LAUSR

During the global COVID-19 pandemic, huge numbers of women who usually work on their employer's premises have been working from home, with many others being furloughed temporarily or made redundant. For menopausal women, whomake up an ever greater proportion of working women in the global north [1], working from home mayhave both positive andnegative health and socioeconomic impacts. There is as yet no published research in this important area, but likely implications can be identified based on the extant literature on menopause in the workplace. This literature suggests specific symptoms are more likely to have detrimental effects at work. Amongst physical symptoms, sleep disturbances, hot flushes and night sweats are often singled out and for psychological symptoms the list includes poor recall and less ability to concentrate or make decisions, mood swings, emotional outbursts, irritability, depression and anxiety. The workplace can also exacerbate symptoms. Warm environments, stress, lack of access to cold drinking water and certain kinds of required work wear or uniforms can all make the experience of hot flushes worse. High levels of workplace noise may mean difficulties with focus and attention are exacerbated. Equally, working with younger colleagues, men and clients/customers/ students/end users could heighten a menopausal woman's anxiety around her self-presentation. Furthermore, physically demanding work or insufficient toilet facilities can make heavy and/or erratic periods even harder to manage [2]. Working from home should therefore allow a woman to pace her own day to a greater extent and to workmore flexibly in general, somethingwhich is frequently recommended as helpful in the evidence base [3–5]. She will also be better able to control the temperature and ventilation in her environment [3,6–8] as well as being more equipped to manage unpredictable periods [6,9], to drink cold water when she needs to [3,6,8] and wear more comfortable clothing whilst working [10]. Her working environment may also be quieter [11] and she will not have any physical interaction with managers, colleagues or clients/customers/students/end users, perhaps making any mood swings or concerns about self-presentation easier to deal with. Moreover, because every woman's experience of menopause is unique to her [1], working from homemeans individual women can take the steps necessary to ameliorate their specific symptoms. However, all of the above also assumes a great deal about where women live, and who they live with. Anecdotal evidence from experiences during the pandemic suggests that the double day – where women have to meet the demands of their working lives as well as managing a greater share of domestic labour outside of working hours ismore challengingwhenworking fromhome because of the presence