‘Menopause, death, and taxes’ – how lawyers help tackle the taboo surrounding one of life’s certainties

As World Menopause Awareness Month builds up to World Menopause Day on 18 October, Peter Ranscombe examines what lawyers can do to help women navigate the menopause.

Back in 2017, Rachel Weiss was pondering what to watch on television – little did she know how auspicious her choice would be. After seeing the Kirsty Wark: The Menopause and Me documentary, Rachel spotted an opportunity to harness her experience running Death Cafés, at which people gather to discuss life’s end.

“Like a lot of people, I’d just thought the menopause meant my periods would stop, and I might get hot flushes,” explains Rachel. “After watching the programme, I realised there was a whole array of symptoms, not just physical but also psychological and emotional.

“I realised I’d had menopause symptoms for several years without knowing what they were. The word ‘perimenopausal’ wasn’t used back then. None of my friends talked about menopause either.”

Death Café founder Jon Underwood gave Rachel permission to copy his format. Along with Lorna Fotheringham and Gail Jack, Rachel ran the world’s first Menopause Café in June 2017 at Blend Coffee Lounge in Perth, which donated the venue for free. “We were worried it would just be the three of us, but around 30 people turned up,” she remembers.

Word spread with help from publicist Claire Grainger and a website built by Andy Sanwell, Rachel’s husband. Energy firm SSE ran the first workplace café in January 2018, with Menopause Café registering as a charity in June 2018.

‘Open to everyone, regardless of age or gender’

“Our principals state the cafés are open to everyone, regardless of age or gender, making them different to support groups, which would only be open to menopausal people,” explains Rachel. “That’s controversial for some women, but we think it’s important everyone knows about menopause – it takes a brave man to attend one, and they make up less than 1%, but I take my hat off to them.

“Cafés are not-for-profit, are held with no intention of leading to any conclusion or product or course of action, and are respectful spaces, in which we encourage people to say, ‘I found this helpful…’, rather than, ‘You must do this…’. We’re not trying to sell anything; it’s simply a safe space in which to share experiences and ask questions.”

Rachel adds: “Menopause can be very isolating – anxiety is a major symptom and many people put on weight and lose their confidence. The cafés help to tackle that loneliness. After a café, the two most common comments are, ‘I’m not alone’ and ‘I’m not going mad’. Even though we can’t fix anything, the sense of community makes a big difference.”

Rachel also delivers menopause talks, including at the Scottish Paralegal Association’s conferences at Dundee in 2023 and Glasgow last year, [2024] and twice for a London law firm. Menopause Café recently hired its first administrator and is now looking for advice on fundraising and revising the charity’s social franchise models.

“There are lots of things law firms can do to help women navigate menopause,” Rachel adds. “They can host a menopause talk for general staff education, train line managers, provide resources like the quarterly Menopause Matters magazine, host Menopause Cafés, or distribute ribbons for World Menopause Awareness Month.

“Personally, I don’t think there should be separate ‘menopause policies’; instead, menopause should fit into broader ‘Be nice to your staff’ policies. But if having a menopause policy paves the way for conversations about miscarriage, endometriosis, infertility, and other important topics then that’s good. Having ‘menopause’ as an option on absence forms also helps to normalise conversations.”

Resources for businesses and organisations

Kat Riach, Professor in Organisational Studies at the University of Glasgow, developed the Menopause Information Pack for Organisations (MIPO), a free resource that’s been downloaded more than 18,000 times in more than 50 countries. She also worked with the Scottish Government to produce “MAPLE”, an acronym for practical steps for NHS Scotland employees covering “Micro-leave and micro-accommodations”, “Allyship”, considering the “Physical environment”, “Line management” and awareness through “Education”.

“One in ten working women in Scotland work for the NHS in some capacity, so it’s a huge workforce,” Kat points out. “If an organisation is trying to decide how to best support menopause then they should invest in line manager training because that makes the biggest difference.”

Last year, [2024] one of her undergraduate students interviewed women at law firms about menopause. “In law firms, women are promoted slightly later, so we get this pinch point where their career could be going stratospheric and they reach menopause,” Kat explains. “Menopause occurs, on average, at 51 years old, with perimenopausal symptoms often emerging a few years before that, coinciding with the age when women become partners or equity partners.

“In professional services, you’re often judged on your 2% of failures rather than your 98% of successes, which is a pressurised environment for anyone, but if you have menopausal symptoms such as anxiety layered on top of that then they can have an exacerbating effect.

“In general, lawyers tend to be quite conservative about their bodies and won’t admit they’re fallible. That’s a challenge around pregnancy and chronic illnesses, as well as menopause.”

Putting policies into practice

The women’s network – one of the staff groups within Brodies, Scotland’s largest law firm – began menopause conversations in 2022. Brodies tapped into expertise from consultant Lyndsay Harrison, a nurse practitioner who launched Edinburgh’s first menopause clinic, the Law Society of Scotland, and fellow law firm Burness Paull – which had become Scotland’s first Menopause Friendly-accredited employer in 2021 – ahead of receiving its own certification in January. [2025]

“My background is in occupational health nursing, so we approached our menopause conversations from both the clinical side and the ‘thoughts and feelings’ side,” explains Emma Newlands, Brodies’ health and wellbeing manager. “We assembled a task group, which consisted of partners and colleagues, including Damien Behan, our IT director, who’s become a key figure in male allyship in our firm.

“Menopause is an emotive issue that leads to challenging conversations because people have different opinions and experiences. My job has been to listen and find a way forward that enables colleagues to be confident in having a voice and to feel like they’re in a safe environment to share their views.”

Emma adds: “We’re very careful not to present ourselves as experts in treatment options, but rather to support and signpost colleagues to those with expertise who can explain the options available. One of the best bits of feedback I’ve had was from someone who thanked us for giving them a symptom checker, which meant they could then go and have an informed conversation with their GP.”