Wellness expert and TV host Brooke Burke says menopause symptoms can be dismissed as “normal,” and she’s backing a new Menopause Time Off initiative after a survey found nearly 1 in 5 U.S. women left jobs or retired early due to symptoms.
The first warning signs didn’t arrive with a spotlight—just quietly, then all at once. Brooke Burke, a TV host and wellness expert, says she started noticing “brain fog, fatigue [and] disrupted sleep” and caught herself wondering, “is this just my 40s?”
For many women, she said, the struggle isn’t only the symptoms. It’s the silence around them.
“We didn’t have a language for it,” Burke said. “There was a little bit of shame, a little bit of mystery… people just weren’t talking about it.”
Now, a new survey of more than 1,000 U.S. women is putting that workplace reality into numbers—and Burke is using her platform to push for a policy that treats menopause like a health issue that deserves support.
The survey found that nearly 1 in 5 women say they’ve left a job or retired early due to menopause symptoms. It also found that 62% of respondents said their symptoms impacted their performance or career growth. Those symptoms, the report estimates, contribute to $5.4 billion in lost productivity each year.
Burke ties that toll directly to what women hear—or don’t hear—at work. She said the most frustrating dismissal she faced was being told her experience was simply normal.
“When women think something is ‘normal,’ they just deal with it,” she explained. “I don’t believe that. There’s so much we can do.”
That message is at the center of her support for a new Menopause Time Off initiative, which aims to create flexible, symptom-related leave for women during menopause—similar to how mental health days are treated.
Burke’s own turning point, she said, came from getting more precise rather than pushing through. She credited deeper hormone testing and treatment, saying, “As soon as I started HRT, it was a game changer for me.” In her account, it helped her “navigate what was happening in my body.”
Her approach now is built around taking the body seriously and investigating what’s actually going on. “Be a detective of your own body,” Burke said, emphasizing that women shouldn’t rely on guesswork when treatment options may be available.
She points to practical steps that she says made a difference, even without one magic fix. They include strength training—she said she’s “lifting heavier—not to build muscle, but to protect it”—and prioritizing sleep because “we have to sleep to recover. That’s non-negotiable.”
Burke also recommends lower-impact movement such as yoga, walking, and mobility work over high-intensity stress. She adds hormone testing as a way to anchor decisions in science: “There’s science behind this—you don’t have to guess.”
And she keeps returning to a daily check-in, framing it as a question that can change everything: “How do I feel when I wake up—and why? That question changes everything,” she said.
Taken together, the survey results and Burke’s experience paint a consistent picture: symptoms are widespread, they affect careers, and the lack of workplace language often leaves women dealing with problems alone until they can’t ignore them.
Burke said advocates are calling for more flexibility, better policies, and open conversations, especially as menopause becomes what she describes as a “decade-long phase of life.” Her argument is blunt: “We get time off for mental health. Why aren’t we supporting women through menopause?”
For women navigating symptoms like brain fog, sleep disruption, hot flashes, fatigue, weight changes, and mood shifts, Burke’s message is to start with data, not guesswork—beginning with hormone testing and physician-led care.
In the Menopause Time Off concept, the goal is straightforward: give women a pathway to take leave when symptoms make work harder, instead of forcing them to absorb it without support.
Brooke Burke menopause Menopause Time Off workplace policy HRT hormone testing lost productivity women’s health brain fog sleep disruption
So like… menopause time off? This sounds good but also I feel like people would abuse it.
I don’t get it, isn’t menopause just a normal part of aging? Like we all know it happens. If 1 in 5 quit then maybe the workplaces are just bad in general, not necessarily the symptoms.
Brain fog and sleep getting messed up is real though. My friend said her manager told her to just drink water and stop complaining which like… ok sure. Also $5.4 billion lost productivity sounds made up but I believe women feel pushed out.
Menopause has been around forever and now it’s a policy thing? I mean, mental health days are one thing but menopause leave feels like it’ll turn into another HR checkbox. Also 62% impacted performance?? that feels high, like did they survey the whole country or just one random group at Brooke Burke’s show?