Menopause Action Plans — What Employers Need to Know

Approximately 13 million people in the UK are currently going through or have gone through the menopause. The peak age for menopause symptoms — typically 45 to 55 — coincides with the career peak for many women. Research from the Fawcett Society and the Faculty of Occupational Medicine has found that a significant proportion of women experiencing menopause symptoms have considered leaving work, reduced their hours, or passed up promotions as a result.

Employment tribunals have increasingly seen cases where menopausal symptoms were found to be covered by the disability provisions of the Equality Act 2010 — either as a disability in their own right, or as a condition related to a pre-existing disability. Employers who take no steps to support menopausal employees are therefore exposed to potential discrimination claims as well as losing experienced staff.

The threshold is expected to be set at 250 employees or more, mirroring the threshold used for gender pay gap reporting. The Government may extend this to smaller employers in later phases, but the initial obligation will apply to larger employers.

Secondary regulations will confirm the exact threshold, what the plan must contain, and where it must be published. As of April 2026, the Government has committed to implementing this provision in 2027 but the final regulations are not yet published. Employers in scope should treat this as a planning horizon of 12 months.

If you have fewer than 250 employees: You are not currently in scope for the mandatory requirement, but everything in this guide still represents best practice. Given the direction of travel in employment law and the growing case law on menopause and the Equality Act, treating menopause support as a discretionary nicety is increasingly hard to justify.

The Government's consultation indicated that menopause action plans will need to address the following areas:

• Policy statement. A clear statement of the employer's commitment to supporting employees experiencing menopause symptoms, and how this fits within the broader equality and diversity framework.
• Awareness and education. What the employer does to ensure managers and colleagues understand menopause, including training, resources, and communications.
• Workplace adjustments. What reasonable adjustments the employer can make for employees experiencing symptoms — common examples include flexible working, temperature controls, access to cool water, breaks, and remote working options.
• Absence management. How menopause-related absences will be handled. This is important because standard absence triggers and Bradford Factor calculations can disproportionately penalise employees with menopause-related absences.
• Confidentiality and support. How employees can raise concerns confidentially, access occupational health support, or speak to a menopause champion or trained manager.
• Review and reporting. How and when the plan will be reviewed, and — for in-scope employers — how it will be published.

The plan will need to be published in a way that is accessible to employees — likely on the company intranet and/or GOV.UK in the same way gender pay gap data is published. The exact format and publication channel will be confirmed by secondary regulations.

Regardless of the 2027 menopause action plan obligation, employers already have duties under the Equality Act 2010. Menopause symptoms that are severe enough to have a substantial and long-term adverse effect on an employee's ability to carry out day-to-day activities may constitute a disability. Where this is the case, the duty to make reasonable adjustments applies.

Employment tribunals have found in favour of claimants in cases involving:

• Disciplinary action taken for absences caused by menopause symptoms, without any investigation into the underlying cause
• Failure to consider flexible working requests made specifically to manage symptoms
• Comments made by managers about menopause being used as an excuse — held to amount to harassment related to sex and/or age
• Dismissal of an employee whose menopause-related symptoms were not recognised as a potential disability, and therefore no reasonable adjustments were explored

1. Appoint a menopause champion or lead. This is a single person — often a trained HR professional or a trained line manager — who can be a point of contact for employees who want support but aren't sure how to raise it. ACAS guidance recommends this approach.
2. Train your line managers. Managers don't need to be medical experts. They need to know: what menopause is, that it can affect work, that it may be a disability, that they should not make jokes about it, and that there are options for support. A 1–2 hour awareness session covers all of this.
3. Review your absence policy. Check whether your absence triggers (Bradford Factor or similar) catch short-term menopause-related absences unfairly. Many organisations carve out menopause-related absences from trigger calculations, in the same way they carve out pregnancy-related absences.
4. Draft a menopause policy or add a menopause section to your wellness policy. If you're in scope for the 2027 requirement, you'll need a formal plan. If you're not in scope, a brief policy statement still demonstrates commitment and gives managers something to reference.
5. Carry out a workplace assessment. Review whether your physical working environment creates particular difficulties for employees with hot flushes or other symptoms. Ventilation, access to cold water, uniform flexibility, and private spaces to recover are common areas to address.

Sources: Employment Rights Act 2025 (menopause action plan provisions). GOV.UK: Menopause and the workplace — government consultation 2022. ACAS: Menopause at work. Equality Act 2010 (disability provisions). Fawcett Society: Menopause and the Workplace report. Faculty of Occupational Medicine: Guidance on Menopause and the Workplace.
Last updated: April 2026. Also see: Employment Rights Act 2025 — full summary.