Employers have spent the past several years solving women’s health one vendor at a time. On top of fertility, maternity and other benefits, the number of employers offering menopause care benefits has risen more than 400% since 2023.
This investment isn’t just about symptom relief; it helps retain the workforce. Nearly half of women say health issues have affected their work productivity, and 71% say they would leave their current job for better healthcare benefits.
The growth of point solutions reflects plan sponsors’ focus on women’s health, but health needs rarely fit within a single benefit. On their own, standalone benefits may not give an employee a consistent care relationship as her needs change.
Evelyn, a Teladoc Health member, shared what happened when burnout collided with menopause symptoms and how one initial visit became a connected care experience shaped around her physical and mental health needs.
Navigating burnout, disrupted sleep and early menopause symptoms, Evelyn felt the urgency of needing to seek care. She'd also recently lost her longtime community physician, so she was without the continuity of care she'd relied on for years. Access, in her case, was the first and most immediate barrier to getting help.
Evelyn’s experience reflects a broader pattern: 8 in 10 women delay care until symptoms worsen or start affecting daily life.
A Teladoc Health visit gave Evelyn a way back into care, but access was only the beginning. The greater opportunity is to give employees an entry point to care that can adapt as their needs become clearer, connecting them to the appropriate support without requiring them to navigate each concern on their own.
When Evelyn turned to Teladoc Health, the first thing that stood out to her was how well her physician listened to her concerns. That experience is not common. A recent Gallup-Pivotal Women’s Health Survey found that 34% of U.S. women said a healthcare provider had minimized or dismissed their symptoms at some point in the past five years, while 51% reported at least one negative healthcare experience.
Many women are still left carrying that burden themselves: 42% of women said they had to speak up or advocate for their health in the past five years, and 30% of women with a health condition said they had to push to be taken seriously or receive treatment.
Evelyn didn’t feel the need to prove something was wrong. Menopause symptoms are common, with more than 80% of women experiencing menopausal symptoms. Rather than minimizing Evelyn’s concerns, her physician treated them as valid from the start.
When Evelyn described feeling overwhelmed to the point of exhaustion, her physician recognized that her needs extended beyond menopause care and recommended additional mental health support. Evelyn followed through, and counseling and coaching became part of her care over time.
Instead of treating each concern in isolation, her experience evolved with her, connecting support for her physical symptoms and emotional well-being around what she said she needed.
Menopause care is a growing focus for employer health strategies, and Evelyn's experience shows why access to a knowledgeable, attentive care provider is essential as women’s needs change with age and life stage.
She initially chose vitamins over hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and her physician gave her room to arrive at that decision herself. Evelyn didn’t feel pressured during the conversation, so after doing her own research, she was comfortable coming back ready to discuss HRT. Her physician reviewed the risks and benefits, ordered lab work and scheduled follow-up care. That willingness to wait earned her full trust.
That trust did more than improve a single visit. It gave Evelyn a relationship she felt comfortable returning to as her needs and preferences changed.
Evelyn’s experience shows what person-centered, connected care can look like in practice. What began as an urgent need for access developed into ongoing support across primary care, mental health and menopause care. As her needs became clearer, the care surrounding her evolved too.
For employers, the lesson is not simply to offer more individual services. It is to create a care experience in which employees can enter through one need, receive guidance toward the appropriate next step and remain supported as their health journey changes. That kind of coordinated experience can reduce the burden on employees to connect fragmented resources for themselves.
