Women’s health should be a business priority, not just a personal one

We asked working women a simple question. Had a healthcare professional ever failed to take their reproductive or hormonal symptoms seriously? 93% said yes, a number that matters to HR leaders because it’s already sitting inside your absence, attrition and productivity figures.

We have built one of the largest multimodal women’s health datasets in the world, because the research, or lack of it, showed us the female body has been under-studied, under-funded and dismissed, and that nobody inside the system was going to fix it. McKinsey’s analysis highlights women make up 57% of the NHS waiting list and gynaecology alone accounts for around one in eight of all adult waits. 

Businesses aren’t the reason the gender health gap exists. But their own health benefits often mirror it. Private Medical Insurance (PMI) labels ongoing conditions as ‘chronic’ and anything non-urgent as ‘elective,’ often excluding cover. PMOS, endometriosis, adenomyosis and perimenopause often fall into those categories.

Women’s health also remains taboo at work, forcing employees to manage conditions alone. Three-quarters of women in our recent poll have never disclosed a reproductive health event at work, two-thirds citing fear of how it would be received, so HR works from absence and attrition figures that understate the real cost.

McKinsey cites the UK diagnosis time for endometriosis at nine years and four months. That’s nine years without answers, scattered sick days and holiday days used around flare-ups. Adenomyosis and PMOS follow the same pattern, often affecting someone for their entire working years. 

In our Hertility Workplace Health Report, female employees logged an average of five work-impacting symptoms including fatigue, pain, brain fog and anxiety, and in our recent poll 93% said symptoms affect their performance, concentration or energy at work. 

Our poll highlighted 90% of female employees felt their hormonal health has impacted their mental health, confidence or career progression. 

Budget is the barrier businesses raise most often for implementing health support, but the perspective needs to change. Invest in healthcare, or keep absorbing the cost of absence, attrition and lost productivity.