Health and work: gender medicine as a concrete lever for change

«Bringing gender medicine into companies means recognizing female specificities to correct imbalances and improve the life and work of everyone.»

Sasha Damiani is a physician, expert in gender health, university lecturer, and science communicator. Together with Arianna Marchente, she founded Peer, a project that brings gender health and active longevity into organizational contexts, aiming to promote concrete and sustainable health equity.

What is gender medicine and why is it important?
Gender medicine is often considered the “medicine of women,” but in reality, it studies how biological sex and gender influence prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and the impact of diseases. These are two distinct concepts: sex involves biological effects, while gender affects how diseases are perceived, recognized, and treated. This approach is still poorly integrated into “traditional” medicine, which continues to be based primarily on the male model—especially the white male.

What are the most deeply rooted stereotypes in medicine?
Women’s pain and symptoms are often disbelieved and under-investigated. Men, on the other hand, are not allowed any space for emotional vulnerability. Because while women are somehow forgiven as being “hysterical” and “emotional,” men cannot show weakness.

What do the data say about gender health?
According to a recent study by the McKinsey Health Institute, women live longer on average than men, but they live worse. They spend 25% more time in poor health, especially during their working years. This also happens because they often have to take on caregiving responsibilities, putting their own health second. This imbalance is called the gender health gap. If we closed it, every woman would gain two and a half extra days of health per year.

And what about menstrual health?
It’s still a topic that is too little explored. 79% of women experience symptoms related to their menstrual cycle that impact their work, and 8% consider part-time work or resignation. Yet many of these symptoms are treatable. But often there is a lack of information or, worse, a lack of awareness that they could feel better.

What happens when menopause arrives?
Women who are currently in their 40s or 50s generally haven’t received open education on these topics. So they face the double stigma of the female body and age. In many workplaces, being over a certain age means being perceived as less productive. And if you talk about your symptoms, you fear discrimination. The fact is that even today, women’s health is considered almost exclusively from a reproductive perspective: fertility, pregnancy, and childbirth—it seems like there’s nothing else.

What is the impact on work?
According to research presented last March by Ipsos, 17 million women in Italy are in perimenopause or menopause. Furthermore, 80% of working women in menopause suffer from symptoms that are not adequately addressed, and 75% find it difficult to even talk about it within their families. One in 10 has left their job, and one in 3 has reduced their working hours or requested part-time work. 20% feel embarrassed around their colleagues, highlighting the difficulty of openly discussing the topic even among women. Finally, one in 10 has lost workdays due to symptoms, averaging 9 days per year.

And what about transgender people?
When we talk about women’s health, it is often assumed we are only talking about cisgender women. But there are non-cisgender people who experience the same hormonal challenges. For them, the burden is even greater because the issue of identity is also involved.

How can concrete action be taken in the workplace?
Companies can become an extraordinary lever for change. They have the power not only to set a good example but also to train, raise awareness, and build culture through simple, low-cost actions. Even workplace communities can do a lot. There are groups for everything: disability, parenting, LGBTQIA+, but rarely for menopause. It’s mainly about talking and sharing experiences, perhaps guided by experts. In UK companies that have adopted “menopause-friendly” policies, absences have decreased by 70%. Retention has also improved: women over 40 often represent talents that shouldn’t be lost. Finally, productivity has increased, with an average of 9 fewer days of absence per person per year.