Yesterday I ran a Power Pause session and forgot about my slides.

I was prepared and had the slides, but a technical glitch happened, and something more true took over: My own experience of navigating midlife: The fog, the grief, the moments where I couldn't find a word I'd used a thousand times before, and the unexpected clarity that came after I stopped fighting it and started listening to it instead.

The women in the digital room didn't need the framework on the screen. They needed to know someone had stood where they were standing, and found their way through.

That's when it hit me: this is exactly the gap in the guidelines.

What the UK got right and what's still missing

This spring, the UK Government made history. New guidance requires employers with 250+ employees to publish Menopause Action Plans alongside their gender pay gap data. From 2027 it becomes mandatory. This is a significant, hard-won step and I am genuinely glad it happened.

The guidance lists 18 evidence-informed actions. Employers must choose a minimum of two. Each plan must be signed off by a named senior leader,  making this a board-level commitment, not an HR task. 

The actions span:

• Workplace adjustments

• Access to occupational health

• Menopause champions and peer support networks

• Manager training

• A formal review of existing policies

Plans are published publicly, visible to the people organisations most want to attract and retain.

Here's what I keep sitting with.

A policy document cannot do what a woman in the room can do. It cannot say: I know what this feels like. I stayed. And here is what actually helped. It cannot offer the quality of attention that tells another woman her experience is real, her value is intact, and this organisation is paying attention to more than her output.

Guidelines set the floor. Lived experience raises it.

This isn't just a UK story

To every organisation reading this outside the UK - you do not need to wait for legislation. The women in your workforce are navigating this right now, today, regardless of what your government has or hasn't mandated.

And to every organisation inside the UK: please don't let compliance become the ceiling. The women who will stay, who will grow, who will lead, they are not watching for the policy on the intranet. They are watching for something much smaller and much more powerful: a signal that this place actually gets it.

Do it for the right reasons.

There will be someone on your leadership team right now who is quietly deciding whether to stay. The cost of losing her is not just financial, it’s the loss of everything she has built and knows and carries. When she looks back at this moment, she will remember whether her organisation showed up for her or handed her a leaflet.

If you don't know where to start: Start with someone who's been there.