The Economics of Menopause
Connecting the compounding effects of menopause to our global economy
đ By 2025, over 1 billion women in the world will be postmenopausal. This includes front line workers, our CEOs; our mothers, our spouses.Â
When it comes to womenâs health, it wonât be a surprise to many that the care and support isnât ideal. Whether it be dismissive responses from medical professionals, being misdiagnosed or having no care provided at all.Â
So when we begin to talk openly about menopause, itâs often ignored. Most people donât want to go near this bottomless pit of stigmas. It would mean talking about aging, âfemale partsâ and quite frankly, something that doesnât exude the same excitement as planning for an upcoming holiday.
So let's put an economic spin on this conversation -Â
Ok, but why? Because if we can relay the challenges of menopause with an economic lens, we then invite men into the conversion but also have the discussion play out in a space whereâs itâs less stigmatized.
Take for example any large company; perhaps Coca-cola or Microsoft. If an employee doesn't get the support needed to manage menopause symptoms, they might start to take some personal days off, which leads to more time off and then eventually making the decision to leave their role entirely. Take into consideration this drastic step whether the employee is working on the factory floor or within the executive offices.Â
Women who leave the workforce brought on by menopause (and lack of support), will have a domino effect in the workplace: the needs of the core team will be affected (finding a replacement, burnout on remaining team), the brain drain (and removal of a diverse perspective) from that employee and overall, impacting the companyâs bottom line.Â
Letâs revisit that earlier figure of over a billion women being postmenopausal by 2025 (which will be here in a *hot flash*, horrible pun intended). This amounts to a market opportunity of over $600 billion; which canât be ignored and letâs be honest, why would we? We have in front of us the perfect scenario of a huge market opportunity that will solve for more than half of the worldâs population.Â
Still not convinced about the economic fallout of ignoring menopause?Â
How about this figure: US$150 billion đ¤Żđ¸!Â
Thatâs the amount of productivity we will GLOBALLY lose because of women leaving the workforce due to menopause. This number is staggering and our economies simply cannot afford for this loss to happen any longer.Â
Letâs be advocates for building products and services that can target the needs of people who are essentially the backbone of every economy that shapes our global society.Â
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