary medical information.
Participants practice
- Opening a neutral conversation about a change in work
- Responding when an employee shares a concern
- Separating observable performance from assumptions
- Protecting privacy
- Knowing when to bring in HR
- Using the PAUSE response framework
- Exploring options without premature promises
- Following up while preserving dignity and opportunity
HR Ready
Designing a consistent employee support process
A hands-on working session for HR, benefits, employee-relations, and wellbeing teams to map how menopause-related needs move through your organization—from the first conversation to support, documentation, benefits navigation, and follow-up.
Participants work through
- The employee journey from request to resolution
- Everyday flexibility vs. formal accommodation
- Roles for managers, HR, benefits, and employee relations
- Privacy and documentation boundaries
- Escalation standards and response timelines
- Policy, notice, resource, and benefits-navigation gaps
- Illinois implementation considerations
- Process measures that don’t track employees’ medical status
Leadership Ready
The business case and executive action session
A focused session connecting menopause support to talent retention, performance, leadership continuity, culture, benefits value, and organizational risk. Leaders walk out aligned on why it matters, what responsible sponsorship looks like, and what the organization will prioritize next.
Align Your Leadership TeamEmployee Awareness
Understanding perimenopause and finding support at work
Clear, stigma-free education focused on workplace resources, self-advocacy, privacy, and support channels—and it can feature your approved policies, benefits, and contacts.
Designed specifically for the workplace. This is separate from Something Is Changing, Veraluna Wellness’ public webinar for individuals.
Offer Employee EducationThe right information for every role.
Start the Conversation
Starting at $1,500
For organizations beginning their menopause-support journey.
- PeriOS Peri/Post-Menopause Readiness Webinar
- Digital readiness checklist
- Post-session leadership discussion guide
- One 30-minute planning call
Prepare Your People
Starting at $4,500
For organizations ready for role-specific education for employees and managers.
- PeriOS Peri/Post-Menopause Readiness Webinar
- Manager Ready workshop
- Employee Awareness session
- Manager conversation guide
- Employee resource handout with approved internal contacts
- One 60-minute HR implementation call
Build Organizational Readiness
Starting at $9,500
For organizations preparing for broader implementation or Illinois workplace changes.
- Leadership Ready workshop
- HR Ready workshop
- Manager Ready workshop
- Employee Awareness session
- Review of client-provided employee resources
- Customized implementation roadmap
- Two advisory calls during the first 90 days
| What’s included | Start the Conversation | Prepare Your People | Build Organizational Readiness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting at | $1,500 | $4,500 | $9,500 |
| Best for | Organizations just getting started | Role-specific education for managers and employees | Broader implementation or Illinois preparation |
| Readiness Webinar | Included | Included | Not included |
| Leadership Ready workshop | Not included | Not included | Included |
| HR Ready workshop | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Manager Ready workshop | Not included | Included | Included |
| Employee Awareness session | Not included | Included | Included |
| Digital readiness checklist | Included | Not included | Not included |
| Leadership discussion guide | Included | Not included | Not included |
| Manager conversation guide | Not included | Included | Not included |
| Employee resource handout with your contacts | Not included | Included | Not included |
| Review of your employee resources | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Customized implementation roadmap | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Planning and advisory calls | One 30-minute call | One 60-minute HR call | Two calls in the first 90 days |
| Outcome | A shared baseline and a 30–60–90 day action list | Employees know where to go; managers know how to respond | Aligned leaders, trained managers, and a clear support process |
Move from good intentions to a system that works.
PeriOS consulting looks at how menopause-related needs are actually handled across leadership, policy, process, benefits, communication, and employee experience. Every recommendation is practical, prioritized, and built to work with the systems you already have.
PeriOS Readiness Review
Starting at $3,500
Get a clear picture of where you stand before deciding what to change.
Includes
- Kickoff and stakeholder interview
- Review of client-provided policies, pathways, employee resources, manager guidance, and benefits communications
- High-level employee-journey assessment
- Priority gaps and operational risks
- Illinois readiness considerations, where applicable
You receive
- Readiness scorecard
- Findings and priority recommendations
- Quick wins and longer-term actions
- 90-day roadmap
- Executive findings presentation
PeriOS Implementation Sprint
Starting at $8,500
Hands-on help building a response your people can actually use.
Includes
- Readiness assessment (or use of an existing approved one)
- Design of the employee support journey
- Clear roles for managers, HR, benefits, and employee relations
- Manager conversation and escalation guidance
- Employee resource pathway
- Communication and training sequence
- Process-testing workshop
You receive
- Implementation roadmap with owners and milestones
- Recommended employee handbook updates, ready for counsel review
- Manager quick-reference guide
- HR response framework
- Employee resource map
- Communication plan and core messages
- Measurement recommendations
- Leadership readout
PeriOS Advisory Partnership
Starting at $1,500/month
Ongoing support while you implement, learn, and refine.
May include
- Scheduled strategic advisory sessions
- Implementation check-ins and decision support
- Review of draft employee and manager communications
- Learning-strategy guidance
- Help interpreting feedback and process themes
- Periodic updates on workplace menopause developments
- Annual program review and next-stage recommendations
Need something different? Build a custom engagement.
Mix a webinar, workshops, and consulting to fit your organization’s size, workforce, geography, and stage of readiness.
Design a Custom PeriOS EngagementSmall changes. More usable capacity.
An effective adjustment is individualized, tied to a specific workplace barrier, compatible with the role’s essential functions, and reviewed once it’s in place. No guessing at diagnoses. No dropping accountability.
| Workplace barrier | Possible adjustment | For the employee | For the employer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heat or hot flashes | Fan, cooler location, temperature control, breathable uniform option, access to cool water | Less time spent managing discomfort or embarrassment | Better focus, fewer unplanned interruptions |
| Noise or sensory overload | Quiet workspace, noise-reducing headset, protected focus block | Lower cognitive load when concentration is hard | Fewer preventable errors, more deep-work capacity |
| Bright light or migraine | Lighting adjustment, screen filter, reduced glare, alternate workspace | Fewer symptom triggers | More usable work time, fewer symptom-driven departures |
| Severe sleep disruption | Flexible start, temporary schedule change, remote work where feasible | Safer recovery; work during more functional hours | Better-quality output, lower absence risk |
| Brain fog or memory difficulty | Written priorities, meeting recaps, checklists, fewer simultaneous interruptions | Less reliance on working memory during a hard stretch | Clearer execution, documentation, and accountability |
| Heavy or unpredictable bleeding | Ready restroom access, extra brief breaks, private changing space, remote work where feasible | More dignity, less fear of leakage | Less unplanned absence and distraction |
| Fatigue, missed meals, dehydration | Protected meal/restroom/hydration breaks; water nearby where safe | A real chance to meet basic physical needs | Steadier attention and energy across the shift |
| Joint or muscle pain | Comfortable alternative seating beyond the desk chair, sit-stand options, supportive cushions, short movement breaks | Less pain and stiffness through the day | Steadier focus and fewer pain-related interruptions |
| Medical appointments | Flexible scheduling, adjusted hours, use of applicable leave | Earlier access to evaluation and treatment | Less chance unmanaged symptoms escalate |
These are only a few examples. They aren’t a complete list, automatic entitlements, or guaranteed fixes. Job demands, safety, applicable law, and individual need guide the process.
Need to update your employee handbook?
PeriOS can help you update your employee handbook so it clearly explains menopause-related support: how to ask for an adjustment, who handles requests, how privacy is protected, and where to find benefits and resources. We draft practical, plain-language updates for your employment counsel to review before you publish them.
Ask About Handbook UpdatesThe Menopause Society recommends considering ventilation, temperature control, access to ice, fans or showers, schedule flexibility, appropriate work-from-home options, restroom breaks, and time for healthcare appointments.[5] Rhode Island law explicitly lists options such as more frequent or longer breaks, equipment modification, seating, job restructuring, and modified schedules.[6]
Research suggests work breaks can support wellbeing, though their effect on performance depends on timing, length, activity, and context.[7] Evidence on mild dehydration is mixed, but a meta-analysis found more substantial dehydration can impair attention and executive function.[8] So the honest claim isn’t that water or a ten-minute break “fixes menopause.” It’s that preventable heat, thirst, hunger, and nonstop cognitive load shouldn’t be allowed to pile onto an already difficult day.
An accommodation may look like it takes minutes away from the workday. If those minutes prevent an error, sustain attention, avoid an absence, or keep an experienced employee, the organization may gain more capacity than it gives up.
Direct studies putting a precise ROI on individual menopause accommodations are still limited. That’s why PeriOS helps employers define the expected outcome, test a proportionate adjustment, hold clear standards, and review whether it improves attendance, work quality, consistency, or retention.
A national shift is already underway.
States are pulling different policy levers—but they’re all moving in the same direction.
Menopause policy is emerging as a patchwork: workplace accommodation in some states, insurance coverage, provider education, or public-health resources in others. For multistate employers, that’s a reason to build one principled, consistent approach now—rather than scrambling to respond state by state.
In 2025, Rhode Island became the first state to make menopause workplace-accommodation protections explicit. Covered employers must reasonably accommodate menopause-related conditions unless it would create undue hardship. The law also bars forcing leave when another reasonable accommodation is available, and requires employee notice.[6][9]
The Menopause Equity and Care Act recognizes menopause-related conditions in workplace-support considerations and expands qualifying insurance coverage. Workplace provisions begin January 1, 2027; insurance provisions begin January 1, 2028.[10]
Public Act 26-13 requires a practical, evidence-based, culturally appropriate menopause toolkit for healthcare providers. It isn’t a workplace mandate—but it tackles the same root problem: people can’t get effective support at work when recognition and care are hard to access.[11]
Delaware enacted coverage requirements for medically necessary menopause and perimenopause diagnosis and treatment, beginning with applicable plans after December 31, 2027.[12] Louisiana provides Medicaid coverage for hormonal care for eligible people with menopausal or perimenopausal symptoms.[13]
What the patchwork tells employers
- Menopause is moving from an invisible personal issue to a policy and workforce issue.
- Accommodation, healthcare access, education, and benefits are interconnected.
- Multistate consistency reduces manager confusion and unequal employee experiences.
- A policy alone isn’t enough if managers are untrained and employees don’t trust the process.
- Distinguish enacted requirements from pending proposals, and get jurisdiction-specific advice.
Illinois is bringing menopause into the workplace conversation. Are you ready?
Illinois enacted the Menopause Equity and Care Act, Public Act 104-0793, in August 2026. The law expands menopause education, addresses workplace-support considerations, and includes insurance provisions for qualifying evidence-based care.
Workplace-related provisions take effect.
Insurance-related provisions take effect.
Now is the time to review
- Accommodation and employee-support processes
- Manager guidance and escalation procedures
- Employee notices and communications
- Flexible scheduling and temperature-related practices
- Benefits coverage and administrator readiness
- Privacy, documentation, and follow-up
PeriOS helps you surface the operational questions and prepare your people. It does not provide an organization-specific legal opinion or compliance determination.
Employers should confirm applicability, policy language, plan design, and implementation requirements with qualified employment counsel, benefits advisers, carriers, and plan administrators.
Clear enough to use. Nuanced enough to trust.
Evidence-informed
Grounded in established medical, public-health, and workplace sources.
Practical
Every engagement delivers usable language, frameworks, decisions, or next steps.
Human
Menopause discussed without shame, stereotypes, or assumptions.
Role-specific
Employees, managers, HR, and executives each get what their role requires.
Systems-aware
Recommendations plug into your existing accommodation, benefits, employee-relations, wellbeing, and communication processes.
Inclusive
We recognize varied experiences—and that not everyone who experiences perimenopause identifies the same way.
Books and podcasts shaping the workplace conversation
Books and podcasts turn evidence into human stories, leadership language, and real company examples. PeriOS uses them as secondary context—never as a substitute for original research. Every financial figure is checked against the underlying study or government review before it appears in our programs or on this site.
Workplace-focused books
Working Through Menopause: The Impact on Women, Businesses and the Bottom Line
Mache Seibel, MD, and Sharon Seibel, MD
Written for employees and employers alike, this book frames menopause as a health, performance, retention, revenue, and business issue. It notes that people experiencing menopause make up roughly one-fourth of the workforce and argues that menopause-friendly workplaces can improve retention, satisfaction, performance, and the bottom line.[15]
A note on the numbers: The book’s sales description cites an estimated $810 billion global cost to businesses; Dr. Seibel’s current speaking page cites $180 billion per year.[15][25] Neither publicly identifies its underlying model, so PeriOS does not present either as a verified research estimate. The U.S. figures from the Mayo Clinic and The Menopause Society are more defensible.[4][5]
Menopause Transitions and the Workplace: Theorising Transitions, Responsibilities and Interventions
Edited by Vanessa Beck, Jo Brewis, and Andrea Davies
An academic collection examining menopause through management, organization, gender, aging, and intersectional lenses—a valuable corrective to approaches that put the whole burden on the individual instead of examining job and workplace design.[16]
Your Second Phase: Reclaiming Work and Relationships During and After Menopause
Kate Usher
Connects the personal experience of menopause with confidence, work, relationships, and career continuity—especially useful for understanding why a highly capable employee may start doubting herself long before her employer spots a workplace barrier.[17]
Menopause Working
Cathy Hastie
Drawing on HR leadership and lived experience, Hastie shows how work structure, workload, conversation, and environment can ease or intensify menopause-related difficulty. Her message is direct: examine the environment—don’t treat the employee as the problem.[18]
Menopause: The Change for the Better
Deborah Garlick
From the founder of Henpicked: Menopause in the Workplace, an accessible foundation for understanding menopause and having better-informed conversations. Garlick’s work helped bring employer training, line-manager education, and menopause-friendly practice into the mainstream.[19]
Podcasts and audio for leaders
Hello Menopause: “Pay Now or Pay Later: Fixing Menopause in the Workplace”
with Kacy Fleming
An employer-centered look at the cost of inaction, invisible workplace data, leadership performance, and practical organizational design. (The episode’s $1.8 billion figure comes from the Mayo Clinic study.)[20][4]
ILO, The Future of Work: “Is the Menopause a Workplace Issue?”
Places menopause within labor participation, gender equality, productivity, and the loss of experienced talent—ideal for leaders who need to see beyond a wellness-program frame.[21]
Health Unscripted: “The Impact of Menopause at Work, and How Employers Can Help”
Cigna leaders on performance, mental health, benefits, flexibility, stigma, and retention—especially relevant for benefits and total-rewards teams.[22]
HRchat: “Menopause, Work, and What We Can Change”
with Dr. Woganee Filate
A clinically informed employer conversation on sleep, focus, retention, culture, and the hidden cost of unsupported symptoms.[23]
Progress, Potential, and Possibilities: “Menopause: The Workplace Blind Spot Costing Billions”
with Karen Bishop
How Astellas Pharma evolved from an internal menopause pledge to manager education, employee support systems, and benefits navigation—a real-world model of menopause support as retention strategy.[24]
The MiDOViA Menopause Podcast: “Navigating Menopause in the Workplace”
with Dr. Mache Seibel
On presenteeism, career advancement, retention, and why menopause belongs in organizational strategy. Dr. Seibel cites figures including ~25% considering leaving a job and almost 40% reporting an effect on presenteeism; because the episode page doesn’t link them to a specific study, they’re attributed to Dr. Seibel rather than presented as PeriOS research claims.[26]
Education for the workplace moments no one taught leaders to navigate.
Veraluna Wellness creates thoughtful, accessible learning experiences that help people understand health transitions—and help organizations respond with more clarity and care.
Through PeriOS, complex menopause information becomes practical workplace action: language managers can use, systems HR teams can strengthen, and pathways employees can actually follow.
Meet Dawn Leprich-Graves
Dawn Leprich-Graves, LCPC, LPC, PMH-C, ASDCS, is a therapist, educator, and entrepreneur who brings together more than 20 years of behavioral-health experience—and a hard-won personal reckoning with success, burnout, and recovery—to help create healthier, more sustainable workplaces.
Since 2004, Dawn has supported people across inpatient, intensive outpatient, community, hotline, and private-practice settings. She works primarily with women and neurodivergent adults navigating perfectionism, anxiety, burnout, eating disorders and body-image concerns, reproductive mental health, hormonal transitions, and the exhausting pressure to keep functioning as though nothing has changed.
For five years, Dawn was also the owner and leader of a group practice she built from the ground up into a $2 million business.
The achievement was real. So was the cost.
What appeared from the outside to be growth and success became increasingly difficult to sustain—operationally, financially, and personally. Dawn ultimately made the painful decision to dissolve the business she had worked so hard to build.
Only later could she fully understand the forces that had converged: early perimenopause and its “multiplier effect” on previously undiagnosed AuDHD, compounded by chronic entrepreneurial burnout. Each intensified the others. Symptoms she did not yet have language for were affecting her energy, executive functioning, recovery, decision-making, and capacity. At the same time, the demands of leadership, parenting, and everyday life left little room to pause and ask what her body and nervous system needed.
After graduating from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program and officially closing her large group practice, Dawn spent several years focused on her own healing. From that process emerged a renewed sense of purpose: helping women understand what may be happening before they mistake a health transition for personal failure—and helping business owners and organizational leaders build success that does not require people to abandon themselves.
That purpose became PeriOS.
Grounded in a biopsychosocial framework, PeriOS recognizes that sustainable performance is shaped by the interaction of biology, psychology, relationships, workplace systems, and culture. Dawn’s approach also emphasizes nervous-system regulation through modalities such as Brainspotting and Internal Family Systems.
Her work is guided by the traditional IFS “8 C’s”: curiosity, compassion, clarity, connectedness, confidence, courage, creativity, and calm. Dawn extends that framework by emphasizing a ninth C—choice—because sustainable change requires people to have meaningful agency in how they respond, lead, work, and care for themselves.
- Curiosity
- Compassion
- Clarity
- Connectedness
- Confidence
- Courage
- Creativity
- Calm
- + Choice
These are more than personal qualities. They offer a foundation for healthier leadership, more humane decision-making, and workplaces in which people can contribute without quietly breaking themselves to do it.
Dawn is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor in Illinois and a Licensed Professional Counselor in South Carolina. Her advanced training includes perinatal mental health certification, autism-specialist certification, Certified Brainspotting Clinician status, IFS Level 1 training, multiple trauma and somatic approaches, eating-disorder treatment, and reproductive and hormonal mental health. Her work has a particular focus on neurodivergence during the perinatal, perimenopausal, and postmenopausal stages of life.
In PeriOS employer programs, Dawn serves as an educator and consultant. PeriOS does not provide therapy, diagnosis, or treatment to employees.
Looking for perimenopause education for yourself? Something Is Changing is Veraluna Wellness’ separate public webinar for individuals.
For one-on-one support during perimenopause, see Veraluna’s perimenopause mental health services.
Explore Something Is ChangingFrom first call to follow-through
Discovery
In a complimentary call, we talk through your audience, goals, resources, geography, and timeline.
Recommendation
Within 3 business days, you receive a recommended service or combination.
Alignment
We confirm scope, stakeholders, delivery, accessibility, and approved customization.
Delivery
Participants get practical education or facilitated working sessions.
Follow-through
Your team receives the agreed resources, roadmap, or advisory support.
Frequently asked questions
No. Something Is Changing is Veraluna Wellness’ public webinar for individuals. PeriOS employer services include an employer webinar, workplace workshops, company learning packages, and consulting.
Start with the employer webinar when you need shared understanding; Manager Ready when frontline response is the priority; HR Ready when internal systems need attention; or a Readiness Review when leaders need evidence and priorities before choosing a program.
Absolutely. Workshops can be booked on their own or combined with the webinar and consulting. Company packages offer a coordinated sequence, and custom engagements are available.
Yes, with preparation. Sessions can incorporate client-approved resource links, points of contact, and process information. Your organization remains responsible for their accuracy and legal review.
No. PeriOS provides workplace education and implementation support. We don’t diagnose employees, recommend personal treatment, or teach managers to infer health conditions.
No. Organization-specific legal questions should be addressed by qualified employment counsel.
The PeriOS Peri/Post-Menopause Readiness Webinar is a live virtual group session. Private sessions for a single organization can be scheduled virtually or in person. Workshops and consulting are available by video conference or in person in northern Illinois. In-person availability depends on your location, scheduling preferences, and weather, so we’ll confirm the best format together during your discovery call.
Yes. Video-conference workshops and consulting are available to organizations outside Illinois, and in-person sessions are offered in northern Illinois. General workplace principles apply broadly, while legal references are tailored to each jurisdiction.
Each consulting engagement is quoted as a fixed project fee, so you know the full investment before work begins, with no hourly billing surprises. After a complimentary discovery call, you’ll receive a written proposal within 3 business days outlining scope, deliverables, timeline, and fee. Pricing reflects your organization’s size, the number of stakeholders involved, the materials we review, the level of customization, and your timeline. Advisory Partnerships are offered as 1-, 3-, or 6-month engagements at a set monthly fee. Starting prices are listed with each service and assume virtual delivery; in-person sessions in northern Illinois may include a travel fee.
Make the next workplace conversation easier.
Your employee shouldn’t have to spend half her energy hiding what’s happening just to use the other half doing her job. Your manager shouldn’t have to improvise when she finally asks for help. And your organization shouldn’t have to lose an experienced contributor before realizing a workable adjustment could have changed everything.
Whether you need a strong first conversation, better-prepared managers, an aligned HR team, or a complete organizational response, PeriOS gives you a practical place to start.
Prefer email? Reach us at periOS@veralunawellness.com
- Mallen S, Coppola J, Shaffer N, et al. “I did not recognize myself”: a mixed methods study to better understand the experiences of menopause in a US workplace. Menopause. 2025. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12502938
- O’Neill MT, Jones V, Reid A. Impact of menopausal symptoms on work and careers: a cross-sectional study. Occupational Medicine. 2023;73(6):332–338. academic.oup.com/occmed/article/73/6/332/7237845
- Clevis MGA, Nieuwenhuijsen K, van Valkengoed IGM, et al. Are health-related, lifestyle, work-related, and socio-demographic factors associated with work productivity among menopausal women? A systematic review. Maturitas. 2025;200:108646. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40779949
- Faubion SS, et al. Impact of Menopause Symptoms on Women in the Workplace. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2023;98(6):833–845. doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2023.02.025
- The Menopause Society. Menopause and the Workplace: Consensus Recommendations. 2024. menopause.org (PDF)
- Rhode Island General Laws § 28-5-7.4, Accommodation of pregnancy-related and menopause-related conditions. webserver.rilegislature.gov
- Lyubykh Z, et al. Role of work breaks in well-being and performance: A systematic review and future research agenda. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. 2022. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35980721
- Wittbrodt MT, Millard-Stafford M. Dehydration Impairs Cognitive Performance: A Meta-analysis. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2018;50(11):2360–2368. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29933347
- Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights. Employer posting and notice requirements. richr.ri.gov/news/postings.php
- Illinois General Assembly. Public Act 104-0793, Illinois Menopause Equity and Care Act. ilga.gov
- Connecticut General Assembly. Public Act 26-13, §18. cga.ct.gov (PDF)
- Delaware General Assembly. SS 1 for SB 319. legis.delaware.gov
- Louisiana State Legislature. Act 784 of 2024; Medicaid hormonal care for menopausal and perimenopausal symptoms. legis.la.gov
- Whiteley J, DiBonaventura M, Wagner JS, et al. Direct and indirect costs of women diagnosed with menopause symptoms. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2013;55(4):465–470. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23532198
- Seibel MM, Seibel S. Working Through Menopause: The Impact on Women, Businesses and the Bottom Line. BookBaby; 2022. drmache.com/workingthroughmenopause; Google Books
- Beck V, Brewis J, Davies A, eds. Menopause Transitions and the Workplace: Theorising Transitions, Responsibilities and Interventions. Bristol University Press; 2024. bristoluniversitypress.co.uk
- Usher K. Your Second Phase: Reclaiming Work and Relationships During and After Menopause. LID Publishing; 2020. lidpublishing.com (PDF)
- Hastie C. Menopause Working. Author and workplace overview: regent.ac.za (PDF)
- Garlick D. Menopause: The Change for the Better. Author discussion, Chartered Governance Institute: cgi.org.uk
- Hello Menopause. “Pay Now or Pay Later: Fixing Menopause in the Workplace,” with Kacy Fleming. May 27, 2026. letstalkmenopause.org
- International Labour Organization, The Future of Work Podcast. “Is the Menopause a Workplace Issue?” January 7, 2022. podcast.ilo.org
- Cigna Healthcare, Health Unscripted. “The Impact of Menopause at Work, and How Employers Can Help.” May 26, 2026. newsroom.cigna.com
- HRchat Podcast. “Menopause, Work, and What We Can Change,” with Dr. Woganee Filate. 2026. iheart.com
- Progress, Potential, and Possibilities. “Menopause: The Workplace Blind Spot Costing Billions,” with Karen Bishop. 2026. buzzsprout.com
- Seibel M. “How to Make Your Business Menopause-Friendly.” Speaker description. drmache.com/speaking
- The MiDOViA Menopause Podcast. “Navigating Menopause in the Workplace,” with Dr. Mache Seibel. February 27, 2025. buzzsprout.com
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Serving up employment data on Pi Day.” The Economics Daily. March 13, 2026. Reports 2025 annual-average employment of 76.931 million women, 47.1% of employed people age 16 and older. bls.gov
- National Institute on Aging. “Research explores the impact of menopause on women’s health and aging.” Defines menopause as the point 12 months after the last menstrual period and perimenopause as the preceding transition; reports that more than one million U.S. women experience menopause each year. nia.nih.gov
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Women in the Labor Force: A Databook—2024. Employment-population ratios: 74.7% for women ages 45–54 and 58.8% for women ages 55–64. bls.gov
- Harlow SD, Gass M, Hall JE, et al. Executive summary of the Stages of Reproductive Aging Workshop + 10: addressing the unfinished agenda of staging reproductive aging. Menopause. 2012;19(4):387–395. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22343510
Evidence note: Observational studies can show associations but cannot prove that menopause alone caused a work outcome. Direct evidence on the return on investment of individual workplace accommodations remains limited.
PeriOS services provide general workplace education and implementation support. They do not provide personal medical diagnosis or treatment, legal advice, legal representation, insurance brokerage, or an organization-specific compliance determination. Organizations should consult qualified employment counsel, benefits advisers, carriers, plan administrators, and healthcare professionals for advice specific to their circumstances.
The PeriOS Collective
Menopause support your whole organization can reach, any time it’s needed. The PeriOS Collective is a licensed, on-demand learning library for leaders and staff.
On-demand learning modules
Short, practical lessons for leaders, managers, and employees, ready when the question comes up.
Education and resources
Clear, evidence-informed information about perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause at work.
Support and accommodation ideas
Practical adjustments and conversation guidance that managers and HR can put to use.
Local provider directory
A list of providers in your area who can support your employees.
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Looking for further guidance and support around implementing Menopause Support & Accommodations into your workplace?
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