Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS staff absences occur in the NHS due to menopause for what figures are available.

NHS England does not publish official statistics on sickness absence due specifically to menopause because menopause is not recorded as a primary sickness absence reason within the national Electronic Staff Record (ESR) sickness absence statistics.

The ESR does, however, allow menopause to be recorded as a related reason for a sickness absence episode. For March 2026, National Health Service organisations in England recorded 1,764 full-time equivalent days lost where menopause was recorded as a related reason for sickness absence.

The figures should be interpreted with caution, as the menopause-related reason field is recorded locally and is not subject to the same level of validation as the data used in NHS England's official published sickness absence statistics.

Recording depends on local reporting practices, completion of the related reason field and staff disclosure, and is therefore likely to understate the true level of menopause-related sickness absence.