"Specialist menopause care matters, but it cannot sit separately from the rest of someone’s cancer care."
- Lisa Punt - Perci Health
New data from Perci Health has found that 28% of women completing its cancer return-to-work programme required specialist menopause care, highlighting an often-overlooked barrier to returning to work during or after cancer treatment.
Perci Health released the findings to mark World Menopause and Cancer Awareness Day, held on 18th September 2026.
Among the women completing Perci’s return-to-work programme, menopause support ranked as the 4th most used service within their multidisciplinary clinic, behind psychological support, physiotherapy or exercise coaching and nutritional support, suggesting that the effects of treatment-induced menopause rarely occur in isolation.
This year’s World Menopause and Cancer Awareness Day campaign, ‘Bridge the Gap’, is calls for menopause care to be embedded within pre-treatment discussions and long-term cancer care planning.
Cancer treatments including chemotherapy, pelvic radiotherapy, surgery involving the ovaries and some hormone treatments can affect ovarian function and trigger menopause earlier than expected.
Unlike natural menopause, treatment-induced menopause can begin abruptly, while someone is also managing the physical and psychological effects of cancer and its treatment.
Hot flushes and night sweats may be only part of the picture. Sleep disturbance, fatigue, cognitive changes, joint and muscle pain, anxiety, low mood and genitourinary symptoms can all affect concentration, confidence, stamina and the ability to sustain a working day. Treatment options for menopausal symptoms may also require specialist consideration because of the individual’s cancer history.
Perci Health says that its return-to-work programme is led by a cancer nurse specialist who assesses each person’s combined clinical, practical and work-related needs.
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In addition, its menopause practitioners work as part of the same specialist cancer team as psychologists, oncology dietitians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and clinical exercise specialists to allow menopausal symptoms to be considered alongside the wider effects of cancer and its treatment, with the different clinicians involved working to one coordinated return-to-work plan.
Perci Health is calling on employers, insurers and advisers to recognise the impact that treatment-induced menopause and other long-term side effects of cancer treatment can have in the workplace, making it harder for people to return to work and remain there sustainably.
"Cancer-related menopause does not arrive neatly or in isolation," Lisa Punt, menopause practitioner at Perci Health, said. "Someone may be managing severe menopausal symptoms alongside fatigue, pain, reduced strength, anxiety and cognitive changes following treatment. Together, these issues can make returning to work feel out of reach.
"Specialist menopause care matters, but it cannot sit separately from the rest of someone’s cancer care. Having menopause expertise embedded within Perci’s return-to-work service means we can work directly with our other specialist cancer clinicians, understand the full picture and create one coordinated plan. People should not simply be referred on and left to connect these different areas of care themselves.
"This can make the difference between someone struggling back to work too soon and returning at the right time with the clinical care and workplace adjustments they need to remain in work."
