Year One Reflections: Building Workplace Menopause Support
Just about a year ago, I pivoted The Fuchsia Tent from being a consumer focused business — providing resources, community, & coaching, into a workplace first, consumer second platform. In this post, I will share the why behind the redirect as well as what I’ve learned since then.
When I formally entered the “Menoverse” (as I like to call it), in March of 2024, it was filled with glittery parties, celebrity sightings, and an onslaught of media attention. After 22 years climbing the ladder in corporate pharmaceuticals, this new world was equal parts terrifying and intoxicating. It felt like everywhere I turned, people were talking about menopause and I felt so lucky to be a part of this conversation, with my brand new community and wide-eyed excitement. After a super intense Spring of learning and listening, I came back to Massachusetts ready to launch the online community everyone said they needed.
The Fuchsia Tent Community is Born
June 13, 2024, I gave birth to the red, angry, crying toddler that I’ve come to love, The Fuchsia Tent Community. That day, I learned a powerful lesson that will stay with me throughout my days:
Do NOT, under any circumstances launch a business on your birthday, unless you enjoy celebrating with a side of insecurity and a twinge of depression.
With that said, I eventually got more members and started getting into a content creating rhythm. There were additional lessons to be learned. The main lesson being: most women want community until they figure out what they need to feel better during menopause. Once we have a working formula, we just want to get back to living a full and healthy life. The majority of us don’t want to sit around talking about once debilitating, but mostly gone symptoms for the rest of our lives (myself and fellow menoverse dwellers being an exception).
Because, that which was true about workplace wellbeing, or mental health, is also true about menopause support…If you get healthy outside a sick system, and go back in, you will likely experience illness again.
Put more succinctly: lost productivity and poor symptom management during menopause are not individual failings, but rather the echoes of broken workplace and healthcare system design.
Suddenly, I found myself called back into the rooms where I had spent the previous 22 years duking out drug formulary access with payers and heading global wellbeing for 50,000 employees. Difficult conversations in a corporate setting, especially stigmatized topics like menopause require an understanding of organizational culture and design. I was asked by former colleagues in the wellbeing/total rewards space to advise on the business case for workplace menopause support, and soon after began sharing best practices on thriving through menopause at work, and tools for holding compassionate dialogue. Before I knew it, Fuchsia@Work was up and running.
The Workplace Menopause Support Pivot
After a few months research, building talks, and working with clients, a framework began to emerge. There were three things that surveyed working women consistently asked for that we now call: The 3H Framework™ of The Fuchsia Tent.
The 3H Framework™ of The Fuchsia Tent:
1. Healthcare: The best benefits (medical and pharmacy) a company can afford.
2. Help: Compassionate leaders who understand active listening frameworks, and are aware of and willing to provide available resources to employees in need.
3. HRT/Non-Hormonal Therapy Access: Generic HRT and access to newly approved FDA alternatives for vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes and night sweats)
The 3H Framework™ is what best-in-class workplace menopause support looks like. Organizational support isn’t rocket science. Organizations don’t need complex menopause frameworks, manager menopause training, excessive programming, or menopause coaching. Individuals may elect to participate in the above offerings, but widespread in depth training is more likely to make midlife women an outgroup.
We do need basic awareness of the symptoms and challenges associated with a life transition that is marked by vast hormonal fluctuations — that happens to 51% of the workforce. We need benefits and resources that help us get the medical and emotional support we need, which includes leaders who know how to listen without judgment, get clarity on our needs, and take supportive action on our behalf. This action may look like providing the number for our employee assistance program, an additional check in, a list of company sponsored resources, etc…
Because, here’s the thing, US companies alone, are losing $1.8B in lost productivity (attrition, and sick time) and an additional $26.6B due to increased healthcare costs from failing to support midlife women (Mayo Clinic, 2023). We still have very few solid studies that show us what happens when we actually support midlife women in the workplace.
Where to Next
So here's where we are a year in: We know what works. The 3H Framework™ isn't complicated, and that's the point. We know companies are hemorrhaging billions. We know women are suffering in silence. And we know that the UK is already ahead of us on preventative care. The BBC reports that the UK National Health Services will now be adding menopause questions to their health checks for women (every 5 years between 40-74). “The aim is to identify women who may benefit from advice and support, including treatment, such as hormone replacement therapy (HRT), drugs to combat hot-flushes, and counselling.”
What we need now is momentum. More companies stepping up to offer basic support (we're at less than 15%, people). Organizations I advise, like Reproductive & Maternal Health Compass, are offering standards for what good, better, and best menopause support look like. Check out their linked page above for more information. Our goal at The Fuchsia Tent is to help each organization figure out the best resource mix and programming based on the unique makeup of their employee population.
More rigorous research to prove what we already know anecdotally — that supporting menopausal employees isn't charity, it's strategy. We need better studies designed with scientific rigor to evaluate the effects of best-in-class support on menopausal employees — not just one cherry picked intervention with subjective employee reported data. At The Fuchsia Tent we are working with partners to provide that data, though truly good data generation takes time. More to come.
And more awareness across the board, because menopause doesn't just affect menopausal women. It affects teams, productivity, culture, and the bottom line. That's why at The Fuchsia Tent, we're focused on making implementation simple, data collection rigorous, and education accessible to everyone — yes, including the men. (Check out our Man-O-Pause Mondays if you're male-identifying and want free education without the awkwardness.)
A year ago, I pivoted when I was reminded that menopause, like other health challenges requires systems change. We can’t out program outdated systems, like US work culture and healthcare, but we can be a catalyst in their redesign. And that's exactly what we're doing — one compassionate conversation, one benefits package, one workplace policy at a time.
Here's to Year Two.
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Ready to transform how your organization approaches menopause support?
Book a consultation with me to discuss how to build workplace systems that support both human wellbeing and business performance.