Menopause, Work, and What We Can Change with Dr Woganee Filate

The hidden cost of untreated menopause in the workplace isn’t just personal discomfort—it’s lost productivity, stalled careers, and organisations quietly losing experienced talent.

In this episode of the HRchat Podcast, host Pauline James sits down with Dr Woganee Filate, respirologist, sleep medicine physician, and co-founder of Loom Women’s Health, to unpack how menopause directly affects performance, retention, and workplace culture.

As many as 1 in 10 women leave the workforce due to unmanaged menopausal symptoms, including brain fog, hot flashes, heavy bleeding, mood changes, and chronic sleep disruption—often at the peak of their careers. Dr Filate explains why menopause is a workplace issue, not a private health matter, and why silence costs employers far more than support ever will.

This conversation bridges medicine and management, covering:

• The real workplace impact and economic cost of untreated menopause
• The most disruptive menopausal symptoms at work—and why they matter
• Evidence-based treatments, including hormone and non-hormonal options
• Sleep, mental health, and lifestyle strategies that restore focus and performance
• Low-cost workplace accommodations employers can implement quickly
• How education, formal menopause policies, and internal champions reduce stigma
• Safer disclosure paths and better support for midlife women at work
• Why menopause care is a long-term performance and retention strategy

Dr Filate also shares her own mid-career pivot into entrepreneurship, challenging outdated ideas about career peaks and reminding leaders that purpose, flexibility, and support are powerful retention tools.

If you lead people, manage benefits, or care about inclusion, wellbeing, and keeping experienced talent thriving through every stage of life, this episode provides practical insights and clear first steps.

Chapters

• 0:00 Rethinking Careers Beyond A Peak
• 1:02 Meet Dr. Filate And Loom’s Mission
• 2:42 System Gaps And Why Loom Began
• 4:18 Workforce Impact And The Billion-Dollar Cost
• 6:07 What Women Are Experiencing Firsthand
• 8:55 Symptoms That Disrupt Work Most
• 10:41 Practical Accommodations That Help
• 12:04 Stigma, Myths, And Employer Awareness
• 13:23 What Employers Can Do Now
• 15:24 What Women Can Do For Themselves
• 17:22 Treatments, Lifestyle, And Tailored Care
• 19:02 Reducing Stigma With Workplace Champions
• 20:02 Women’s Health Gap And Economic Upside
• 22:06 Health Across Decades, Not Just Menopause
• 24:35 Founding Loom: A Mid-Career Pivot
• 26:05 Courage, Regret, And Finding Your Network
• 27:47 Where To Follow Dr. Filate And Loom
• 28:46 Key Takeaways And Closing

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:02

Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's most downloaded and shared podcasts designed for HR pros, talented, tech enthusiasts, and business leaders. For hundreds more episodes and what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media, and visit hrgazette.com.

SPEAKER_02: 0:25

Hello, I'm Pauline James, CEO of Anchor HR and Associate Editor of the HR Gazette. I'm excited to be here today with another episode of the next chapter. For too long, careers have been described as if they peak and then wind down. But life doesn't follow a script, and neither should our work. In this series, we explore the choices and inspirations that emerge throughout our careers and lives. Whether it's continuing to build our careers, reinventing, giving back, or choosing new priorities. This is about defining success on our own terms. Dr. Wagani Thlatte is one of the founders and co-owners of Loom, a clinic dedicated to supporting paramenopausal and menopausal women and beyond. She is a passionate and dedicated adult respirologist and sleep medicine physician. In her practice, she helps patients understand the changes in sleep that come with the menopause transition and what they can do to get the best rest possible during this important stage of life. In addition to her medical degree, Dr. Filate holds a Master of Health Science with a focus on community health and epidemiology from the University of Toronto. Drawing on her medical, academic, and entrepreneurial experience, she brings thoughtful insight to how menopause affects women in the workplace. And I'm pleased to have her with us today. Dr. Filate, it feels like we're having a moment, a long overdue moment, where there is more open discussion about the impact of menopause on women and also its impact on what are really key working years. You and your organization, which launched nearly a year ago now, congratulations, have been an important part of moving this discussion to the mainstream and in supporting women practically. Can you tell us what brought you and your co-owners, your co-conspirators to launching Loom?

SPEAKER_03: 2:24

Happy to do so, and thank you so much. I'm excited to be here today. To be honest, our desire to build Loom came from two places. One was from a deep frustration of the way the traditional medical system was treating women and allowing practitioners to practice. So I'll give you an example from my practice as a sleep physician. I led a very busy practice in downtown Toronto. We were so busy that in order to see all the patients, I was asked to see patients in 15-minute intervals. I can say that yes, I can do it in 15 minutes, but the quality of the care, the ability to connect with an individual and really give them all the benefits of a one-on-one appointment with a physician just wasn't there. I felt personally very frustrated by this system, not being able to operate in a way that I felt was in the best interest of patients. The second was we saw a huge gap. Our traditional medical system does a disservice to women. Women are not simply small men, and the norms that we use for men is not just applied at a smaller scale to women. Our healthcare, physiology, biology, and our psychology is unique to us. And we didn't see anywhere in the medical system that really focused on women and acknowledging our unique needs. It was through that we decided we all shared the same passion to provide holistic, patient-centered care through the lens of women's health. Let's jump off a cliff, close our practices, and jump into the territory of entrepreneurship and open Loom.

SPEAKER_00: 4:02

Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat Podcast. If you enjoy the audio content we produce, you'll love our articles on the HR Gazette. Learn more at hrgazette.com. And now back to the show.

SPEAKER_02: 4:18

What has been the impact on this lack of support and services on women's participation in the workforce?

SPEAKER_03: 4:26

That is such an important question because we actually have data and we know what the impact is. In 2023, the Menopause Foundation of Canada put out a report on the impact of menopause on women and in the workforce. And they found that actually 10% of women were leaving the workforce because of untreated menopause symptoms. Now, we should sit with that number because it is huge. First of all, these are women in their prime working years. They're anywhere between 45 to 55 on average. They have been working 20, 30 years. They have amassed such institutional knowledge that they are now stepping away at their prime because of unmanaged symptoms. So a lot of them may be leaving the workforce entirely. They may have what's called presenteism or absenteeism. They are taking more time away to go for medical appointments and really just not feeling at their best because the system and our society wasn't really supporting these women as much as we could. And we actually have a dollar figure, believe it or not, what that 10% workforce attrition rate translates. In Canada, believe it or not, it is an annual loss to employers of 3.5 billion with a B dollars per year. So this is not a fringe issue. This is not a women's issue. In the US, we have data for workdays missed, which equates to around$1.8 billion. But the point is that this is not a small issue and that not supporting women adequately, both in the healthcare system and at work, really has huge economic impact.

SPEAKER_02: 6:06

Dr. Vilate, what are you hearing from women themselves at the front line? Your team meets with women every day.

SPEAKER_03: 6:12

What are they reporting? I should preface by saying that it is an honor to see these women in our clinic. Oftentimes these women are women at the peak of their careers and they are holding so much in. They are excelling at work. They are managing households. They are caring for children, caring for aging parents, and in between all of that, trying to look after themselves. So when they walk through Loom and they have the opportunity to sit down with the healthcare providers here, they honestly take a huge exhale and finally find a place that sees them and hears them. And they often will say to us, I didn't realize how much I was carrying, how much I was internalizing until I had this opportunity to really unpack or take off my armor that I have been carrying around. We spend lots of time with the patients. We focus on emotional resilience. We focus not only on physical health, but emotional health, diet, nutrition, sleeps, all of the components of a woman's health that supports her be at her best.

SPEAKER_02: 7:13

Thank you. We talked about the economic impact and how substantial that is. And hopefully that alone creates the case where employers could should be motivated to step up and provide support. I also think about there's the 10% who can leave. Arguably some women are a category where they feel they can afford to free themselves up to seek out care and just the importance of employers recognizing and tapping into the support that would benefit across the workplace in that regard.

SPEAKER_03: 7:44

I totally agree with you. It's more than just the economic. When we drill down, there is such personal impact for women. To your point, 10% are the ones who probably have the opportunity and the financial means to step away from work in midlife. But there is the rest of the group of women who are internalizing all of this. They often will hide their symptoms at work. They will often feel not comfortable sharing that they are struggling or require some assistance at work. And there's still a huge degree of stigma. Menopause is seen, and I think it is changing, but for a while has been something that was whispered in the corners or not really brought up because women never wanted to feel less than or another area where they are not functioning at the same level as their peers. So there is a lot of internalization. And the symptoms of menopause can also have wide-ranging impact from brain fog, difficulty sleeping, mood changes, irritability. And so that can also affect their work. And I think what happens is women are unable to perform at the level that they want to, and the level that they know that they can. And we have to remember menopause, yes, it is one day of your life when you've been period-free for a year, but the symptoms associated with the menopause transition can be upwards of seven years. And for some ethnic groups, black women, Hispanic women, that could be 10 years plus. So this is again not a fringe issue. It's also not a time-limited issue. It can be for many, many, many years.

SPEAKER_02: 9:14

Thank you. With that, can I ask what symptoms women typically find the most challenging to navigate at work?

SPEAKER_03: 9:22

Yeah, the big ones are a couple. So one is the cognitive piece, the brain fog, difficulty paying attention or focusing, difficulty remembering, losing your train of thought. The other big one is sleep disruption. So women who have difficulty staying asleep, falling asleep, insomnia symptoms that can impact not only their level of alertness the next day, but their ability to be productive. And then the other is mood, feeling symptoms of anxiety, feeling symptoms of depression. And the other piece that often doesn't get talked about is heavy menstrual bleeding. So we know that during the menopause years that women can have really heavy periods, unpredictable, and that can lead to moments of embarrassment at work and also hot flashes. They can be extremely debilitating. Not only do they happen at night, but they can happen during the day. We've heard stories from women who actually keep several suits at the office for this very reason. They could be in a meeting or they're about to step into a meeting and they are completely drenched in sweat. And so they've had these accommodation strategies that they do themselves to prepare for an outfit change. So it's a lot of impact at work.

SPEAKER_02: 10:34

And I'll just say that I find them my hot flashes, they never occur when I wish they would, like when I'm freezing at one of my kids' games. Are there accommodations that you find most impactful to support those very common symptoms?

SPEAKER_03: 10:48

A couple of things. So for the heavy menstrual bleeding, what women have found really helpful is to have menstrual products in the bathrooms. If you're having hot flashes to have a fan or being able to control the temperature in your office space or where you're working, being able to take breaks. So if you are struggling with concentration, inattention, to be able to say, you know what, I'm going to step away 20 minutes, 30 minutes, go outside, take a walk, and return back to my task. Other accommodations can be flexible work arrangements. Maybe if you're having really heavy menstrual bleeding and you feel uncomfortable, perhaps you can work from home that day. There are lots of options. And it really meant is meant to be tailored for each woman, but to know that there are low-hanging fruit are really things that don't actually cost a lot of money, but can provide comfort and support for women.

SPEAKER_02: 11:39

What misconceptions or barriers do you see that continue to get in the way of normalizing menopause as a workplace issue?

SPEAKER_03: 11:49

I think it starts with this idea that menopause is strictly a medical issue. I think we need to reframe it and think of it as a holistic woman issue, in that, yes, she has physical symptoms associated with menopause, but it has impact on her work. It has impact in her personal life. So we need to sort of reframe how we think of the impact of menopause. The other is, like I was saying, there's still huge societal judgment and stigma surrounding menopause that women have declined capabilities and decreased ability to perform at their peak. And the other is there is still a lack of awareness among employers. I think again, that is changing. We have had outreaches from many organizations across Canada to provide education in the workplace. So I do think over the last few years that has changed. But by and large, there is still a lack of awareness and education among employers. And the other is we are still struggling with a lot of misinformation surrounding menopause, surrounding what the symptoms are, what treatments are available, whether even women should be treated, or whether they're supposed to quote unquote suffer through it, stop complaining, this is normal. So there are many, many factors that are still holding us back as a society and as workplaces.

SPEAKER_02: 13:09

With that, what are practical things that employers can do to support in addressing this gap and really being able to support, as you know, women during their peak years?

SPEAKER_03: 13:22

In addition to the stigma and the silence that happens in workplaces, we know from women from a study in 2023 that 48% of women actually feel embarrassed to ask for support that can make a difference in their workplace. And almost half worry that their menopausal symptoms could affect their appearance at work. So, as employers, we need to be able to provide them with support so that they do feel supported, that they do feel seen and provided with the right supports. I think there is a lot that employers can do, and that's really what I want everyone to really understand. Number one would be education. We need to educate the staff and employers about what menopause is, about the symptomatology, about the impact at work, the impact at home, and to really try to dismantle that stigma. Number two would be to think about implementing menopause workplace policies. That could be things regarding environmental accommodation. So, could a fan be placed for a woman who's having hot flashes? If someone is working in a uniform, really being mindful of the quality and the fabrics of the materials that women are wearing with their uniforms. So really focusing on what can be done in the workplace. And these are not high-cost accommodations, but they are definitely doable. The other is to create a culture of openness and inclusion in the workplace and to encourage all staff members, not just those in that age group, but really an education and an openness for all. And then finally, employers can provide support to their employees. So whether that be through health benefits, flexible work arrangements, time off, and allowing women to access care, both medical care and, for example, psychological support. And they can do that through robust benefits packages.

SPEAKER_02: 15:10

Thank you. And I love those really low-hanging fruit, economical examples as well that can have a significant impact. What can women do for themselves?

SPEAKER_03: 15:22

Such a great question. There are actually quite a bit a woman can do. Number one, I would say, is awareness. I think women need to educate themselves about what the symptoms are. And it is not just hot flashes. There are over 30 symptoms associated with menopause transition. And in fact, a study last year came out in the menopause journal that said that 63% of women going through menopause reported not feeling like myself. So it doesn't have to be really discrete symptomatology, but simply not feeling like yourself, having difficulty sleeping, mood changes, fatigue, et cetera. Number two is to seek medical support early. Don't wait until the symptoms are so impactful that you have to take extended time off from work. Be proactive. Talk to your healthcare providers, find a doctor who's knowledgeable about menopause. So really think about getting a jump start on your medical support team. And the other would be to communicate, communicate at work with your employers about what it is you need so that you can perform at your best and you can be the best employee for your employer. As we talked about some of those accommodations earlier. And the other last two are really important to me. One is women need to invest in their recovery. So as a sleep doctor, this is something that I come back to over and over again. Really thinking about your sleep, nutrition, and mental health. All of that is really your foundation to withstand anything that comes your way. And finally advocate for yourself, for others. If you are in a workplace that has a high number of women, perhaps put together a workplace group so that you have camaraderie and you don't feel alone.

SPEAKER_02: 16:59

Thank you, Dr. Filate. So many important gems in there for us. I also appreciate beginning with this awareness, right? And it's been the conversation start of is this normal? What's normal? Just that level set of reassurance in many ways, some common understanding, but then the hope that this isn't something we need to suffer with. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03: 17:22

When I was saying about seeking support early, the reason is because we actually have quite excellent treatments available. And they can range anywhere from menopausal hormone therapy, which is Health Canada, FDA approved for treatment of hot flashes, and they're quite effective, to new non-hormonal medications that have come to the market in the last one to two years that actually are not hormone-based, but work at the center of the brain where the hot flashes originate. There are also a lot of other pharmacologic options. There are also lots of lifestyle interventions that can help. There's, believe it or not, evidence that cognitive behavioral therapy can help with hot flashes. Not that they will stop the hot flash, but it will allow women to have coping strategies or dealing with the bother of the hot flashes. Diet, exercise, sleep. There is so much that women can tap into. And the most important thing is to find a healthcare provider who has understanding of the risks and benefits and allow you to have a really nuanced discussion about what is best for you because it's important to remember what works for your colleague, what your sister, what somebody else might be taking may not work for you. It's really meant to be tailored, individualized to your symptoms, your medical history, and your need for disease prevention.

SPEAKER_02: 18:42

Thank you, Dr. Fulate. As we look at how these symptoms can potentially affect performance, how do we reduce the stigma that makes many women hesitant to speak up, to acknowledge that they're struggling and concerns related to if I acknowledge that I may be struggling with brain fog or memory lapses, that I may end up being sidelined? And welcome your thoughts from both the employee and organizational perspective.

SPEAKER_03: 19:08

What I would suggest is for women who are concerned about how it's going to be perceived is really to find a champion in the workplace. And I think this is important that the workplace actually identify who those champions are and let it be known within the organization that if you have any concerns, you don't necessarily have to go to your manager or your boss. You can start with a champion internally and that you can feel that you're not alone and that your employer has options for you. Allowing women to know that there is a champion in the organization can help a lot. One thing that we or society at large really needs to think about is that women's health is really, again, like I said, not a fringe issue. We know that the women's health gap is huge. There was a McKinsey report not that long ago that put together a statistic that said that if we closed the women's health gap, that could add almost a trillion dollars to the economy globally. If that doesn't get people's attention, I don't know what will. I think really appreciating that women's health, yes, we're talking about menopause, but it is so much more than that. It is thinking about how conditions, diseases, and disorders affect us differently. Maybe they affect us disproportionately or uniquely. So again, really casting that lens wide and thinking, yeah, menopause is one piece, but really the larger women's health gap is much larger and has huge impact.

SPEAKER_02: 20:27

Thank you. And just reflect on that. The intellect, the strengths remain there. We're often much harder on ourselves than anyone else would be as well. And then on the cultural side, how important it is that organizations do have an environment where people feel that they can speak up when they're not feeling at their best and when there's supports that could be available to them. And again, that the tide can lift all boats.

SPEAKER_03: 20:48

Well, that's it. And I think another important point for employers too, if there's concern about this is increasing cost, this is more work for us, I would argue that the retention factor is so much higher for an organization that really acknowledges and supports women in midlife and at their prime. What I see from the women's side and from the patient's side is that women are more likely to stay with an organization if they feel seen, heard, and supported.

SPEAKER_02: 21:16

Thank you. Many women, despite potentially there being societal cues, organizational cues around the time to retire, to give your seat up. And I'll set aside the labor economics argument on that, which really just is that it's all bunk. We don't create more jobs by leaving our seat. That's not how the labor economy works. But there are societal cues, there are misperceptions around that, that at the same time women are staying in the workforce longer. With that, I'd welcome your thoughts, your experience around the importance of considering women's health more broadly, beyond the menopause years as well.

SPEAKER_03: 21:57

That's a great point. And we see that too at Loom. We see women in their 50s, 60s, and 70s who are still very active, not only in their workforce, but in their communities, in their families, with their volunteer work. And I think it really behooves all of us to think about women's health, not just in sort of what we call in medicine colloquially, like bikini medicine, right? Sort of reproductive health. And I would put menopause in there and health related to breasts and other sort of sexual organs. But really, we need to think about the entirety of a woman's life, right? From when she is a young adult all the way through to old age. Because if we are providing health care that is proactive, that is personalized, that is preventative, that will really translate into women in their 50s, 60s, 70s plus continuing to perform, continuing to hit all the milestones that they want to continue hitting, right? And it's important to remember too that a lot of the diseases and disorders that we die from as women are diseases that take decades. For example, heart disease. Heart disease, you just don't wake up in your 60s and you have your first heart attack. That process physiologically has been happening 20, 30 years earlier. Dementia, same thing. We know that almost half of the risk factors for dementia are accumulated in midlife. Another good example would be osteoporosis and frailty. Again, osteoporosis, we lose our bone mass for women starting in our 30s. And so there is a lot that we can do to prepare for that long legacy of our life. So really, this is not an issue that, you know, when you're 50 and 60 and 70, you need to start thinking about your health. I would argue that even women younger than that need to think about really putting together a proactive healthcare plan so that they can hit every single decade, every single milestone as best they can so that they can be operating and performing at their best. McKinsey report, I was talking about the one for women's health. So that was a global report, but they actually did one in Canada. And they found that closing the healthcare gap in Canada alone could add seven days of healthy living for women per year. So that is like a whole other life, right? If we can really address women's health within Canada. Canada is a great country, but we are actually a small piece of the global economy. So imagine if we could add a week of life, healthy living to each Canadian woman per year by closing that women's health gap is astounding.

SPEAKER_02: 24:30

Thank you. Dr. Filante, can we take a minute to talk about your own career journey? You left a stable and impressive practice, you set that aside, you launched Bloom, you stepped into being an entrepreneur mid-career. What has that journey been like?

SPEAKER_03: 24:48

It is one simple word. It's an adventure. And it's an adventure that I would pick again and again and again. And to be honest, when I had spoken to my colleagues, this was in 2024, when I was preparing to step away formally, a lot of them literally sat me down and said, Are you okay? Are you sure you want to do this? To your point, you have a very stable gig here. You're you do well at what you do. And I said, you know, it's not enough anymore. I did a lot of soul searching and really I felt that I had a lot of gas left in my tank, going back to your point of how I'm hoping I'll be around for several, several more decades and doing what I'm doing. But it wasn't enough. And one had the vision with my co-founders to really think about creating the ideal healthcare experience for women. I couldn't unknow that. I couldn't take that out of my brain and say, you know what, I'm gonna let someone else do that. You know, that's a great idea, but maybe you should do it. Once that bug hit me, it was like I saw nothing else. That is our North Star. Anyone in entrepreneurship or working or in business, there are up days and then there are down days. And so you need to kind of go back to that north star when you're feeling disenchanted, disillusioned, or feeling like it's so much harder than it ought to be. It takes a patient saying, I'm so glad you're here. I'm so glad you did this. I haven't seen healthcare like this anywhere. We ride on that for months at a time. And I think it's a testament to your point earlier. Like women have so much more to give if they have all the right supports in place. The future is bright for women, and it's also really good examples for the younger generation, for women in their 20s and their 30s to think about, you know what, the career I pick in my 30s, I'm not beholden to it for the next 40 years. I can pivot and I can shift.

SPEAKER_02: 26:37

I love that. And that was additional advice for what we can do for ourselves, wherever we're at in our career, but to come back to our North Star to consider what our key drivers are, our key passions are to help us and to motivate us to continue to seek the support we may need, lean in to areas that may make us uncomfortable, but help us really fulfill our goals. That's lovely. Can I ask with that whether you have advice for those who are eager to make a change mid-later career, but may feel quite anxious about doing so?

SPEAKER_03: 27:09

I think the best advice that I would give is twofold is one, just do it. You'll never regret something that you tried, and even if it failed, but you will regret not trying. And so I always say that to myself. What I fear the most is regret. What if could I have? What would it look like? It's better to try and fail than to never try at all. And I know that sounds extremely cliche, but it is so true. You don't want to look back in the rearview mirror and said, gosh, what would things have been like if I had just done that? And I think it's important to find a network that can support you. This is not something that you can do alone. Find colleagues, find co-workers, or anyone else that has the same passion. And doing it together is actually much more enjoyable and more realistic as well. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02: 27:57

Appreciate that insight into women's health, into your entrepreneurial journey, into steps that we can take as individuals and as HR practitioners and leaders as well.

SPEAKER_03: 28:07

How are people best to follow your work, follow Loom's work? Yeah, I'm happy to share. Follow us on Instagram, Loom Women's Health. We post a lot about like facts and things that you can learn about. You can find me on Instagram at W Philate M D. So W F I L A T E M D. I have lots of little pearls on sleep, optimization, things like that. We also have a website, loomwomen's health.com, where we talk about our philosophy, the programs we offer, some insights from our patients, and reach out to us. Thank you, Dr. Filate. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02: 28:47

I hope you enjoyed the conversation with Dr. Wagani Filate as much as I did. Some really important takeaways about the importance of focusing on our own health personally, and as well how essential it is as employers that we recognize and support women's well-being across every stage of life and career. This is the next chapter where we explore how we can continue to grow, adapt, and find meaning throughout our lives and careers. I'm Pauline James and I'd love to hear your story. What is your next chapter? Share your thoughts on LinkedIn or through Anchor HR community and join me next time as we continue to reimagine work and life on our own terms.

SPEAKER_01: 29:27

Thanks for listening to the HR Chat Show. If you enjoyed this episode, why not subscribe and listen to some of the hundreds of episodes published by HR Gazette? And remember, for what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media, and visit hrgazette.com.