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You Haven’t Lost Your Career Mojo. You Might Just Be Navigating Menopause.
THE DAY YOUR CAREER CONFIDENCE DISAPPEARS
One minute, you’re the woman who can walk into a difficult meeting, negotiate a tricky situation and make sense of chaos before everyone else has found the biscuits.
Then suddenly, you’re staring at your laptop wondering why you have forgotten the name of someone you have worked with for seven years.
Your confidence has gone walkabout. Your concentration is playing hide-and-seek. You are exhausted, irritable, overwhelmed and wondering whether you have somehow become rubbish at the job you used to be rather good at.
Welcome to one of menopause’s less glamorous workplace surprises. 🙃
The important bit? You may not have lost your career mojo at all.
Menopause and perimenopause can affect how you feel physically and psychologically, and those changes can have a very real impact on your working life. The danger comes when we interpret those changes as evidence that we are no longer capable, ambitious or employable.
That is a very different thing.
THE MENOPAUSE CAREER WOBBLE IS REAL
My Menopause Centre reported that 77% of menopausal women they surveyed believed menopause could negatively affect performance at work, while 67% felt it could negatively affect their career. Those are rather sobering numbers.
Their article, “How to survive and thrive during the menopause transition at work”, also highlights something I see repeatedly: women can respond to these difficulties by reducing their hours, stepping back from opportunities or even leaving jobs they enjoy.
The problem is that we can mistake a temporary period of difficulty for a permanent verdict on our careers.
That is a big mistake.
Before you hand in your notice, decline the promotion or decide you are “past it”, stop and investigate what is actually happening.
WHAT HAS CHANGED?
This is where a little career detective work can be surprisingly powerful. 🕵️♀️
Instead of asking, “What is wrong with me?”, try asking:
• What has changed in my work recently?
• Which symptoms are affecting me most?
• When do I feel most capable?
• What situations are particularly difficult?
• What support would make my working day easier?
• Am I genuinely unhappy in this career, or am I struggling with how I currently have to do it?
That final question matters enormously.
There is a world of difference between “I hate my career” and “I hate trying to perform this career while exhausted, anxious and unable to concentrate”.
One requires a career change. The other might require support, adjustments, treatment, boundaries or simply a different way of working.
DON’T MAKE A PERMANENT DECISION DURING A TEMPORARY WOBBLE
This doesn't mean you should stay in a job that makes you miserable. Quite the opposite.
But before making a major career decision, give yourself the chance to understand what is driving it.
In the 2023 Dr Louise Newson Podcast episode “How to thrive at work during the menopause”, Dr Louise Newson and executive career coach Dr Claire Kaye discuss the impact of hormonal changes on women’s working lives and the role career coaching can play in creating clarity and focus.
One particularly useful approach from Dr Kaye is wonderfully simple: recognise what you are feeling, ask yourself what or who might help, then choose one small thing you can actually do.
That sounds almost ridiculously straightforward.
Which is precisely why it can work.
When your brain feels like it has 47 browser tabs open, you don't need another enormous project called “Sort My Entire Life Out”. You need the next useful step. 🧭
GET CURIOUS BEFORE YOU GET CRITICAL
Brain fog, anxiety, low mood, poor sleep and fatigue can all influence how we experience work. And menopause is not simply about hot flushes.
In her 2026 Entrepreneur UK interview, Dr Louise Newson discusses data from the Balance app showing that brain fog was the most frequently recorded symptom among more than 131 million symptom logs, followed by anxiety and low mood. Hot flushes ranked much lower.
That matters because workplace conversations about menopause can still become obsessed with fans, windows and sweaty presentations.
Those things matter, of course. But so does the woman sitting quietly at her desk wondering why she suddenly doesn't trust her own judgement.
If you are experiencing symptoms that are affecting your work, seek appropriate medical advice. Your career does not exist in a separate universe from your health.
ASK FOR WHAT YOU NEED
You do not need to stand up in the middle of the office and announce, “Ladies and gentlemen, my oestrogen has left the building.”
Thankfully. 😂
You can have a practical conversation instead. Think about what would make work more manageable. Could you adjust your working hours? Change your workspace? Take more regular breaks? Work from home on particularly difficult days? Change how meetings are structured? Have greater flexibility around travel or early starts?
My Menopause Centre recommends finding an ally at work, whether that is your manager, HR, Occupational Health or another trusted colleague, and discussing how symptoms are affecting you.
The key is to focus on what you need rather than feeling obliged to provide your employer with your entire medical history.
And remember, workplace support is not simply a kindness. Depending on the circumstances, menopause symptoms may intersect with protections under UK employment law, including disability, age and sex discrimination protections.
KNOW WHAT YOU STILL BRING TO THE TABLE
Menopause has an irritating habit of making experienced women question things they have already proved.
You have spent decades developing judgement, expertise, relationships, resilience and professional credibility.
Brain fog doesn't delete your career history.
A difficult six months doesn't erase twenty years of experience.
Feeling less confident doesn't mean you have become less capable.
And being 45, 50 or 55 does not mean your career has an expiry date. 🚫
You may, however, need to rethink how you want to use all that experience.
Perhaps you want more autonomy.
Perhaps you want to lead differently.
Perhaps you want to move organisation.
Perhaps you want to stop doing the parts of your role that drain you and do more of the work that energises you.
Perhaps you don't need a new career at all. You need a better version of the one you already have.
THINK CAREER, NOT JUST JOB
This is where career coaching can be particularly useful.
Sometimes the problem isn't the job. It is the assumptions surrounding the job.
“I should be able to cope.”
“I shouldn't need flexibility.”
“I've got too much experience to start again.”
“I'm too old to change direction.”
“Maybe I should just take something less demanding.”
Those thoughts can feel like facts when you are exhausted. They aren't.
Coaching can give you the space to separate the symptoms from the story you are telling yourself about them. It can help you identify what you actually want, what needs to change and what is still possible.
Your career isn't a straight railway track. It is more like a rather untidy British footpath. There may be detours, unexpected hills, muddy bits and the occasional signpost pointing in completely the wrong direction.
You are still allowed to choose where you go next.
YOUR MOJO ISN’T GONE
Menopause can absolutely affect your working life. Pretending otherwise is unhelpful nonsense. But the answer isn't automatically to shrink your career until it fits around your symptoms.
Get curious.
Get support.
Get medical advice where appropriate.
Talk to your employer.
Review what you need.
And, most importantly, stop confusing a difficult season with the end of your professional story.
You haven't necessarily lost your ambition.
You haven't suddenly become less intelligent.
You haven't become unemployable.
And you certainly haven't reached the career finishing line simply because your hormones have decided to redecorate the place.
Your next career chapter may look different.
It might even look better.
And if you're wondering what that chapter could look like, you don't have to work it out alone. Pause, take stock and give yourself permission to explore what you really want next. 🌱
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