Menopause at Work: The NOPAUSE™ CAREER CONVERSATIONS When Business and Biology Collide
When Menopause Meets Ambition
Menopause isn’t just a midlife story.
For many women, it arrives at the peak of their careers — right in the middle of high performance, heavy responsibility, and leadership acceleration.
Twelve years ago, Fiona McKay, CEO and Founder of The Menopause Maze™ and creator of The NOPAUSE™ Method, experienced this firsthand. A total abdominal hysterectomy at 42 put her into surgical menopause overnight, reshaping everything she knew about her leadership life and career identity in the boardroom.
To mark Menopause Awareness Month 2025, Fiona sat down with Louise Ellis, a Millennial business leader and Executive Search Partner at HW Global, who faced the same life-changing operation at the same age but a decade later.
Different generations.
Different workplace cultures.
Same reality: what happens when menopause meets career ambition in the C-suite?
The Hidden Truth About Menopause at Work
When a woman’s body changes, her career shouldn’t have to.
Yet for millions of women, it still does. According to the CIPD Menopause at Work Report (2023):
75% of women experience symptoms that affect their working life.
1 in 10 leave their roles entirely because of unmanaged menopause challenges.
Only 25% experience no symptoms at all.
The impact reaches far beyond wellness. A Harvard Business Review study revealed that menopause directly affects confidence, cognitive clarity, and decision-making — three critical factors in leadership performance.
At The Menopause Maze™, Fiona McKay and her team work with women and workplaces to transform these challenges into strategic advantages. Their approach redefines menopause as a leadership, performance, and business strategy issue, not simply a health concern.
When Business and Biology Collide
For both Fiona and Louise, surgical menopause wasn’t a gradual transition — it was a sudden, life-changing event.
In Fiona’s case, it struck when her business and boardroom trajectory was steeply scaling. For Louise, it arrived amid peak leadership growth. When a leader’s biology shifts that abruptly, the professional impact isn’t only physical, it’s strategic.
Confidence. Visibility. Influence. Risk appetite.
Each can shift overnight.
That’s why The Menopause Maze™ exists: to bring these realities into boardroom strategy and to equip women leaders with frameworks to retain their edge.
Navigating the Career Crossroads
Every leader faces a career crossroads. For many women, menopause is that moment.
Louise Ellis had spent years leading C-suite searches in private equity and managing executive performance at pace. When her health demanded surgery for a rare condition called Lynch Syndrome which puts her at an 80% chance of ovarian, stomach and bowel cancer her leadership and lifestyle collided.
This moment of crisis mirrors what so many professional women experience, a point where ambition and biology meet, with no clear roadmap.
It’s precisely why Fiona McKay developed The NOPAUSE™ Method: a practical framework that helps women navigate menopause in business and and the boardroom so they can keep growing their careers and companies and lead and live without limits through all stages of menopause.
Through The Menopause Maze™, this approach has supported women leaders across industries both in the UK and the US to protect their performance, influence, and progression during and after menopause.
When women have the right information, insight, and support, career crossroads become turning points, not endings.
Finding Support in a Silent Space
When Louise shared her story, one truth stood out:
“Had I not met Fiona and been reunited with her work, I probably wouldn’t have had this operation yet. She was my only source of support who really understood what I was facing — both as a woman and as a leader in the boardroom.”
This highlights a gap that too many women still face: menopause is often a silent space in leadership.
The World Economic Forum estimates that menopause-related productivity loss could cost the global economy billions each year. Despite this, few organisations have formal frameworks for supporting their senior women.
Through The Menopause Maze™, businesses can take proactive steps to retain and advance top female talent, turning menopause from a hidden cost into a measurable return on leadership investment.
Explore the Workplace Solutions to see how your company can lead the way.
Why This Matters for Leaders and Workplaces
Menopause is no longer a private matter; it’s a performance, risk, and growth strategy issue.
For forward-thinking organisations, the opportunity lies in three areas:
Retention: Protecting leadership pipelines and preserving institutional knowledge.
Risk Management: Reducing decision-fatigue and ensuring continuity at the top.
Strategic Growth: Enabling female leaders and founders to scale with stability.
The numbers speak volumes:
Women over 45 are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs worldwide (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 2024).
By 2030, women are projected to control over $30 trillion in global assets (McKinsey & Co., 2024).
Ignoring menopause in business means missing the next decade’s biggest growth opportunity — for women, companies, and investors alike.
The Future Is NoPause™
At The Menopause Maze™, the philosophy is simple:
Growth doesn’t stop here, it just needs a new map.
Through the NOPAUSE™ Method, women can restore performance, influence, and growth while leading through menopause. And for businesses, it means retaining the experience and excellence that drive results.
Measure What Matters — Take The NOPAUSE™ Scorecard
Real change starts with measurable insight.
The NOPAUSE™ Scorecard is the diagnostic every modern woman leader and every progressive organisation needs.
For women leaders, it’s a fast, confidential performance diagnostic revealing how menopause may be influencing leadership impact, decision-making, and strategic resilience. Each participant receives a personalised report with next-step recommendations from the NOPAUSE™ Method.
For workplaces, the Workplace Scorecard aggregates data to highlight leadership-layer risk, talent retention gaps, and hidden commercial losses caused by menopause-related performance erosion.
It’s more than awareness it’s analytics for leadership continuity.
When women and businesses use data to act, menopause becomes a lever for growth, not a reason for decline.
Fiona McKay Sits down with Louise Ellis: NoPause™ Career Conversations for Menopasue Awareness Day 2025
🎧 Listen to the Full Conversation
Too Young for Menopause: From Gen X to Millennial – Building Generational Careers Without Pause
Now available exclusively via The Menopause Maze Website.