Assessing the impact of menopause and divorce on women

Why factoring in perimenopause and menopause is so important in divorce settlements, according to family lawyer Farhana Shahzady

Menopause can negatively affect some women’s careers
Reducing working hours or leaving work owing to symptoms can cause financial difficulties
Family lawyers need to consider menopause when considering divorce settlements

As a family lawyer, my professional observation is that menopause can shake some women to the core, not only in terms of their health (and future health) but their work, wealth and marriage.

Pressures have exponentially grown for women in a world that demands women juggle multiple balls of simultaneous child raising and working – most women are the main carers of children [1] and 72% of women are now in paid work compared to 53% in 1971 [2]. This is on top of women trying to hold their marriages together when they are being buffeted by their hormones.

There is no formal case law in relation to menopause and its impact on family financial cases. It seems to be a blind spot, which is why I originally launched The Family Law Menopause Project in 2022 – to understand what was going on and to conduct a survey of family law practitioners.

The Family Law Menopause Project survey of family law professionals and the judiciary revealed that 81% of family lawyers fail to understand or recognise the impact of menopause and perimenopause during divorce and separation. In addition, 65% of respondents agreed that women are potentially disadvantaged in terms of financial settlements by a lack of understanding within family law to recognise or think about the impact menopause and perimenopause might be having on the ability of their female clients to work full-time or even part-time.

The majority (60% of respondents) felt that it would be unlikely or extremely unlikely that clients (whether as individuals or as a couple) would talk openly about the impact of menopause on their divorce with their lawyer. This highlights a further problem, where not only practitioners but clients are failing to talk about the menopause, even when the impact on their lives might be significant.

Impact of menopause on working life and finance

It is estimated that there are more than 13 million women of menopausal age in the UK, around a third of the female population [3]. One in four of these experience severe symptoms [4]. That is a very high number of women who are suffering and in turn, having their livelihoods affected in a variety of ways including job loss.

The Parliamentary Women and Equalities Committee conducted a large-scale enquiry into this because of the concern that so many women are leaving unemployment prematurely due to lack of menopause support. The feedback given to the committee from the women who participated is compelling.

Organisations also participated in the enquiry since it is being increasingly recognised by employers that more needs to be done to safeguard menopausal women otherwise workplaces are haemorrhaging female talent.

A survey by Newson Heath of 3,800 women found that 99% of respondents said their perimenopausal or menopausal symptoms had led to a negative impact on their career, with 59% having taken time off work due to their symptoms. Worryingly, 60% of women said their workplace offered no menopause support. This has a wider impact on the workforce and economy, with 19% of women reducing their working hours and 12% resigning from the job.

Impact of menopause on relationships and divorce

The peak age at which women in the UK file for divorce is thought to be between mid-40s and 55 – which usually coincides with perimenopause and menopause. Symptoms, such as lack of libido, mood swings and genitourinary symptoms, can have a big impact on a woman’s quality of life and her relationships.

As a divorce lawyer, I have drafted more unreasonable behaviour divorce petitions in the last 20 years, based on a dwindling sex life and lack of communication with their spouse, than any other type of petition although we have now transitioned to no-fault divorces.

Lack of communication can also extend to their lawyer so that family practitioners may not be fully attuned to menopausal women’s needs. This silence is regrettable as it becomes clear that not factoring in menopause can be very problematic – without proper consideration or information regarding their earning capacity and/or medical evidence as to the extent of their symptoms, divorce lawyers and judges will seek to facilitate the much-lauded clean break (i.e no continuing financial ties on divorce).

Setting people free so that they can live financially independently after the breakdown of a marriage is the Holy Grail of financial family work. The clean break is enshrined in law under section 25A of the Matrimonial Causes Act, and if it is not readily available right away on divorce, the law says it should be sought at the first possible opportunity, for example when the children are old enough to fend for themselves so that the woman can get back to work.

The problem is that the clean break culture regularly clashes with women’s biology. Too many women on divorce do not achieve financial independence because they are shackled by menopause and cannot always work or achieve independence in the way that the family court had contemplated. How are these women financially surviving if they are losing their jobs or going part-time when the family court has largely or completely cut them adrift from spousal maintenance?

The financial reality of divorce

Research has shown that divorce makes men significantly richer (boosting their income by around a third) while women lose more than a fifth of their income, a loss that persists for many years [5].

There is also a significant pension gap, which means many women are thrown into poverty on retirement, especially if divorced. One paper found that divorced women age 45-54 who are not cohabiting have an average pension pot of £16,000 compared to similar men’s, while in those age 55- 64 the disparity is £19,000 for similar divorced women compared to £100,000 for men [6].

To compound this issue, women are more likely to have more caring responsibilities towards children and elderly parents, and to suffer mental health problems which menopause can considerably worsen.

The reality, however, for most women is that they have often created homes, raised children and supported their partners while their own careers have stood still, or progressed at a considerably slower rate. It needs to be recognised that the money these women could have earned (lost income) – and consequently their potential to save for their own future long-term needs, including retirement – has been significantly compromised along with their confidence and ability to rehabilitate in their menopausal years.

The continuing aim of the Family Law Menopause Project is to raise awareness of these issues and to make sure family lawyers work hard not to short-change their menopausal clients.

Farhana Shahzady is senior family lawyer, collaborative practitioner and mediator at Beck Fitzgerald as well as being a menopause campaigner and founder of The Family Law Menopause Project.

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