Stress Awareness Month: The health factors shaping workplace stress

Why menopause, fertility and men's health are driving absence, attrition and burnout and what to do about it

Stress Awareness Month takes place every April. But for millions of employees, stress is not a month-long conversation, it’s a daily reality that quietly erodes performance, fuels absence and accelerates attrition.

For HR and benefits professionals, Stress Awareness Month is a prompt to ask a harder question: is the support we are offering reaching the people who need it most and actively making a positive change?

What is Stress Awareness Month?

Stress Awareness Month is an annual campaign held every April, led by the Stress Management Society. Since 1992, it has worked to raise awareness of the causes and impacts of stress, reduce the stigma around seeking help and encourage organisations to take proactive steps to support their people's mental and physical wellbeing.

In the workplace context, it is an opportunity for HR and people leaders to spotlight the often invisible burden employees carry and to make a public commitment to doing something about it.

The state of workplace stress: what the data tells us

The numbers are stark. And they are getting harder to ignore.

• The HSE reports that 17.1 million working days were lost to work-related stress, depression or anxiety, accounting for nearly half of all work-related ill health cases
• 79% of UK adults commonly experience work-related stress
• 1 in 5 workers have called in sick due to workplace stress
• The mental health charity Mind estimates that poor mental health costs UK employers up to £56 billion a year, a figure that includes presenteeism, absenteeism and staff turnover
• Younger workers are disproportionately affected, with 18 to 34 year olds reporting the highest levels of workplace anxiety

But behind every statistic is a person struggling to concentrate in a meeting, lying awake at 3am, quietly considering whether their job is worth their health. Stress does not just affect individuals. It ripples outward, affecting teams, managers and the performance of the entire organisation.

Why workplace stress is rarely just about work

One of the most important things HR professionals can recognise is that workplace stress does not exist in isolation.

Life stage pressures, such as fertility treatment, pregnancy, early parenthood, menopause, men's unspoken health struggles, are significant drivers of stress that rarely get addressed through standard EAP provision or generic wellbeing programmes.

• 90% of people struggling with fertility report feeling depressed, yet fertility is rarely discussed in workplace wellbeing strategies
• 1 in 4 women consider leaving work due to menopause symptoms, with brain fog, anxiety and insomnia creating a daily conflict between health and performance
• 1 in 5 women develop a mental health problem during the perinatal period, a time when they are often expected to simply get on with things
• Men are significantly less likely to seek help for physical or mental health concerns, suffering in silence until issues become crisis-level
• 40% of men have low testosterone, directly impacting mood, energy and cognitive function, none of which shows up in a standard health screen

When these health challenges go unaddressed, stress compounds. And when stress compounds, people leave or check out long before they hand in their notice.

The problem with most stress support at work

Many organisations respond to Stress Awareness Month with good intentions: a webinar, a reminder about the EAP phone number, a manager briefing on spotting signs of burnout.

These things are not without value. But they often fall short for one critical reason: they do not address the root cause.

Generic mental health support does not help someone navigate the emotional complexity of IVF. A wellbeing app with breathing exercises does not give a menopausal woman the clinical answers she needs about HRT. An EAP helpline does not provide the ongoing, specialist relationship that someone dealing with endometriosis or postpartum anxiety requires.

The result is that employees use these resources once, find them unhelpful for their specific situation and give up. The stress continues. The performance impact continues. And HR leaders are left wondering why engagement with their wellbeing benefits remains stubbornly low.

What meaningful stress support looks like in 2026

The most effective approach to workplace stress is one that is:

1. Proactive. Support that reaches employees before they hit crisis point, through regular check-ins, tailored clinical pathways and preventative guidance.
2. Specialist. Access to clinicians who understand the specific health challenge someone is facing, not a one-size-fits-all helpline.
3. Confidential and stigma-free. An environment where employees feel safe to talk about fertility struggles, menopause symptoms or men's health concerns without fear of judgment or career impact.
4. Accessible in the moment. Support that is available when stress peaks (at midnight, on a commute, in the five minutes between meetings) not just during a 9-5 appointment window.
5. Ongoing and personalised. Healthcare that adapts as people move through different life stages, rather than a single touchpoint followed by sign-off.

How Peppy supports employees through stress at every life stage

Peppy believes that expert-led healthcare should be simple, human and stigma-free. When employees get the right support for the health challenges affecting them most, stress reduces, performance improves and people stay.

Here is how Peppy's specialist services directly address the root causes of stress at work:

Women's Health

Conditions like endometriosis, PCOS, PMS and chronic pelvic pain do not pause for the working day. They affect concentration, energy and emotional resilience. Peppy connects women to specialist clinicians who provide clear, personalised guidance, so symptoms do not become a silent stressor that derails careers.

Men's Health

Men are more likely to internalise stress and delay seeking help. Peppy gives men a private, confidential space to talk about low mood, fatigue, sexual health and more, with expert clinicians who understand the specific pressures men face and will not dismiss their concerns.

Fertility

The fertility journey is one of the most emotionally demanding experiences a person can face, often while trying to maintain professional performance. Peppy provides specialist fertility support, helping employees feel informed and less alone at every step, reducing the psychological burden that inevitably spills into working life.

Pregnancy and Parenthood

From early pregnancy anxiety to birth recovery, infant feeding challenges and the identity shift of returning to work, Peppy offers calm, practical, clinical support. The stress of early parenthood is real and employees who feel supported through it are far more likely to return and thrive.

Menopause

Menopause-related work impairment drops by 15% within 90 days of using Peppy. Severe symptoms reduce by 58% at 180 days. These are not marginal improvements. They are the difference between someone staying in their role or quietly walking out the door.

What HR leaders should do during Stress Awareness Month and beyond

Stress Awareness Month is a valuable starting point. But the most impactful HR leaders use it as a springboard for structural change, not just a communications campaign.

Here is where to focus:

1. Audit your existing benefits for specialist gaps. Generic EAP provision rarely addresses life-stage health challenges. Ask yourself: what happens when a woman with severe endometriosis calls the EAP? What does a man struggling with low testosterone receive?

2. Talk to your people. Pulse surveys, focus groups and one-to-ones during Stress Awareness Month can surface what employees genuinely need and where support is falling short.

3. Train managers to recognise life-stage stress. A manager who understands that menopause, fertility treatment or postpartum recovery may be behind a performance dip is far better equipped to offer appropriate support.

4. Make access frictionless. The best support in the world is worthless if employees do not know it exists or find it difficult to use. App-based, confidential, always-on access removes the barriers that stop people asking for help.

5. Measure what matters. Track not just engagement with wellbeing benefits but the downstream impact: absence rates, retention data, productivity metrics. The ROI of specialist health support is real, but you have to be measuring the right things to see it.

The business case for addressing stress at the source

HR professionals are increasingly expected to demonstrate the business impact of people investment. The case for specialist health support is compelling:

• Peppy users are significantly less likely to take time off work due to health-related absence
• 88% of employees would change jobs for access to fertility support, a direct retention risk for employers not providing it
• 17% of women leave employment within five years of childbirth, a loss of experienced, valuable talent that carries enormous replacement costs
• The cost of absence alone makes Peppy's investment insignificant by comparison, as Dave Dixon, Health, Safety and Environment Manager at Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, has noted

As Anna Cotgreave, Head of Benefits at Clifford Chance, put it: "The best employees are going to go where the best benefits and support are and where they feel valued. With Peppy, we are able to reach employees who would not otherwise get that support."

Want to see how Peppy can help your organisation address the root causes of workplace stress? Book a call with our team to find out how we support employees across women's health, men's health, fertility, pregnancy and parenthood, and menopause.