Menopause at work: guidance for employers

Understanding the legal risks and steps to support employees experiencing menopause.

There is no legislation specifically protecting employees who experience menopause. However, case law demonstrates that existing protections, particularly under the Equality Act 2010 (EqA 2010) and unfair dismissal law, may provide grounds for claims. Depending on the circumstances, menopause-related issues may engage protected characteristics including age, disability, sex or gender reassignment. Employers should therefore be alert to the legal risks of failing to recognise symptoms of menopause as a workplace issue, consider appropriate support and respond fairly to related performance, attendance or conduct concerns.

The policy landscape is also developing. As explained in our August 2026 article, employers with 250 or more employees are currently encouraged to publish voluntary action plans explaining how they will address gender pay gaps and support employees experiencing menopause. The plans are expected to become mandatory in spring 2027 under the wider Employment Rights Act 2025 reforms, with anticipated reporting deadlines of 30 March 2028 for most public authority employers and 4 April 2028 for private, voluntary and other public authority employers. Employers should therefore consider reviewing workforce issues relating to menopause and available support and developing an action plan for next steps.

In this context, this article sets out the legal risks for employers arising from menopause-related issues in the workplace, examining how discrimination and unfair dismissal law applies in menopause-related cases, the remedies available and the practical lessons for employers.

The current legal position

The Government has not committed to making menopause a protected characteristic under the EqA 2010. However, employees experiencing menopause symptoms may be protected by the existing discrimination framework and may also bring unfair dismissal claims. Menopause is increasingly referred to in employment tribunal proceedings: records produced by the Menopause Experts Group show that it was cited in 23 cases in 2021, a 44% increase from 16 cases in 2020. Of those 23 cases, 16 included disability discrimination claims, 14 included unfair dismissal claims and 10 included sex discrimination claims. We might expect these figures to be higher in more recent years due to increased awareness of the impacts of menopause among employees.

Discrimination

Depending on the circumstances, an employee experiencing menopause symptoms may bring a discrimination claim relating to age, disability, sex and/or, for a trans employee, gender reassignment. A case may involve several protected characteristics and forms of discrimination, making it more complex, time-consuming and costly to defend.

If a discrimination claim succeeds, the tribunal may award compensation for injury to feelings. The current Vento bands for injury to feelings awards start at £1,300 but can reach between £37,700 and £62,900 for the most serious cases. Compensation may also include financial losses, such as lost salary and quantifiable benefits, and there is no statutory cap on the overall award.

The Government has stated its intention to bring section 14 of the EqA 2010 into force, which would allow a claimant to bring a direct discrimination claim based on a combination of two protected characteristics. This could be particularly relevant in menopause-related cases, where an employee’s treatment may be due to the combined effect or intersection of more than one protected characteristic. In April 2025, the Government launched a call for evidence seeking information about the prevalence of combined discrimination and the effectiveness of existing protections and remedies. Following this, the Government has published a response on 29 October 2026. The conclusion was that commencing section 14 “would not materially increase equality law protection and could create legal uncertainty and disbenefits”. However, the Government has recognised the need for greater clarity in this area of law and aims to publish further guidance in due course. More details on the response can be found here: Government response to the call for evidence - GOV.UK.

Examples of discrimination and harassment claims

In the Employment Tribunal case ofThomas v Bibimoney Global Ltd ET/2204661/2022, Ms Thomas succeeded in claims of direct sex discrimination, sex-related harassment, direct age discrimination and age-related harassment after Bibimoney’s founder attributed her behaviour at a meeting to her being “menopausal”. The tribunal found that the comment would not have been made about a male comparator and had been made because of the claimant’s sex. Bibimoney was ordered to pay £5,500 for injury to feelings and interest. The case shows that comments linking behaviour to menopause can give rise to a number of claims involving more than one protected characteristic, including sex and age.

Rooney v Leicester City Council ET/2600242/2019 and 2600243/2019 is another helpful illustration. Ms Rooney’s menopause symptoms included hot flushes, sweating, palpitations, anxiety, night sweats, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, urinary problems, headaches, dizziness, incontinence and joint pain. Their practical impact included missed or forgotten events, misplaced belongings and occasions when she did not lock her house or put on the handbrake of her car. The employment tribunal initially decided that this did not amount to a disability as these symptoms did not have a substantial adverse effect on the claimant’s ability to carry out day to day activities. In reaching that view, it placed weight on Ms Rooney’s ability to care for her mother and husband and considered that some of the matters she relied on as part of this claim were “fairly trivial” compared with her family responsibilities. That decision was overturned by the EAT. The EAT held that the tribunal had taken the wrong approach by weighing the activities she remained capable of undertaking against those with which she struggled and was wrong to characterise the effects of her symptoms as merely minor or trivial. The case was sent back to a new tribunal, which concluded that Ms Rooney met the EqA 2010 definition of disability. 

For employers, this case underlines that the effects of menopause must be assessed in the round. The fact that an employee can still manage significant responsibilities or carry out certain demanding activities does not, by itself, prevent the employee from being disabled. What matters is whether the symptoms have an adverse effect that satisfies the statutory tests of being substantial and long-term.

Unfair dismissal

An employer considering the dismissal of an employee experiencing menopause symptoms must also comply with the usual requirements for a fair dismissal. Under section 98 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996), the employer must dismiss for a potentially fair reason and must act reasonably in treating that reason as sufficient to dismiss.

If an employee brings an unfair dismissal claim and it succeeds, the principal remedy is compensation comprising a basic award, subject to the statutory cap, and a compensatory award. From 6 April 2026, the compensatory award is the lower of £123,543 or 52 weeks’ gross pay, however this cap will be removed with effect from 1 January 2027. The compensatory award reflects losses that the tribunal considers just and equitable, including salary and pension losses.

Many unfair dismissal claims concern misconduct. One example is Merchant v BT plc ET/140135/11 which concerned unfair dismissal and sex discrimination claims, both of which succeeded. It was held that although the employer genuinely believed that the employee lacked competence, there were no reasonable grounds for that belief. She had provided a doctor’s letter explaining that menopause may have affected her performance, but contrary to the employer’s policy, her manager did not investigate this properly. He therefore could not assess how menopause explained her recent underperformance or affected her concentration. Instead, he relied on his personal knowledge of his wife’s and colleague’s experience of menopause rather than medical advice. 

The key lesson for employers is that, where menopause is raised as a possible explanation for performance concerns, they should investigate this properly and follow their own procedures before deciding whether to dismiss. 

However, an employer may not need to consider menopause before dismissal if doing so could not have affected the outcome. Collier v Graveney Trust ET/2301700/2016 illustrates this limited exception. In this case, Ms Collier was dismissed for misconduct involving bullying, touching, and physically and verbally abusing a student. Ms Collier argued that her misconduct dismissal was unfair because the employer had not considered all matters raised in her defence, including her contention that menopause had caused her conduct. The tribunal held that the employer did not need to consider every point raised because CCTV footage established the misconduct. The key takeaway from this case is thata misconduct dismissal may remain fair without detailed consideration of menopause where clear evidence establishes the misconduct, and considering menopause would have made no difference. However, it is important to note this was a rare gross misconduct scenario and it will usually be advisable to investigate any potential mental or physical impairment which might have given rise to the conduct.

Other potential claims

There is also a risk of claims for discrimination arising from disability, for example where an employee is disciplined, dismissed or is not promoted due to poor performance where that poor performance arises because of significant menopausal symptoms. Employers should therefore ensure that any decision to dismiss in these circumstances is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. This means taking steps to understand the issue, including seeking medical advice, and weighing up the impact of the poor performance on the employer’s business against the impact of the decision on the employee.

Claims for indirect discrimination and for failure to make reasonable adjustments can also be brought by employees in relation to policies and working practices applied to everyone which put people sharing a protected characteristic at a disadvantage. It is important for employers to consider how requirements on employees and their working environment impact on employees in different groups, including those experiencing menopause, and to take steps to adjust requirements and working conditions where that is feasible.  

What should employers consider?

Although experiencing menopause is not in itself a protected characteristic, the cases above show that tribunals take menopause-related dismissal seriously. Employers that fail to properly investigate before dismissal may face litigation, with associated financial and reputational consequences. Employers should therefore take a proactive, individual approach and:

• encourage confidential conversations and avoid stereotypical comments or assumptions about behaviour, symptoms or capability;

• train managers to recognise the potential discrimination risks and respond sensitively;

• consider reasonable adjustments and whether workplace requirements place the employee at a disadvantage;

• properly investigate any link between menopause and attendance, performance or conduct;

• obtain medical or occupational health evidence where appropriate, and follow the relevant procedure; and

• review policies, risk assessments and any menopause action plan, and monitor whether support is effective.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of this article further, please contact our Employment team on 0113 244 6100. 

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The information in this article is necessarily of a general nature. The law stated is correct at the date (stated above) this article was first posted to our website.

Specific advice should be sought for specific situations. If you have any queries or need any legal advice, please feel free to contact Wrigleys Solicitors.