Women missing work due to painful periods costing UK €13 billion

Women missing work due to painful periods, endometriosis, fibroids, and ovarian cysts costs the UK economy £11 billion (€13 billion) a year, according to a new report that calls for more investment in women’s health services.

The report from the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) Confederation, women’s health charity CREATE Health Foundation, and consultancy London Economics, found that roughly 60,000 women in the UK are unable to work due to the impact of menopause symptoms.

Menopause is when women’s periods stop due to lower hormone levels. It typically impacts women between the ages of 45 and 55, according to the NHS.

Unemployment due to its symptoms, which include hot flushes, brain fog, muscle pains, and difficulty sleeping, costs roughly £1.5 billion (€1.8 billion) a year, the new report estimated.

The authors said that if an additional £1 (€1.19) were invested in obstetrics and gynaecology services per woman in England, the return for the economy would be an estimated £319 million (€379.2 million).

‘Compelling economic case’

The report also highlighted that local authorities with higher ethnic diversity had less access to women’s health services and those with more poverty had worse women’s health outcomes.

Dr Ranee Thakar, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said in a statement sent to Euronews Health that the “important new report” presented a “compelling economic case for investing in women’s health”.

“Currently, insufficient and fragmented investment means women are not accessing the diagnosis and treatment they need when they need it,” she said, calling on investment in new technology as well.

“The [UK] government must set out an ambitious vision for women’s health, putting women and girls at the heart of their policies,” Thakar added.

The report used data from the British Cohort Study and the Reproductive Health Survey (RHS) as well as pay data for women aged 16 to 45.

“By addressing women’s health more effectively, we can alleviate substantial economic burdens, such as absenteeism and lost productivity in the workplace, ultimately benefiting businesses and the economy as a whole,” Dr Layla McCay, director of policy at the NHS Confederation, said in a statement.

“But most importantly these measures would help to ensure that every woman gets the support they deserve when they are faced with health challenges,” she added.

Last year, a survey by UK charity Wellbeing of Women found that almost all of the 3,000 women and girl respondents had experienced period pain with nearly 60 per cent saying their period pain was severe.

More than half of those surveyed said it was difficult to access treatment or support, and 47 per cent said their workplace did not “take them seriously in relation to their period”.

More support for women’s health

McCay said there was an urgent need to support a 10-year women’s health strategy for England.

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That strategy was introduced in the UK in 2022, with the government writing at the time that women spent a greater part of their lives “in ill health” with not enough focus on “women-specific issues” such as miscarriage and menopause.

“This has meant that not enough is known about conditions that only affect women, or about how conditions that affect both men and women impact them in different ways,” the 2022 strategy said.

In EU member states, women tend to live longer than men, according to recent data from Eurostat, however, men spend less time in ill health.

The previous UK government also announced last year a £25 million investment for two years of funding for women’s care centres. Yet the new NHS Confederation report calls on more investment in part due to financial challenges following strikes.

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A study that came out in 2023 estimated that women missing work due to menopause symptoms cost the United States economy $1.8 billion a year (€1.6 billion).

That study, from the Mayo Clinic, was based on a survey of 4,440 women aged 45 to 60 who were patients there and currently working.

Using 2020 US Census data, the researchers also estimated that the medical costs related to menopause for women were $24.8 billion (€22.6 billion).