Conor Stewart
Research expert covering health & pharmaceuticals in the UK & Europe
The menopause in Europe - statistics and facts
Experiencing the menopause is a natural occurrence all women go through once they reach a certain age. While the exact age at which this occurs varies from person to person, it usually happens between the ages of 45 and 55. Menopause is classed as when it has been longer than 12 months since a woman’s last period. While perimenopause is the symptoms experienced before a person has stopped having periods. Going through the menopause is sometimes accompanied by symptoms that can have a significant effect on day-to-day life. The most common symptoms associated with menopause and perimenopause are difficulty sleeping, problems concentrating, hot flashes, and night sweats.
Hormone Therapy
As menopause is caused by the lower levels of the female hormone estrogen in the body, hormone therapy (also called hormone replacement therapy/HRT) is used as a treatment to relieve symptoms of menopause. However, some women have concerns relating to the use of HT, due to the belief that it can raise the risk of breast cancer, strokes, or blood clots. These risks have largely been refuted by healthcare professionals and researchers through studies or it has been found the increased risks are very small and greatly outweighed by the benefits. Despite this, around a quarter of menopausal or postmenopausal women in Europe did not take HT because they were worried about the long-term risks. Furthermore, in a survey of physicians in Europe, almost half had reported a time when they didn’t prescribe HT to a patient showing symptoms associated with the menopause because the patient was concerned with the long-term risk. In 2021/22, over 7.8 million prescription items of HRT were dispensed in England alone, which is a significant increase from the preceding years. Although there was also a well-publicized HRT shortage in the UK near the end of 2022.Impact on women in the workplace
Due to the age at which menopause usually affects women, it can have a large impact on work lives. Symptoms associated with menopause can make women feel more stressed at their job, less confident in their abilities, and less able to concentrate. Furthermore, in some European countries, particularly Spain and the UK, the feeling among women who have been through the menopause is that there is a stigma around discussing it in the workplace. This also results in many women who need to take time off work due to menopause-related symptoms not admitting it as the main reason for the absence. Instead citing reasons such as anxiety, depression, or another physical illness. Women going through the menopause while working have advised they would benefit from greater support from employers and helpful policies from governments, although presently no country in Europe offers such strategies such as right to menopause leave. In the UK, a proposal to bring in pilot schemes to review the potential benefits of menopause leave in the workplace was rejected by the government in January 2023.
