The Menopause Moment Is Here. Do You Know Your Rights?

I've been saying for two years that menopause is the next frontier of women's workplace rights. I'm not saying it anymore. It's here.

This past March I posted daily on social media, 31 consecutive days of Women's History Month content across platforms, celebrating women who built this country and too often got erased for it. But women's history isn't just the past. It's happening right now. In statehouses. In city councils. And yes, in workplaces across America where women are still being managed out the door for symptoms their employers are legally required to accommodate.

Let me give you the news first. Then I'll tell you what you're already entitled to, right now, regardless of where you live.

THE LEGISLATIVE MOMENT

In June 2025, Rhode Island became the first state in the nation to explicitly require employers to provide workplace accommodations for menopause and related conditions. Not pregnancy. Not disability. Menopause.

Specifically. By name. That was a landmark.

Philadelphia followed in December 2025, becoming the first major American city to prohibit discrimination on the basis of menstruation, perimenopause and menopause. That ordinance takes effect January 1, 2027.

And now the floodgates are open. A Bloomberg Government analysis found at least 16 menopause-related bills introduced in 2026 legislative sessions alone, up from only three in all of 2025. Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Michigan and California all have active proposals. 19 states have now introduced upward of three dozen bills to improve menopause care and treatment, with eight of those bills now law.

Before this administration began dismantling the EEOC's priorities, I was working alongside women's rights attorney and doula, Catherine Crider, menopause advocate Karen Giblin, and menopause specialist Corrado Altomare, MD, FACOG on federal Menopause Workers Fairness Act legislation, modeled after the 2023 Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.

We presented that proposal at a Congressional luncheon on women's midlife health and menopause in July 2024, where it gained the attention and support of a senior Democratic congresswoman whose office remains actively engaged on this issue. The logic is simple: unlike pregnancy, every woman goes through menopause. While symptoms are often covered by the ADA, 20% of the U.S. workforce deserves specific legislation addressing this issue directly. The PWFA became the ADA for pregnancy. We need its equivalent for menopause.

The momentum is undeniable. And I want to acknowledge the people driving it.

Rachel Anne and Michelle Saba Corpuz at the Menopause Education Center just published a comprehensive review of menopause-related legislation covering more than 60 bills across the country, an essential resource for anyone tracking this space. April Haberman WHC, CEO of MiDOViA is doing critical work translating this legislation into practical workplace tools that employers can actually implement. And the Society for Women's Health Research (SWHR) whose Menopause Equity Working Group I was privileged to be part of, continues to be the gold standard for evidence-based advocacy on these issues.

These women are changing the world. Quietly. Methodically. Without enough credit.

WHAT YOU'RE ALREADY ENTITLED TO - RIGHT NOW

Here's what most women don't know, and what I've been saying from a legal standpoint long before any of these new laws passed:

You may not need to wait for your state to act.

If your perimenopause or menopause symptoms affect major life activities, such as sleeping, thinking, concentrating, working, you may qualify for reasonable workplace accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA's definition of disability is intentionally broad and carries a relatively low threshold to meet.

And because menopause is tied to both sex and age, you have intersecting protections under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. When you ask for accommodations, that's protected activity under federal law. If you get retaliated against, that's unlawful, and it's a legal claim.

This means you're entitled to request an interactive process. You're entitled to a good faith analysis of reasonable accommodations. You're entitled to things like flexible scheduling for fatigue, temperature adjustments for hot flashes, modified duties during severe symptom flares, and remote work options during particularly difficult periods.

You're not entitled to be managed out the door, put on a performance improvement plan, or pushed out of a job you've spent decades building because your employer doesn't want to deal with your midlife health symptoms.

That's not a performance problem. That's them breaking the law.

THE BOTTOM LINE

From menstruation to menopause, your entire reproductive life, the law is finally starting to catch up.

But a law you don't know about is a law you can't use. And a right you don't raise is a right you don't have.

If you're experiencing perimenopause or menopause symptoms that are affecting your ability to work, or if you've been disciplined, demoted or pushed out because of those symptoms, reach out. This is exactly what we do.

Jack Tuckner Tuckner, Sipser, Weinstock & Sipser, LLP Women's Rights in the Workplace womensrightsny.com jtuckner@womensrightsny.com