ISO 45010:2026 – menstruation and menopause at work

Menstruation and menopause are part of many people’s working lives – yet for a long time they have been missing from many organisations’ structured work environment management.

Now there is an international standard that gives employers concrete guidance.

ISO 45010:2026 – Occupational health and safety management — Menstruation and menopause in the workplace — Guidance was published in September 2026. It gives guidance on how organisations can identify and manage work environment factors that affect people who menstruate or go through menopause.

For Swedish employers it is especially relevant because it sits close to an established way of working: systematic work environment management (SAM).

But ISO 45010 is not about creating a separate “women’s health programme”. Quite the opposite. A central idea is to integrate menstruation and menopause into the organisation’s existing work environment processes, policies, support structures and follow-up.

What is ISO 45010?

ISO 45010 is international guidance in the field of occupational health and safety management.

It focuses specifically on menstruation and menopause at work and gives organisations recommendations on, among other things:

the physical work environment
policy and governance
culture and leadership
work organisation and flexibility
support for employees
managers’ knowledge and training
follow-up and evaluation.

ISO describes the standard as guidance that can be adapted to organisations of different sizes and in different sectors. It is not limited to any particular type of workplace.

It is also important to distinguish between guidance and legislation. ISO 45010 is an international standard with recommendations for how organisations work – it does not replace national work environment legislation or regulations.

Why is ISO 45010 relevant for employers in Sweden?

In Sweden, systematic work environment management is already an established part of the employer’s responsibility.

The Swedish Work Environment Authority describes it as a way of organising, carrying out and following up work environment management: investigating the work environment, assessing risks, taking action and following up the results.

That means menstruation and menopause don’t need to be handled as a separate initiative alongside the rest of the organisation’s work environment management. Instead, they can become part of the work that already exists.

For example, the organisation might ask:

Are there working conditions that make things harder for employees with menstruation- or menopause-related symptoms?
Is there room for flexibility when it’s needed?
Are managers well enough informed to have respectful conversations?
Are there policies and routines that offer support?
Is there a culture where these topics can be discussed without stigma?
How can the organisation check whether its initiatives actually work?

It is precisely this shift – from one-off initiatives to a more systematic, integrated way of working – that makes ISO 45010 so relevant.

The five areas of ISO 45010

ISO 45010 covers several perspectives on the work environment. In practice, they can be understood through five broad areas.

1. Physical working conditions

The physical work environment can make a big difference to how menstruation- and menopause-related symptoms are experienced at work.

This might include:

access to suitable toilets
the chance to change menstrual products
temperature and ventilation
work clothing and personal protective equipment
ergonomics
access to break areas
the chance to drink water and take breaks.

The standard says organisations should identify such factors and assess whether the work environment creates unnecessary barriers.

So this is not about creating a special work environment for women, but about understanding whether the existing work environment works for different employees’ needs.

2. Policy and governance

The next area is about how the organisation creates structure.

ISO 45010 highlights the importance of integrating these topics into existing policies, processes and responsibilities.

That can mean reviewing:

the work environment policy
routines for workplace adjustments
flexibility and working hours
HR processes
support structures
communication
the division of responsibility between HR, managers and health and safety functions.

For organisations that already work in a structured way with the work environment, this doesn’t necessarily mean building new processes from scratch. It may be about identifying where the topic already belongs – and integrating it there.

3. Culture, knowledge and leadership

A policy isn’t enough if people don’t feel safe using it.

That is why ISO 45010 also addresses:

knowledge and awareness
managers’ understanding
training
communication
a supportive culture
reduced stigma.

For managers, it might be about handling a conversation when an employee says that menstruation or menopause is affecting their work.

The manager doesn’t need to be a medical expert. But the organisation does need to make it possible for managers to listen, understand, refer on and discuss possible adjustments.

ISO 45010 is clear that it is about workplace policies, practices and adjustments – not medical treatment.

4. Work organisation, flexibility and adjustments

How the work is organised can matter at least as much as the physical work environment.

ISO 45010 gives examples such as:

working hours
breaks
flexibility
work tasks
the possibility of adjustments
how the work is organised.

The standard also gives concrete examples: splitting or extending breaks, flexible start and finish times, banking hours, and short leave of a few hours (microleave, usually 1–3 hours) when symptoms are at their worst – instead of a full day of sick leave. It stresses that organisations should ask the employee what they need, rather than assume that homeworking or full days off are the answer.

That doesn’t mean all employees should get the same adjustment. Rather, the organisation needs enough flexibility to meet individual needs in a structured and respectful way.

This can be especially relevant when symptoms affect sleep, energy, concentration or how temperature is experienced. These questions are therefore closely linked to workload, recovery and sustainable working life.

5. Measurement, follow-up and continuous improvement

This area is particularly interesting from a strategic perspective.

ISO 45010 highlights the importance of measuring and evaluating the effect of the organisation’s work. Examples include employee surveys, people analytics, absence, retention and other relevant data sources.

This means women’s health doesn’t have to be only a matter of training and awareness. Organisations can also ask:

What do we see in our own organisation?
Are there differences in how different groups experience the work environment?
Are there recurring signals in our employee surveys?
Are there areas where we need to understand more?
Do our initiatives have any real effect?

This links women’s health directly to broader strategic work on the work environment, wellbeing and continuous improvement – what we do in our strategic partnership on strategy and measurement.

Two areas that are easy to overlook: privacy and inclusion

Beyond the five areas above, ISO 45010 devotes separate sections to two topics that are easy to miss.

Privacy. No one should be forced to disclose symptoms in order to get support. What an employee shares should be handled confidentially and only passed on with their permission. If the organisation offers health apps or digital tools, using them should be optional, with clear information on how data is handled.

Inclusion. Experiences of menstruation and menopause vary with age, health, disability, culture and life situation, among other things. Menopause can come early, and it also affects trans and non-binary people. The standard therefore recommends inclusive language – for example “period products” rather than “sanitary products” – and avoiding framing the topic as a “women’s problem”.

For managers, the standard also includes conversation guidance: let the employee lead, ask open questions, don’t compare with other people’s experiences – and never diagnose or give medical advice.

From one-off initiative to systematic work environment management

It’s easy for women’s health at work to be reduced to a talk, a policy or free menstrual products in the bathroom.

Those initiatives can be valuable. But they are only part of the picture.

A more strategic approach could look like this:

Understand the current situation. What do we already know about the work environment and employees’ experiences?
Identify relevant needs. Which work environment factors create barriers or opportunities?
Create structure. Where do these topics belong in existing policies, processes and responsibilities?
Build knowledge. What do HR, managers and employees need to know?
Take relevant action. Which concrete changes or support are relevant for the organisation?
Measure and follow up. What is changing, and what needs to develop further?

This is very close to the logic of systematic work environment management: investigate, assess, act and follow up.

Do we need a separate menopause policy?

Not necessarily.

What matters is not having a policy just to be able to say you have one. The question is rather: how do our existing structures work when an employee needs support?

For some organisations a separate policy may be relevant. For others it may be more effective to integrate the topics into existing:

work environment policies
HR guidelines
routines for workplace adjustments
manager support
training
employee surveys
workplace safety inspections
follow-up processes.

This is also in line with ISO 45010’s focus on integrating menstruation and menopause into the organisation’s existing occupational health and safety management system.

A simple checklist for HR and health and safety leads

If you want to start working in a more structured way with women’s health, begin with five questions:

Current situation. What do we already know? Look at existing employee surveys, work environment data and other relevant insights.
Work environment. Are there factors in our work environment that create unnecessary barriers? Look at both the physical and the organisational work environment.
Support. Do our managers know how to handle questions about menstruation and menopause? Review knowledge, conversation support and referral routes.
Structure. Where is women’s health integrated into our existing work environment management? Identify which policies, processes and forums already exist.
Follow-up. How do we know whether what we do works? Decide what to follow up and how the organisation can learn from the results.

If you want a longer resource to work from, download our guide Women’s health at work (in Swedish).

ISO 45010 is a beginning – not a finished programme

Perhaps the most important thing about the new standard is not that organisations should start following yet another checklist.

It’s that it provides a shared language for an issue that has long been less visible in work environment management.

ISO 45010 can help organisations ask better questions about how the work environment, work organisation, culture and support affect people through different stages of working life.

Swedish employers already have the structure for systematic work environment management. The next step could be to ask: how can we use that structure to create better conditions for women’s health throughout working life?

That is where we see the strategic opportunity.

Aumla’s perspective: from guidance to practice

At Aumla we see women’s health as part of the broader work on the work environment, health and sustainable workplaces.

ISO 45010 makes it possible to shift the perspective from individual activities to a more systematic way of working: insight → strategy → implementation → measurement → continuous improvement.

That might mean understanding the current situation, identifying relevant needs, using existing employee insights, developing structures and support, training managers and following up on what actually makes a difference.

That way, women’s health doesn’t become a separate project alongside work environment management – but part of the organisation’s work for sustainable workplaces throughout working life.

Ready to take the next step?

Want to understand how women’s health can be integrated into your systematic work environment management? Aumla helps organisations move from knowledge and ambition to structure, concrete action and long-term development.

Sources

ISO – ISO 45010:2026, Occupational health and safety management — Menstruation and menopause in the workplace — Guidance
ISO – information on the launch of ISO 45010
Swedish Work Environment Authority (Arbetsmiljöverket) – Systematic work environment management
Swedish Work Environment Authority – AFS 2023:1, Systematic work environment management

ISO 45010:2026 – what does it mean for employers?