Women’s health affects attendance, performance, retention and long-term workforce stability. Yet many employers still treat it as a niche wellbeing issue rather than a core business risk.
That gap is costly.
Women are more likely to experience long diagnostic delays, have symptoms dismissed, and manage complex, overlapping health conditions whilst at work. When those needs aren’t supported, employers feel the impact through absence, presenteeism and avoidable attrition.
Women’s health challenges extend far beyond pregnancy and menopause. Women’s health support at work must also address menstrual health, gynaecological conditions, mental health, metabolic conditions and cardiovascular risk - many of which directly affect working-age employees.
Peppy’s survey of over 1,300 women’s health and menopause service users highlights the scale of the issue:
Despite this symptom burden:
For employers, this means many women are working through significant symptoms with little support, increasing fatigue, cognitive strain and the risk of longer-term absence.
Women’s health conditions don’t always result in sick leave. More often, they lead to presenteeism - employees working while unwell.
This matters because presenteeism:
From a business perspective, untreated symptoms quietly erode performance long before they show up in absence data.
A narrow focus on reproductive health alone misses a growing part of the risk employers face.
Women experience unique diagnostic gaps and health risks across wider areas, including:
Cardiovascular health - Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in women, yet symptoms are more likely to be missed or misattributed. Hormonal changes, pregnancy history and menopause all influence cardiovascular risk, often without clear workplace support.
Metabolic health and diabetes - Women with conditions such as PCOS, gestational diabetes or thyroid imbalance face a higher lifetime risk of type 2 diabetes. Without early intervention, this can lead to long-term health complications and increased healthcare costs.
When employers fail to address these broader risks, they miss opportunities for early intervention and prevention.
Many organisations rely on EAPs or general healthcare benefits. These play a role, but they are not designed to manage complex, ongoing women’s health needs.
Common gaps include:
As a result, women’s health issues remain under-treated and workplace impact continues to grow.
Effective women’s health support is clinical, continuous and confidential.
Peppy supports women across:
All delivered through private one-to-one clinician messaging, video consultations and evidence-based resources, integrated into a single app .
This joined-up approach reflects the reality of women’s health, where symptoms overlap and evolve over time.
When women receive timely, specialist women’s health support at work, employers typically see:
Women’s health support at work is a strategic business investment, not a niche benefit. Employers that treat women’s health proactively, with specialist, integrated support, are better positioned to retain talent, reduce risk and build healthier, more productive organisations.
If you want to keep your employees supported and in work, get in touch.