The media says menopause is costing companies billions in lost productivity. We dug into the research - and found the story is backwards.

Jen has been researching menopause and leadership, and in this episode we unpack how the media's "business case" framing - positioning menopause as a profit problem - actually sets women up for judgment and failure at work. We get into what the research really shows (spoiler: it's far less conclusive than the headlines suggest), and make the case that the real culprit isn't menopause at all - it's productivity culture that punishes women exactly when they're wired to lead.

You are going to find out why:

• The "business case" framing backfires: Positioning menopause as a cause of lost profit makes women feel judged as the problem, and that judgment itself drives the stress response that worsens symptoms.
• The research doesn't back up the billion-dollar headlines: A literature review Jen found couldn't establish a conclusive link between menopause symptoms and work outcomes. The media's loss estimates are outrunning the actual science.
• Productivity culture is the real system at play: Corporate culture rewards visible, tangible output over strategic and creative thinking, right at the life stage when women are neurologically and biologically primed for exactly that kind of leadership.
• It's a self-fulfilling prophecy: Pressure and judgment raise cortisol, cortisol worsens symptoms and clouds higher-level thinking, and that "lost productivity" becomes the very evidence used to justify the original narrative.

Meet Your Hosts:
Sheri and Jen are twin sisters, modern medicine women, leadership coaches, limiting belief busters and co-founders of Midlife Women Rising.

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