For employees managing menopause at work, the impact of changing hormones is about way more than hot flashes. Symptoms associated are vast and varied — and are a costly workplace distraction as well as a weight on workers’ physical health and well-being. 

Lost productivity and healthcare costs for women managing menopause symptoms leads to an annual economic loss of $26.6 billion, according to a study by the Mayo Clinic. The 2023 survey of 4,400 women, aged 45-60, also showed that missed work days due to menopausal symptoms leads to $1.8 billion in lost wages, and has caused more than one in 10 women to cut back on work hours, lose a job or take early retirement. Johns Hopkins Medicine reports the average age of menopause to be 51 — more than a decade before the typical age of retirement. 

“Hormones affect many different parts of our body, from feeling tired or dizzy or just overall fatigue in the body, or loss of concentration and loss of productivity,” says Signe Svanfeldt, lead nutritionist at healthy eating platform Lifesum. “Sometimes the symptoms can be vague as well, so it can be really difficult to know why it’s happening to you, and it’s just in recent years we started talking about it.”

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Lifesum’s new hormonal meal plan aims to help its employer clients — including Nike, Amazon and Gympass — ease the strain of hormonal imbalance for all employees, regardless of age or gender, through impactful education and three weeks of simple recipes. The company also hopes to increase the conversation around menopause in the workplace. For employees at the perimenopausal or menopausal stage, this kind of benefit can offer much-needed care to an underrepresented population. Lifesum notes that the hormonal meal plan has been one of their most popular offerings regardless of age and gender. 

“American women who are going through menopause are a very underserved community,” says Wesleigh Roeca, director of workplace well-being at Lifesum. “Providing tools and resources that are not just singling out women going through that chapter, but also open to all genders, all ages, is crucial in fostering that supportive environment for everybody.”

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A large drop in estrogen is the cause for most symptoms of menopause, which can include infamous hot flashes as well as vaginal drying, loss of sleep and even impact on the heart, among others, according Johns Hopkins. Harvard Medical School reports that changes in these levels can also lead to mood changes and increased anxiety and depression. Certain fruits and vegetables such as apples, pears and carrots contain phytoestrogens, which can help make up for loss of estrogen levels naturally. 

For Lifesum partner Gympass, a corporate wellness platform that connects members to gyms, classes and coaching, offering a nutrition-based hormonal balance plan is a natural addition to looking out for employees’ overall wellness.

“Employee well-being is key to improving a host of important workplace outcomes, including engagement, retention and productivity,” says Livia Martini, chief people officer at Gympass. The company partnered with Lifesum in 2021, and now offers the new Hormonal Meal Plan to its 15,000 corporate clients. “Only through offering consumer-grade well-being experiences can companies expect their teams to do their best work, whether in the office, remotely, or in a hybrid work environment.”

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The two companies regularly team up on webinars to speak with corporate clients and their employees, and create content that reaches the needs of clients across all markets, says Martini. The hormonal meal plan adds to this strategy by opening the door for employers to discuss the importance of women’s health and well-being, she says. Among Gympass’s members, Lifesum’s usage has grown almost 280% in the past two years. 

“We want to recognize that there’s a holistic picture of a human, and by eating whole foods and simple ingredients, we can show up as the best version of ourselves and improve our health, essentially,” says Roeca. “It’s about meeting the needs of every unique type of individual, and every human has hormones.”