Menopause at work: what the law actually protects, and what’s changing

The Equality Act doesn’t list menopause or perimenopause as a protected characteristicOne of the nine characteristics listed in the Equality Act 2010 against which it is unlawful to discriminate. They include age, disability, race, sex, religion or belief, and sexual orientation. If yo... on its own. What that means in practice is more useful than it sounds: the symptoms and how your employer responds to them are very often still covered by the law, just through routes that aren’t obvious until someone points them out.

There’s no standalone “menopause law”, but that rarely matters

Employment tribunals don’t ask “is menopause protected.” They ask whether what happened to you fits an existing legal test, usually disability discrimination, sex discrimination, age discrimination, or harassmentUnwanted behaviour related to a protected characteristic, such as your sex, race, disability, age or religion, that violates your dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile or humiliating environment.... Menopause claims are rising sharply because more employees, and more tribunals, are recognising that symptoms like brain fog, hot flushes, fatigue, and disrupted sleep can meet those tests, not because a new law was created.

When menopause symptoms count as a disability

The disability test asks one thing: does your condition have a substantial, long-term effect on your ability to do normal day-to-day activities? That’s the same test covered in what counts as a disability in law, and there’s no separate, lower bar for menopause. What has changed is that tribunals are now applying that ordinary test to menopause symptoms far more readily than they did even a few years ago.

If your symptoms meet that test, the reasonable adjustmentsChanges an employer must make under the Equality Act 2010 for a disabled employee, where without them the employee would be at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled colleagues. What coun... duty covered in the duty to make reasonable adjustments applies to you in full, on the same terms as any other disability.

The more common route: sex and age discrimination

Many menopause claims never need to reach the disability threshold at all, because the sex and age discrimination routes are often more straightforward to establish.

Menopause only affects women, and only within a specific age range. A workplace policy or a manager’s decision that disadvantages menopausal employees can amount to indirect sex discrimination, indirect age discrimination, or both, using the same test in what counts as indirect discrimination at work. A rigid attendance policy that penalises menopause-related sick leave is a common example. It applies to everyone on paper, but it disadvantages women in a specific age group in practice.

Comments, jokes, or a dismissive culture around menopause symptoms can also amount to harassment related to sex or age, under the same test covered in what counts as harassment at work: the test tribunals actually use.

What adjustments actually look like

In practice, reasonable adjustments for menopause symptoms are rarely complicated. Cold water and better ventilation, some flexibility around uniform, or a later start after a bad night’s sleep can make a real difference. More frequent breaks and the option to work from home on a harder day often matter just as much. A diagnosis isn’t required. What’s required is an employer who understands the effect your symptoms are having.

What’s changing

Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, employers with 250 or more staff will have to publish an Equality Action Plan covering their gender pay gap and menopause support, choosing at least one gender pay gap action and at least one menopause-related action to include. It’s voluntary from April 2026, becoming mandatory from spring 2027 (subject to secondary legislation), with first publication due by April 2028. Even before that date, the rights covered above already apply now, regardless of your employer’s size.

What this means for your situation

If menopause symptoms are making a real difference to how you’re able to work, that’s worth raising as a legal question. Tell someone. You don’t need a diagnosis, or certainty in advance about whether this is a disability question, a discrimination question, or both. It’s worth keeping a short note of what you asked for and what happened next.