Menopause absence at work: UK employer guide

No. There is no statutory right to menopause leave, so time off because of symptoms is normally handled as sickness absence under your usual policy and sick pay rules. Some employers choose to offer extra paid or unpaid time off, but that is a contractual or policy decision, not a legal requirement.

Acas describes allowing time off for menopause-related medical appointments as good practice. No specific law requires it, but an employee may have paid or unpaid time off rights in their contract. It also notes symptoms often last around four years and sometimes longer, so absence can come and go over a long period rather than as a single spell.

Acas advises recording menopause-related sickness absence separately from other absences. Counting it within overall attendance records could be unfair or discriminatory. In its guidance on the law, Acas gives recording menopause-related absence separately as an example of a reasonable adjustment for a disabled employee.

This matters most where you use trigger points or the Bradford Factor. The Bradford Factor is spells squared times days, so frequent short absences score heavily. Someone with five one-day absences in a year scores 5 × 5 × 5 = 125, while someone with a single 10-day absence scores 1 × 1 × 10 = 10. Intermittent menopause symptoms produce exactly the first pattern, and an automatic warning based on that score is the kind of outcome Acas is warning about.

Menopause is not a protected characteristic in its own right. Acas explains that less favourable treatment or disadvantage because of menopause symptoms can still be discrimination where it relates to one of the protected characteristics in section 4 of the Equality Act 2010.

It can be. Under section 6 of the Equality Act 2010 a person is disabled if they have a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. Severe or long-lasting symptoms may meet that test.

Acas advises focusing on supporting the person rather than trying to decide whether their condition is a disability. If it is, you must make reasonable adjustments, and treating someone unfavourably because of something arising from the disability, such as the absence itself, may be discrimination arising from disability.

Acas recommends early and regular conversations to understand what each person needs, and looking at how the job itself might make symptoms harder to manage, such as long shifts, no regular toilet breaks, an uncomfortable uniform or little flexibility. Your health and safety risk assessment, including for people working from home, should check that the workplace does not make symptoms worse.

Acas says employers should handle menopause-related absence sensitively, keep talking with the employee, and consider whether performance issues may be linked to symptoms. Agree changes that could help and give a reasonable time for them to work before moving to any formal process.

In an absence review or return-to-work meeting, ask open questions, hold the conversation in private and do not assume. Acas suggests a named point of contact or menopause champion so employees who are uncomfortable talking to their line manager have someone else to approach.

Acas recommends a dedicated menopause policy, shared across the organisation, reviewed regularly and used to train managers. Review your absence management and sickness reporting policies at the same time so they say how menopause-related absence is recorded.

Acas says the Employment Rights Act 2025 introduced action plans for menopause and the gender pay gap. GOV.UK guidance says employers with 250 or more employees can publish a voluntary plan in the 2026 to 2027 reporting year, and that subject to legislation plans will become mandatory from spring 2027.

A plan needs at least two actions: at least one to address the gender pay gap and at least one that supports employees experiencing menopause. Plans are published on the government's gender pay gap service alongside your pay gap data. Smaller employers do not have to publish one, but the same guidance can help shape a policy.

In Leavely you can create your own leave types, such as a menopause-related absence type, and apply them to everyone or only to selected employees. Leavely's Bradford Factor score counts only sickness records, so absence recorded under a separate type does not push up the score, while it still appears on the team calendar for cover planning. Keep the detail of symptoms out of free-text notes that more people can see than need to.