What fashion misunderstands about menopause

This article is part of our new editorial package, where we seek to answer the question: what would fashion look like if more women were in charge? Click here to read more. Fashion designer Maria Cornejo was 46 when she started experiencing symptoms of perimenopause — the build-up to menopause, which lasts six years on average. “I started having hot flushes, but what got to me most was the anxiety and mood swings,” she says. “It coincided with having a big job, running a company and having a family. Menopause is the perfect storm for a lot of women.” Awareness is growing of the impact of perimenopause and menopause on women in the workplace. In the UK, some 17 per cent of women experiencing menopause consider leaving work due to the lack of support, and around 6 per cent actually do, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). British employers can now be sued for discrimination if they fail to make “reasonable adjustments” for women going through the menopause, under guidance issued by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) earlier this year. A 2023 survey by The Mayo Clinic found that menopause costs women in the US around $1.8 billion a year in lost working time. Yet while campaign groups and influencers are increasingly tackling the taboos around menopause, in fashion and beauty — industries that are dominated by women (in the lower ranks at least), but revere youth — it is still a subject that is largely avoided, or discussed only behind closed doors. One experienced fashion executive I reached out to for this story hesitated to take part because she was interviewing for a job and did not wish to bring attention to her age. Another declined to mention where she works, because the brand is aimed at Gen Z. “Our parents were gearing up to retire at 60, so menopause signalled the last leg of their careers. That’s not the case anymore, but there is still a sense of struggling to feel relevant and find your place,” says executive career consultant Tracy Short, who quit working at a luxury retail executive search firm after being diagnosed as perimenopausal a decade ago. “I celebrated my 50th birthday a few years after my menopause and I remember someone at India Couture Week asked whether I would continue my column afterwards. There’s a lot of ageism within fashion,” says fashion journalist Sujata Assomull, who splits her time between India, the United Arab Emirates and the UK. She recalls feeling the physical effects of menopause — changes to her weight, skin and hair — on her self-esteem. “I have always enjoyed fashion events, but I started to dread them. I couldn’t understand why I didn’t have the energy to keep up in the same way, and then PRs would make comments about the way I looked.” Fashion’s culture of promoting thinness could be particularly damaging for women experiencing menopause, experts say. “The expectations on women in fashion to be lean and low weight means that many women in the industry have particularly low bone density, because they aren’t used to lugging extra weight around,” says menopause dietician Dr Nigel Denby, founder of menopause clinic and support platform Harley Street at Home. “You start losing density after 35 anyway, but this really accelerates as you lose oestrogen during menopause. So we’re sitting on an osteoporosis time bomb, and women in fashion are particularly at risk.” The youth-centric culture in fashion and beauty isn’t only impacting women working through the menopause, it’s hindering the industries’ abilities to cater to them. During a hiatus from work following stints in the C-suite at Laura Mercier and skincare brand Erno Laszlo, Rochelle Weitzner had her first hot flush. That moment led her to found Pause Well-being, a skincare company focused on the changes women go through during menopause, from wrinkles and dullness to the loss of collagen and elasticity. She soon ran into issues. “I was told by the legal team at a large shopping channel that I couldn’t talk about menopause on television because it was a medical condition. Mainstream media told me they didn’t write about menopause because they didn’t want readers to feel bad about themselves. Investors didn’t think such a taboo topic could be a good investment. And department stores couldn’t figure out how to strike up conversations with consumers about menopause and its impact on skin,” she explains. “Menopause needs a rebrand. I think of it as women’s passage to power — we gain a lot of knowledge and we stop caring what other people think.” Creating a culture where menopausal women can thrive It’s not just hot flushes and night sweats; there are 48 recognised symptoms of perimenopause. Some are cognitive (brain fog, low mood and anxiety), while others are physical (itchy or dry skin, thinning hair and tinnitus). The cause is often hard to pinpoint. Lack of awareness and knowledge means many women are misdiagnosed or suffer in silence. Short initially thought she had ADHD, while Weitzner mistook her brain fog for early on-set Alzheimer’s. Actress Halle Berry was famously misdiagnosed with herpes when she went through the menopause. “All of this means more time out of work for unnecessary tests and consultations with the wrong specialists, and more time passing before women get access to the right treatment,” says menopause specialist Dr Louise Newson. “There are also serious health risks associated with untreated menopause — including heart disease, osteoporosis and diabetes — which can affect work as well.” Fashion businesses that fail to support employees going through the menopause risk losing experienced talent. “It will cost employers far less to invest in menopause policies than it will to replace even a single woman who leaves due to a lack of menopause support, especially if those women take former employers to tribunal, which we’re seeing more and more,” says Deborah Garlick, CEO of workplace consultancy Henpicked, which works with companies across industries like fashion to implement menopause policies. Attracting and retaining women throughout the menopause starts with acknowledging them. Having a menopause policy in place can reassure employees that the business they work for sees them as human beings, not just human resources, Garlick says. “A lot of people don’t feel comfortable talking about [menopause], but raising awareness is one of the most important interventions businesses can make,” she adds. To normalise menopause in the workplace, Garlick recommends holding awareness-raising sessions and gathering employee feedback, so any resulting HR policies can be shaped by what people in the organisation actually want and need. There is no one-size-fits-all for menopause policies. Garlick suggests starting with an audit of the environment employees are working in, and making interventions that enable women to take control of their symptoms. “Do your shift patterns allow people to take breaks, to get water or nip to the bathroom, to get hot flushes or flash periods under control? If your staff wear uniforms, are they made from breathable fabrics?” Some in the fashion and beauty industries are taking matters into their own hands. Ana Herrera, who previously had a storied career in beauty, entered surgical menopause following a hysterectomy to deal with stage four endometriosis. This was the impetus for her to set up Hormone University, an educational platform focused on hormonal health, as well as a verification platform for products that are free from endocrine-disrupting chemicals, which she says helps businesses to update the cleaning and hygiene products used in offices. Sarah Curran, who founded online luxury boutique My Wardrobe and has since held senior roles at Shop Direct and French Connection, among others, says working from home helped her deal with the menopause, because she could manage her symptoms in private while continuing to interact with colleagues online. “I could be business up top and menopause down below,” she jokes. In 2023, she founded Just Hotter, a retail platform for menopause products, as well as health and wellness content, to offer education and options to women who may not want to treat their menopause with hormone replacement therapy (HRT). “There’s a lot of judgement around how women treat menopause, but it’s a personal choice,” she says. Allowing women the time to figure out how to manage their symptoms — including whether HRT is right for them — is crucial. In 2021, fast fashion retailer Asos gained positive press after it introduced a spate of policies to support employees through health-related life events, including menopause, pregnancy loss, fertility treatment, cancer treatment and gender-reassignment surgery — policies that are rare to find in fashion, even now. The menopause policy, which allows employees to work flexibly and take short notice leave or request to work from home, is available to all workers experiencing menopause, not just cisgender women. In March 2022, Burberry launched a dedicated menopause support site to provide global guidance for leaders and individuals either experiencing or due to begin the menopause. The brand says its UK employees can also access specialist care through private health insurance provider Bupa. More recently, the Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) partnered with digital health app Peppy to offer employees one-to-one consultations with menopause experts. The beauty group is also re-assessing its London office design, to better cater to women at various life stages. “Only through creating these spaces to talk about and better understand perimenopause and menopause can we help break down the barriers to women advancing in the workplace,” says Monica Rastogi, ELC’s regional director of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and cultural relevancy for the UK and Ireland. So far, progress has been limited to larger companies. “High street brands and bigger corporations have DEI teams equipped to deal with it, but many smaller brands don’t even have an HR department,” says fashion executive Daliah Hearn, who went into menopause suddenly after contracting Covid in 2020. With the right support in place, menopause doesn’t have to signal the end of women’s careers. A lot of the stigma and biases around menopause come from the lack of information about what it entails, awareness of how to manage it, and substantial support to help women find a path forward that’s right for them. If all of that falls into place, as Assomull says, “Menopause can be the start of a whole new, more energised phase of life.” Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com. More from this series: Just how hard is the fashion industry on women? Fashion is failing working mothers. Here’s how to fix it Here’s what our clothes would look like if more women designed them

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