You’re a woman in your late 40s or 50s. You’re presenting to the C-Suite when sweat starts to form on your upper lip and along your hairline.
Maybe the people in the meeting assume you’re nervous about public speaking or what you are about to share.
But that’s not it. You’re hot and uncomfortable because you’re experiencing symptoms of menopause that you can’t control.
This is an experience Anna Iacobelli, Senior Vice President, Metro West Region, at TD Bank Group, can relate to.
“I’d be in meetings, and I would get really hot,” Iacobelli said. She started going through menopause around age 50.
“It’s quite uncomfortable. And eyes were on me, so I’d have to spend a bunch of time ahead of meetings trying to figure out what to wear. It might seem trivial, but this is what was going through my head while also trying to focus on work.”
Building a menopause-inclusive workplace
Iacobelli is one of the many women who have experienced menopause — the end of menstrual cycles for people with female reproductive organs — and have to cope with the symptoms at work.
In the months or years leading up to menopause — a stage called perimenopause — people often experience a variety of uncomfortable symptoms, including hot flashes, weight gain, brain fog, bladder issues, sleep problems, anxiety, and mood changes.
According to a 2023 report from Menopause Foundation of Canada, one third of women surveyed said their menopause symptoms negatively impacted their performance at work, and one in four said they hid their symptoms at work.
What’s more, 67% of those surveyed said they would not feel comfortable speaking to their supervisor about what they were experiencing, and nearly 50% said they would be too embarrassed to ask for help.
While some workplaces have made considerable progress about championing previously stigmatized issues like mental health, the stigma surrounding menopause is a stubborn one, Iacobelli said.
“There’s a lack of awareness so people are not well-informed about menopause and its symptoms.”
That’s why TD is committed to building a menopause-inclusive workplace.
According to Daniela De Cotis, Vice President, Human Resources, at TD, there’s a lot to be gained if workplaces normalize menopause and offer accommodations to help employees manage their symptoms.
De Cotis, who leads the Women at TD pillar within HR’s Inclusion and Diversity Leadership Council, is focused on creating safe spaces to advance issues that matter to women at TD.
“When we say colleagues should bring their whole selves to work, we really don't achieve that unless they feel safe to do so,” she said.
While resources and health benefits specific to women’s health were already available to Bank colleagues, TD recently created a Women’s Health Hub, recognizing the importance of addressing women's unique health needs.
The Hub is dedicated to creating awareness and connecting colleagues with resources and benefits to empower them to prioritize their own health and well-being. A dedicated section for perimenopause and menopause outlines the benefits available to support colleagues experiencing symptoms and connects them to resources to better understand the physical and emotional experience.
Through TD, women across the Bank’s footprint have access to an array of benefits to help address symptoms of menopause and perimenopause, ranging from pelvic floor therapy and paid health and personal days to mental health and counselling supports. The Hub has a comprehensive list by geographic location to help make it easier for colleagues to understand the spectrum of resources and supports available.
“We wanted to ensure that colleagues going through menopause – or perimenopause, fertility, or other reproductive health concerns — don’t have to dig for specific information. It’s clearly labelled according to the different stages of life,” De Cotis said.
“Resources and benefits information are available to them without them having to ask. Younger colleagues who haven’t reached menopause also have an opportunity to educate themselves about what to expect in the future and plan for it. And all colleagues can benefit from awareness and understanding of what women may be experiencing.”
Experiencing menopause at work
On top of offering supports, addressing menopause in the workplace is important because it normalizes an experience that often feels embarrassing and private, Iacobelli said.
By talking about menopause openly and educating others about it, it can help reduce stigma.
“You don’t want people wondering: Is she going to be able to lead a team of 4,000 and drive results in her region?” Iacobelli said. “It's just one of those things where you're deciding what to share and what not to share while you take care of your work and fulfill your responsibilities.”
Menopause is a unique experience because it won’t look or feel the same for every woman who goes through it, Tyrrell Schmidt, Global Chief Marketing Officer at TD Bank Group, said. Not everyone will experience the same symptoms and it’s also not a sudden event. Perimenopause can last for as long as eight years.
“I think everybody's different," Schmidt said. "Some women sail through it, while others really suffer. My biggest recollection is that I didn't sleep well for years.”
Several senior leaders at TD have come forward this year to talk openly about their experiences with menopause and the challenges that women face. The dialogue has been intended to help women at TD of all ages and levels feel more comfortable about what they are experiencing.
“It's not something people have historically discussed," Schmidt said. "Yet, when we talk about it openly, we increase our capacity to understand the challenges women and people around us are working through and then we can show empathy, which matters."
Understanding could look like having a pitcher of water available at meetings and being flexible on dress codes.
Or, it could mean having an open discussion of menopause with colleagues of all genders, so that everyone knows what to expect.
Montresa McMillan, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Digital Strategy, Innovation and Payments, at TD, said an open discussion of menopause systems earlier in her personal experience would have saved her a lot of work.
“Had I known how varied the effects are, I may have not mistaken my symptoms for something completely different,” McMillan said. “I'm now willing to talk about it and will continue to create a safe space for others.”
To speak up at work or ask for accommodations, people need to feel psychologically safe.
Part of creating psychological safety at work is creating a culture of storytelling, De Cotis said.
“People talk about it as courage to discuss women’s health issues openly,” she said. “But I think it's about safety and feeling that there are no repercussions to the stories about yourself that you're going to share.”
Seeing leaders at TD share their stories of going through perimenopause and menopause helps normalize both the experience itself and conversations about it, she added.
Raising more awareness, not more stigma
The Bank now holds discussion forums for colleagues across its businesses to normalize the conversations around topics like menstruation, perimenopause, and menopause.
“We want to empower colleagues to ask their leaders for help or flexibility in their day to help manage symptoms at work,” De Cotis said.
The human resources team learns from these discussions that women need simple accommodations or shifts to manage a menstrual or a menopause symptom, not drastic changes to systems and benefits packages.
“It was actually women telling me that they just needed either flexibility in their schedule or vacation time … or getting back to normalizing breaks during meetings, post-pandemic,” she said.
Simple changes look like giving people places to store menstrual products when they work in a hybrid, collaborative office space and don’t necessarily have a dedicated desk. Or letting them have a say about the temperature of the office.
“This dialogue might also help combat stigma about a woman’s capabilities during and after menopause,” De Cotis said.
McMillan says her own career is evidence menopause doesn’t mean you are at the end of your growth opportunities.
“There’s this myth that once you're in menopause, it's all downhill and your ability to think is somehow gone,” McMillan said. “On the contrary. You can emerge healthy and empowered with a freedom you haven't had for many years and clarity of thought like never before.”
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