Women often hide period pain, menopause symptoms at work
This year, 80 percent of female employees sometimes or regularly experience hormone-related complaints such as period pain, morning sickness from pregnancy, or difficulty concentrating due to menopause. 35 percent of these 3.2 million women hide these complaints at work, often due to fear that their colleagues would think less of them or that they would miss out on a promotion, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and TNO found in a survey of 3,787 people.
Women are more likely to hide hormone-related complaints at work than men and women with other health issues (24 percent). They’re also more likely to keep working despite feeling sick - 67 percent of women with period, menopausal, or pregnancy symptoms vs 43 percent of other sick workers. This while hormone-related complaints appear to affect the ability to work more. 29 percent of women said they do their job less well when experiencing these symptoms, compared to 18 percent of workers with other complaints.
41 percent of women with hormone-related complaints say they are careful about who they talk to about this at work, compared to 35 percent of workers with other complaints. Nearly two-thirds of women do talk about these complaints at work, most often with a direct colleague (43 percent). They’re much less likely to talk with a manager (12 percent) or the company doctor (2 percent).
Of the women who don’t talk about their complaints at work, almost 10 percent would like the possibility. Over half of all workers think that managers should be more aware of hormone-related health complaints.
