On September 7, 2026 the International Organization for Standardization published ISO 45010 — Occupational health and safety management — Menstruation and menopause in the workplace — Guidance — the first international standard of its kind, developed with the British Standards Institution and released at no cost to any organization that wants it. The document gives leaders, HR teams and occupational health practitioners a consensus framework for identifying workplace factors that affect employees who menstruate or are going through perimenopause and menopause, plus practical adjustments, a template workplace charter, guidance on disclosure and privacy, and a cross-reference matrix mapping it to ISO 45001, the widely adopted occupational health and safety management standard.

Why It Matters

For the sexual wellness and femtech sector, this is infrastructure. The commercial menopause market — telehealth platforms, hormone therapy, vaginal moisturizers and lubricants, cooling wearables, symptom-tracking rings — has spent three years scaling ahead of the institutional scaffolding that would make employer-funded distribution normal. A free ISO standard is exactly that scaffolding. Employers who adopt it need something to point employees toward, and that turns benefit managers into a distribution channel for menopause care in the same way ISO-aligned wellbeing programs already route to mental health apps. It also lands in a busy month for the category. Midi Health has just rebranded beyond menopause, Oura's S-1 puts women's health at the center of its IPO story, and the FDA is still declining to formally declare the estradiol patch shortage that's rationing supply for the exact population this standard describes. A global standard that says out loud that menopause is an occupational health issue — not a private embarrassment — gives every one of those companies a firmer footing with enterprise buyers. The catch is enforcement: guidance without teeth converts to action only when someone with budget decides it should. Watch whether large multinationals cite ISO 45010 in their 2027 benefits disclosures. That's the tell.

The evidence base behind it is BSI research surveying 6,494 women across seven countries. Per ISO's launch announcement, 68% believe employers have a role in supporting employees with menopause- and menstruation-related health issues, and roughly seven in ten want a clear employer process. Yet six in ten said they had never heard their employer proactively discuss menopause support. Personnel Today, reporting the UK-specific slice on September 7, added sharper numbers: only 38% of UK employees who have experienced menopause, perimenopause or menstrual health issues felt confident their employer would help them find a solution, only about a tenth would feel comfortable raising it with a male line manager, 19% would go to HR, and 49% said they were offered no support at all. BSI puts a "potential productivity premium" of nearly £300 million a year on getting this right in the UK alone.

ISO 45010 builds on BS 30416, the British standard published in 2023, which BSI says has been downloaded more than 13,000 times across 147 countries — evidence of latent demand that ISO is now trying to meet at global scale. The new standard widens the original with more definitions, explanatory notes, a broader set of practical actions shaped by an international working group, and new material on how employees disclose symptoms and how employers handle that data. "Recognizing that menstruation and menopause affect millions of people throughout their working lives, ISO 45010 will be made available at no cost, to maximize global access and adoption," ISO Secretary-General Sergio Mujica said. "By removing financial barriers, organizations of all sizes, regardless of location or resources, can access and implement the standard."

BSI's Anne Hayes framed the gap the standard is meant to close: "Our research shows that conversations around menstruation and menopause are becoming more common in workplaces, but despite three years of progress after the foundational British standard on menopause and menstruation was published in 2023 there is still a significant gap between awareness and action." Crucially, ISO 45010 is guidance, not a certifiable requirements standard — nobody gets audited against it and nobody gets fined for ignoring it. Its power is soft: it gives procurement teams, works councils, unions and benefits consultants a neutral reference point to cite, which is often how voluntary standards become de facto expectations.

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Update — 2026-09-09

{Initial entry — story first created.}