The whole thing in one sentence

You are not being asked to understand menopause. You are being asked to stop making it expensive to mention.

Three facts worth carrying

Around 70% of Canadian women surveyed said they would not feel comfortable raising symptoms with HR, and 67% said the same about their supervisor. The silence is the default setting, not a sign that nothing is happening.
24% have actively hidden symptoms at work. Hiding costs concentration. It is work performed on top of the work.
The share of Canadian women in employment drops 14% between 45 and 59, against 10% for men. Some of that gap walks out quietly, in ones, without ever filing anything.

Source: Menopause Foundation of Canada × Deloitte, 2023 (Leger survey, n=1,023 Canadian women aged 40–60).

Fix the room before anyone has to ask. Cold water on the table. A window that opens. Don't book the glass box with no airflow for the two-hour session. Nobody should have to disclose a medical transition to get a decent room.
Stop scheduling the hardest thing at 4 p.m. If a colleague does their sharpest thinking in the morning, meet them there. This is good practice for everyone and it costs nothing.
Retire three phrases. "Is it that time of the month?" "Someone's having a hot flash." "She's been off her game lately." The third is the dangerous one, because it sounds professional and it lands in a performance review.
Let the pause be a pause. Word-finding trouble is a real and well-documented symptom. Don't finish the sentence, don't fill the gap, don't glance at anyone. Wait two seconds. That's the whole intervention.
Take the note-taking, not the credit. If a colleague is running on three hours of sleep, offer the concrete thing — write the minutes, take the 8 a.m. call, own the follow-up — not a sympathetic look.
Go to the session. If your workplace runs an awareness session, attend it even though it isn't "for" you. Attendance by people who aren't affected is the single clearest signal that this isn't a niche women's topic. It is also the cheapest thing on this list.

They are not asking you to fix anything. Three moves, in order:

Believe it, plainly. "Thanks for telling me." Not "are you sure it's not stress," not a story about your aunt.
Ask one question. "What would actually help, in practical terms?" Then be quiet long enough for a real answer.
Do the small thing, and keep it to yourself. This is health information. It goes no further, including to a well-meaning manager, unless they've asked you to pass it on.

Not: "You should try HRT, my sister swears by it." — Say: "Is there anything you want me to cover this week?"
Not: "Wow, is that normal at your age?" — Say: "Noted. Do you want the morning slot instead?"
Not: "You seem tired lately." — Say: "How do you want to split this workload?"
Not: silence, then a raised eyebrow to someone else. — Say: nothing, and hold your face still. That counts.

It isn't only women over 50. Surgical menopause can arrive at 34, overnight, after an operation nobody at work knows about. Perimenopause commonly starts in the early forties.
Trans men and non-binary people go through menopause too, and are far less likely to find their experience named in any policy. Trans women on estrogen can experience related symptoms when levels drop or medication is interrupted.
Neurodivergent colleagues often describe existing coping strategies stopping working — the systems that held for twenty years abruptly not holding. That's not a new deficit.
Shift and frontline staff can't use most of what gets called flexibility. Ally work there is break cover, uniform, washroom access and swap rules, not calendar etiquette.

Never open with it. Don't ask a woman in her forties whether her performance dip might be menopause. You have just made a medical assumption in a performance conversation. Ask what's getting in the way and let them tell you.
Make the ask small. If an adjustment requires a doctor's note, a form and two approvals, you have designed a process people will avoid. Say out loud, once, in a team meeting: adjustments here don't need a diagnosis.
Write nothing down that they didn't agree to. Record the adjustment, not the cause.

Before you say the thing, ask: would I say it about a colleague's back injury, in front of them, in this tone? If not, don't.