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Hormones in the Boardroom: The Workplace Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight
- BY AHRIANA PLATTEN
- Aug 6
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 23
It walks in uninvited, rearranges everything, and leaves behind a woman you’ve never met before. It speaks in mystery, shame, or silence. In boardrooms, breakrooms, and doctor’s offices alike, it’s either brushed aside or reduced to a punchline.
But let’s be clear: menopause isn’t a malfunction. It’s a metamorphosis. It’s not the beginning of decline. It’s the awakening of deep truth.
Menopause isn’t a malfunction. It’s a metamorphosis.
How It Started for Me (Spoiler: With Tears and No Sleep)
I was 43, and about two years past giving birth to my “miracle baby,” when my world began to fray at the seams. One moment I was fine; the next, I was sobbing because I forgot what I walked into the kitchen for. My memory felt like a fogged-up mirror. My emotions were intense, my body unpredictable. I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t focus, and couldn’t figure out why my favorite people -- especially my husband -- were suddenly on my last nerve.
My doctor said, “You’re just fine. It’ll get better as your baby gets older.” My friends offered wine. But nothing made sense until a beloved mentor and herbologist told me “You’re in perimenopause.”
I blinked. “Already?"
She nodded. “Yes. And it’s gonna be great!”
Candidly, it didn’t feel great. But that moment changed everything. I stopped trying to fix myself and started listening. Beneath the chaos, something else was emerging. Something fierce. Something wise. Something raw.
I learned that menopause wasn’t the end of who I’d been. It was the beginning of who I was meant to be.
The Professional Toll and the Silent Exodus
While I was trying to keep my life intact and my sanity in place, I was also trying to maintain a CEO position at work. And here’s where things get serious.
Let’s look at a few statistics:
According to the EMPACT Menopause Study:
One in four women consider not pursuing or do not pursue a leadership opportunity due to menopause.
One in three women consider reducing or reduce their workload.
Two in five women consider finding or find a new job.
With 75% of working women falling into the perimenopause or menopause age range, the effects on the workplace are too significant to ignore. But most workplaces still aren’t talking about this.
A Mayo Clinic study estimates that the U.S. suffers $1.8 billion in lost work time annually due to menopause-related symptoms. That number jumps to $26.6 billion when medical expenses are added.
Internationally, the U.K. Parliament cites research from the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) showing that three in five menopausal women, typically aged between 45 and 55, were negatively affected at work, and nearly 900,000 left their jobs over an unspecified period due to menopause symptoms.
I made a major career change during this time. Was it the right decision? Retrospectively,I believe it was. But it affected my income, my family, my travel, my schedule. Everything. More importantly, until I started researching, I had no idea menopause was a factor at all in my career trajectory.
No one ever mentioned it.
How Workplaces Can Actually Help
No one should have to pretend nothing’s happening while their hormones stage a full on mutiny. If you’re a business leader or HR professional, you can make a difference in relatively simple but deeply meaningful ways:
Normalize the menopause conversation
Don’t leave menopause in the shadows. Offer education sessions. Include it in wellness communications. Let those experiencing it help shape the language and the approach.
Offer schedule flexibility
Whether it’s a temporary shift in hours, the ability to work remotely, or just more grace around productivity, flexibility helps women adapt to a changing internal rhythm without sacrificing their careers.
Support mental health and hormonal care
Include menopause-related therapy or coaching in your health benefits. Acknowledge anxiety, mood swings, and brain fog without judgment. These aren’t failures…they’re symptoms.
Acknowledge anxiety, mood swings, and brain fog without judgment.
Create quiet zones or rest areas
Every workplace should have a calm, private space where someone can cool down from a hot flash or breathe through a wave of panic or exhaustion. It’s about dignity, not weakness.
Value wisdom over youth culture
Too many workplaces reward “early and eager” while overlooking the deep power of mature leadership. Create mentoring programs. Honor experience. Recognize that menopause often marks the beginning of a woman’s most visionary and vital years.
Train managers in compassionate leadership
Equip your team leads with empathy. A single aware and supportive leader can change the culture of an entire team.
Adjust your policies
Recognize menopause as a natural life stage that affects wellbeing and performance. Add it to health policies and employee handbooks.
Ask and listen
Create feedback loops. Invite honest input. Better yet, co-create solutions with the women in your workforce.
When we begin to see menopause not as a liability but as a rite of passage, everything shifts. Culture deepens. Loyalty grows. And women rise into the leadership roles they were born to hold.
A New Way to Lead
Women on the other side of menopause lead from experience, not ego. From purpose, not posturing. And they’re not interested in climbing a ladder that leads nowhere. They want meaning. They want truth. And they’re willing to burn down the inauthentic parts of their lives to find it.
If we want stronger workplaces, more human leadership, and resilient teams, we need to stop seeing menopause as a problem and start seeing it as the initiation it is -- an initiation into the wise woman years.
Menopause as Alchemy (Not Apocalypse)
In alchemical tradition, base metals are transformed through fire and dissolution until they become gold.
Menopause is much the same. It transforms us, dissolving our base experiences to reveal the gold of sovereignty and inner strength.
First comes perimenopause, when everything starts to shift. It feels like falling apart, but it’s really a breaking open. The thinning of old stories. The surfacing of buried pain. The body starts whispering—then shouting—for your attention.
Things intensify. The body changes. The soul-truth erupts. You’re no longer giving time to nonsense. You start saying what you feel without a self-imposed filter. You say “no without apology. You begin to claim your power.
This is not a breakdown. It’s a breakthrough.
This is not a breakdown. It’s a breakthrough.
Yes, there are tears. Yes, there are hot flashes that rival hellfire. Yes, you might forget the names of your own children (briefly). And yes, you might have panic attacks that feel like heart attacks (I did). But somewhere in that crucible, your truest self begins to emerge.
When it complete, the wise woman stands visible to all who see her. You gain clarity, courage, wisdom, strength and a sense of self it’s hard to imagine before this rite of passage is complete.
My mentor was right. It was great -- even if I couldn’t understand the value of what was happening when I was going through it.
The Relationship Rumble
No conversation about menopause is complete without mentioning home life because if menopause is the furnace, relationships are the fuel. And what happens at home inevitably echoes at work.
A survey conducted by The Family Law Menopause Project and Newson Health Research and Education found that 73% of women blame menopause for the breakdown of their marriage. Another 67% said it increased domestic arguments and abuse.
During my own “change,” my marriage nearly cracked. Mark and I were seasoned partners, but we weren’t prepared for the emotional wildfire that moved in without knocking. I didn’t have words for what I needed. He didn’t know how to help. We were walking on eggshells -- often as strangers rather than lovers.
It took time, education, and open-hearted honesty to find our way back. We studied rites of passage together. We sat with teachers. We began to name what was happening, not as a crisis, but as a sacred shift.
Here’s the truth: menopause doesn’t just challenge your body. It challenges your roles, your relationship dynamics, and your deeply held beliefs about love and identity. You might not be the same partner. You might want different things. You might need more space, fewer words, or a whole new bedroom temperature setting.
This can terrify couples, but it doesn’t have to destroy them. It’s an invitation to evolve together. Those who stay curious, compassionate, and committed often find themselves in deeper, more authentic love than ever before.
More than a decade later, Mark and I are happy together (for 25 years now)-- and still amazed we made it through such a challenging time.
You’re Not Broken. You’re Becoming.
So here’s my message to every woman sweating through her sheets, crying over commercials, or raging at injustices that never mattered before:
You’re not broken. You’re becoming.
You’re not falling apart. You’re falling into place.
You’re not crazy. You’re crossing over into a version of yourself that doesn’t settle, doesn’t shrink, and doesn’t apologize.
You’re ripening.
And ripe fruit doesn’t ask permission to fall. It just drops into fullness.
Welcome to your golden chapter.
Meet the expert:
Lover of good coffee, big questions, and wild ideas, Dr. Ahriana Platten doesn’t follow the map. She scribbles in the margins, adds glitter, and turns detours into doorways. Right now, she’s brewing up a menopause app and co-leading transformational retreats with her husband Mark for couples ready to evolve with honesty, heart, and a little holy mischief.
Dive Deeper Into Her Wealth of Knowledge:
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