Sick Leave and Work Rights for Perimenopause in the UK
Perimenopause symptoms can affect your ability to work. Know your UK employment rights around sick leave, reasonable adjustments, and discrimination.
Perimenopause as a workplace issue
Perimenopause affects a significant proportion of the UK workforce at any given time, and yet it remains poorly understood as a workplace issue. Symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, anxiety, and disrupted sleep can genuinely impair performance and attendance, but many women feel unable to discuss them with managers or HR. Understanding your employment rights means you can take the leave you need and ask for the support you are entitled to, without fear that doing so will damage your career.
Sick leave rights during perimenopause
Perimenopause is not itself a legal status that automatically triggers enhanced sick leave protections, but the symptoms it causes may qualify for protection under existing law. If your symptoms are severe enough to substantially affect your day-to-day activities, you may meet the legal definition of disability under the Equality Act 2010. Several employment tribunal cases have found in favour of women dismissed or disadvantaged because of perimenopause-related absences, establishing an important precedent. If you need to take sick leave for perimenopause symptoms, do so through your normal sickness absence procedure and be clear in your self-certification or fit note about the underlying cause.
The Equality Act and perimenopause
The Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination on grounds of disability, sex, and age. Perimenopause can engage all three. If your employer takes negative action against you specifically because of your perimenopause symptoms, including dismissal, demotion, or being passed over for promotion, this may constitute discrimination. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published guidance making clear that employers have a duty to consider whether perimenopause symptoms amount to a disability and to make reasonable adjustments accordingly. You do not need to be formally diagnosed with a disability to request adjustments. It is enough to demonstrate that your symptoms substantially affect your daily work.
Requesting reasonable adjustments
Reasonable adjustments are changes your employer can make to remove or reduce the disadvantage you experience because of a health condition. For perimenopause, these might include flexible start times if morning fatigue or night sweat disruption is making early starts unmanageable, a desk closer to a window or away from a heat source, permission to use a fan, access to a private space to rest during severe symptoms, or adjusted targets during a difficult period. The adjustments must be reasonable, meaning your employer cannot be expected to make changes that are disproportionately costly or disruptive, but many perimenopause adjustments are low cost and straightforward.
How to raise perimenopause at work
Deciding to disclose perimenopause symptoms to an employer is a personal decision. Some women feel completely comfortable doing so, while others are concerned about how it will be perceived. If you decide to raise it, requesting a private meeting with your line manager or HR is a good starting point. Come with specific examples of how your symptoms are affecting you and specific adjustments you are requesting, rather than a general complaint. Written follow-up after verbal conversations creates a record of what was discussed and agreed, which protects you if the situation deteriorates later.
Keeping records of how symptoms affect your work
If you are navigating sick leave, adjustments, or a potential discrimination claim, having detailed records of your symptoms and how they affect you is important. Note the dates of difficult days, the symptoms you experienced, how long they lasted, and what impact they had on your ability to work. If your symptoms follow a pattern, tracking them consistently over weeks and months provides much stronger evidence than trying to reconstruct events from memory. PeriPlan lets you log symptoms daily and track patterns over time, which creates exactly this kind of structured record without requiring any additional effort beyond the logging itself.
Where to get further help
If you feel your employer is not taking your situation seriously or has taken action you believe is discriminatory, several organisations can help. ACAS offers free advice on employment rights and can mediate disputes before they reach a tribunal. Citizens Advice provides guidance on the Equality Act and how it applies to health-related workplace situations. The Menopause Experts Group and similar organisations publish workplace-specific resources. If you join a trade union, your representative can support you through formal processes. You have rights, and you do not have to navigate them alone.
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