Menopause advocate Jane Pangbourne talks menopause myths and employer support

Jane Pangbourne, the force behind menopause education and awareness community Menopausal Not Mad, shares how her experience with perimenopause in her thirties paved the way for her life’s work, plus how employers can create a more supportive culture.

Think you know about the menopause? Think again. That’s the message from Jane Pangbourne, the menopause advocate behind Menopausal Not Mad, an organisation offering resources and advice for women worldwide, plus one-to-one consulting support.

Menopausal Not Mad – a global business

Pangbourne’s menopause venture has come a long way since it started in 2017. She has built a 40,000-member network, was identified by Meta as a community leader in 2022 in the top 2%, and works with 1,300 women on a one-to-one basis.

The scope is international, with women from the UK, US, Spain and Australia looking to Pangbourne for the answers on all things menopause: “The one thing I’m quite proud of is that I work with so many women across countries,” she says. “There’s an island in the middle of nowhere that I’d never heard of. And I have one person from there who follows me and keeps connecting with me.”

Menopausal Not Mad offers women free, evidence-based menopause and HRT education. For those who want to pay for more comprehensive services, there is Pangbourne’s one-on-one consultations, which is a longer process looking at overall health, including gut health, as Pangbourne is also a qualified nutritionist. She then creates an action plan, which they can take to their GP. “Most women who turn up for their first appointment with me are crying because nobody has listened to them, heard them, understood them, they’ve gaslit them, all the negative things,” she shares. “My goal at the end of that conversation is to reassure them and have a plan in place for what to do and to make sure they know that they’re not going mad.”

I was losing the ability to focus, to think straight, to even stand my ground in a meeting where before I’d been quite feisty.

Pangbourne, now fifty-eight, reflects on the origins of her menopause advocacy. Some twenty years ago, at just thirty-eight, she experienced symptoms that turned out to be perimenopause, also known as the transitional phase before the menopause begins.

Pangbourne’s perimenopause story

“I really struggled,” she admits. At the time, Pangbourne was working in the training and development sector as a qualified adult tutor. “I was really good at my job. I loved my job. And I’d reached a point where I was looking to be promoted even further and finding my way up the ladder.” Then, symptoms that turned out to be perimenopause came seemingly out of nowhere. “It wasn’t your traditional hot flushes and night sweats,” she says. “I was feeling very different emotionally, and I now know that was anxiety. I was finding the confidence that I’ve built up over the years was waning, and I was losing the ability to focus, to think straight, to even stand my ground in a meeting where before I’d been quite feisty.”

As women, particularly extremely capable women in the workplace, we tend to just go, that’s just me. It’s fine. And we absorb those symptoms, and it becomes part of who we are…

When Pangbourne sought help, she got knock-backs. “Although the symptoms were really frustrating and I didn’t know what was going on, I had a bit of an idea and just being told continually by healthcare providers that I was too young to be perimenopausal or that I couldn’t possibly take hormone replacement therapy because it was going to give me breast cancer, all the things that many people will have heard, I decided wasn’t acceptable.”

This led her down a rabbit warren of research, which opened up a desire to help others, too. “It became clear that this wasn’t just a me problem, but a much bigger problem.” Because not all menopause-related symptoms are the same, women, she thinks, tend to dismiss them at work. “As women, particularly extremely capable women in the workplace, we tend to just go, that’s just me. It’s fine. And we absorb those symptoms, and it becomes part of who we are, rather than saying, hang on, I might just need a bit of advice here because this is different for me,” she explains.

She’s right. The fact that a report in 2023 from the human resources company CIPD found that around one in six women considered leaving work due to poor support, and 6% did, should be a bigger concern for businesses wanting to keep their top talent, including our senior female leaders.

Now it’s time to clear up some menopause myths.

The first? That’s it’s only your average woman in her late-forties-to-fifties that is affected. Today, Pangbourne sees a mixed bag of clients for menopause help spanning women in their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties and beyond.

Menopause and women – an age-diverse bag

In fact, the menopause affects women of all working ages, she shares, because some can become perimenopausal through surgery or medication, or, like her, simply experience perimenopause biologically earlier than others.

Another myth to clear up is that the menopause ends. “The one phrase that grinds my gears and sends me into a frenzy is, it’s okay, I’m through it. No, you’re not through it, because if you were through menopause, you wouldn’t be here anymore.” 

So, if the menopause, once it arrives, remains with a woman for life, plus the fact that an age-diverse range of women experience symptoms, the question of what employers are going to do better is an important one to ask.

Sometimes, just feeling heard and listened to is 90% of the fix.

Pangbourne worries for women in their fifties and sixties at work, who are often in senior roles. “If we are ignoring what’s going on in that age band, we’re losing such an experienced and vital asset we’ve built up as employers.”

She’s right. The fact that a report in 2023 from the human resources company CIPD found that around one in six women considered leaving work due to poor support, and 6% did, should be a bigger concern for businesses wanting to keep their top talent, including our senior female leaders.

“We’re literally throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” she states. “We’re saying, okay, you’re done now, we’ll start again, and then you’ve got to spend years training somebody up to the level of that person, when it’s only some small adjustments or some information about HRT or other information that needs to be signposted to.”

Employers and menopause support – what’s needed

For Pangbourne, employers don’t need to be menopause experts; signposting is enough. “You don’t have to know much, you just have to give this little leaflet to say, okay, I think you might need this, why don’t you go away and read this?” 

If I’m a perimenopausal woman at work, I don’t want a big badge to say it. I just want to be able to go to my employer and say, look, I’m really struggling today. Do you think I could work from home? Or if we’re going down the fan on the desk route, fine, can I have a fan on the desk? Or can you make some other adjustment?”

There are other ways employers can be more supportive, too, and they don’t cost much, if any money, she adds.

From checking in with employees if they seem to be struggling to creating a culture where women feel safe to bring up menopause-related issues and ask for help, there’s much employers can do: “If employers can avoid that performance assumption, but feel able to ask the question without criticism. So if the culture is very positive towards this support, then that person who needs the support shouldn’t feel anxious if the employer says, you know, Jane, can we have a little chat over a cup of tea? Rather than thinking, oh my God, I’m going to lose my job, what’s happening?

“They should feel supported and say, I’d love to have that conversation with you. Thank you. And that doesn’t mean you’re going to be asking for time off all the time or lots of different adjustments. Sometimes, just feeling heard and listened to is 90% of the fix. I often find that with clients who come to me once they’ve got through that initial trauma of speaking about what they want to speak about, they’ll say at the end of that conversation, I feel so much better just because I feel you’ve listened to me. And that’s what we want from employers.”

It’s time to bring up the Employment Rights Act 2025, and how it makes menopause support a legal requirement in UK workplaces. Sounds like good news, right? In theory, yes, although Pangbourne is concerned that the element of the bill which labels menopause as a disability will not help women.

“That’s absolutely unacceptable to me. It’s not a disability,” she states. 

“It just needs people to have the right information, and then they can get on with their lives. It doesn’t have to mean that you’re falling apart or you’re less than. If I’m a perimenopausal woman at work, I don’t want a big badge to say it. I just want to be able to go to my employer and say, look, I’m really struggling today. Do you think I could work from home? Or if we’re going down the fan on the desk route, fine, can I have a fan on the desk? Or can you make some other adjustment?”

So, what’s next for Pangbourne? For now, to continue spreading awareness, education and support to as many women dealing with menopause and perimenopause as possible. But this founder has no ego about knowing when it’s time to throw in the towel: “If someone said, all employers are fully up to speed with the menopause. You don’t need to do your job anymore. You can retire. I would go, brilliant.”

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