Zora Health / Employer guide / Switzerland
Support your experienced employees through menopause, and help them stay at their best.
Difficulty concentrating, stress and poor sleep can hit your most experienced employees at the height of their careers, and few feel their employer supports them. Zora Health helps you build practical menopause support, from workplace policies and manager training to confidential care navigation and access to 128+ partner clinics in 16 countries, around your workforce and budget. Companies including Hilton, LinkedIn, Sanofi, HSBC, Mastercard, Carousell and Singapore Management University work with us.
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Five things Switzerland HR leaders should know
- In the MenoSupport Suisse study of 2,259 employed women, only 12.4% said menopause had not affected their work.
- In the same study, only 21.6% agreed their employer provides a supportive environment.
- The employment rate for women aged 50 to 54 in Switzerland was 83.8% in 2025, and 74.8% for women aged 50 to 64.
- Since 1 September 2025, basic insurance no longer covers the most common estradiol patch, Estradot, after a price dispute.
- Swiss law sets no menopause leave. Sick pay under Article 324a of the Code of Obligations starts at three weeks in the first year, and many employers insure it instead.
Why menopause is a business problem for employers
Menopause rarely announces itself at work. It looks like a senior manager who slept four hours, a wave of heat in the middle of a client meeting, a word that will not come in front of the board. Symptoms come and go for years. Many women do not link them to menopause, and fewer tell their manager.
So the cost stays out of your reports. It shows up instead as:
- Reduced hours and early exits. In the MenoSupport Suisse study of 2,259 employed women, surveyed in German, French and Italian, 33% had changed, paused or reduced their work because of menopause, including 20.5% who reduced their hours and 5.7% who retired early (EMAS, September 2025).
- Lower performance. Only 12.4% said menopause had not affected their work (MenoSupport Suisse, 2025). The study was run by HWR Berlin with The Women Circle and the Inselspital Bern Menopause Centre.
- Little employer support. Only 21.6% agreed their employer provides a supportive environment for menopause.
- Rising out-of-pocket costs. Since 1 September 2025 basic insurance no longer covers Estradot, the most common estradiol patch, so many women pay for it themselves (SWI swissinfo.ch, November 2025).
What employers gain
Keep the people who know how your business runs
Replacing an employee costs one-half to two times their annual salary, according to Gallup. The employment rate for women aged 50 to 64 in Switzerland was 74.8% in 2025 (Eurostat). A written policy, trained managers and quick access to the right doctor can help address barriers that contribute to employee attrition.
Stand out to experienced women
With only about one in five women feeling supported by their employer, a clear menopause offer stands out. Public employers are being asked about it too: the Canton of Zurich estimates about 300,000 women aged 40 to 65 in menopause in the canton and points to home office, part-time and flexible hours as existing options (Canton of Zurich, June 2026).
Make menopause support financially predictable
Much of what helps menopause costs very little: a flexible start time, a desk fan, a manager who knows what to say. The medical side is mostly outpatient care, such as a gynaecologist review and, where suitable, hormone therapy.
Zora helps employers set an annual allowance or top-up around basic and supplementary insurance, so HR can run the programme within an agreed budget. The benefit works alongside your existing insurance.
Want to see what this would look like for your Switzerland workforce?
What menopause care costs, and what the state pays
Most menopause care in Switzerland is outpatient: a GP or gynaecologist and, where suitable, hormone therapy. Basic insurance pays after the annual deductible, with a co-payment.
| Item | Public support | What the employee still carries |
|---|---|---|
| Doctor or gynaecologist visit | Covered by basic insurance after the deductible (ordinarily CHF 300 a year) | 10% co-payment above the deductible, capped at CHF 700 a year for adults |
| Estradiol patch (Estradot) | No longer covered by basic insurance since 1 September 2025 | About CHF 40 for a 24-pack, roughly 12 weeks, at one Bern pharmacy; supplementary insurance may pay part |
| Uncovered gynaecology check-up | Basic insurance covers set preventive exams only | Typically CHF 150 to CHF 300 when self-paid |
| Time off for appointments | No statutory menopause leave | Sick pay set by Article 324a of the Code of Obligations or sickness daily benefit insurance |
Cost-sharing from the Federal Office of Public Health; Estradot from SWI swissinfo.ch; check-up fees from versicherung-schweiz.ch (May 2026). We could not confirm whether other hormone therapy products, such as gels, remain reimbursed. These are published examples, not guaranteed current prices: actual costs depend on cover, clinic, doctor and treatment, so confirm fees with the provider before budgeting.
Most employers are not yet seen as supportive. In the MenoSupport Suisse study, only about one in five women agreed their employer provides a supportive environment.
Research is expanding: a Swiss National Science Foundation project led by the Bern University of Applied Sciences and the University of Lausanne is studying menopause and work until 2028 (BFH). For employers, the practical opportunity is to help employees recognise their symptoms, understand their options and reach appropriate clinical advice sooner.
Menopause support that fits your workforce and budget
You do not need to overhaul your existing health insurance to support employees through menopause. Start with awareness and manager education, add confidential one-to-one support, or introduce a fuller programme across your offices. There is no minimum company size.
Where included in the employer programme, eligible employees can use talks and care navigation without paying Zora a separate fee. Care navigation allowances are set in each proposal. Treatment and other third-party costs are paid separately, either by employees or through the allowance their employer provides.
Companies starting the conversation
Essentials
Expert-led talks for employees and managers, menopause policy templates, manager guides and full access to the Zora app. Up to 2 talks a year.
Employees supported one to one
Navigation
Everything in Essentials, plus confidential one-to-one care navigation and access to our partner clinic network.
Large teams across countries
Complete
Everything in Navigation, plus quarterly anonymised reporting, a dedicated account manager and scheduled review meetings with HR.
Optional add-ons can be added to any programme, subject to availability: hormone diagnostics and telehealth with specialists. Pricing is tailored to your headcount, your countries and the services you choose. Most companies start with a single talk.
Request a proposal See how Zora works for employers
Comparing menopause benefit providers? Use our RFP question bank
Our question bank has 40 questions for multi-country benefits teams, with why each one matters, what a good answer looks like and a scoring sheet for three providers. Six of the questions for menopause support in Switzerland:
- Is menopause support included as standard, or only fertility?
- What access do employees get to menopause specialists and hormone testing, and how quickly?
- How does the programme work alongside our sickness daily benefit insurance and occupational health arrangements?
- Do you provide fertility and menopause policy templates for our markets?
- How can an employee get help confidentially without telling their manager?
- What individual-level data does HR see?
Your download link appears as soon as you submit. Zora Health may contact you about employee benefits; see our privacy policy.
Plan your menopause benefit budget
Menopause care allowance planner
Model the annual claims budget for a menopause care allowance. Change any number.
This is a claims budget, not a Zora quotation. Zora’s programme fees, implementation and optional services are separate.
It estimates the annual budget for a menopause care allowance from your eligible workforce, expected utilisation and allowance per employee, and assumes each user claims the full allowance. Eligible employees defaults to 15% as a stand-in for women aged 45 and over; use your own headcount data. The default allowance of CHF 800 is an illustrative figure for the deductible, co-payments and treatments not covered by basic insurance. Utilisation is an editable assumption, not observed Zora data. For a proposal covering both programme costs and employee benefits, request an employer proposal.
Estimate the potential workforce impact of menopause symptoms
A rough planning scenario. It applies a published estimate to your headcount, so it is not a prediction for your workforce, a measured loss or a forecast of savings from any programme.
Range: CHF 50,758 to CHF 153,644 a year, depending on replacement cost.
Assumptions: 13.4% of working women aged 45 to 60 reported at least one adverse work outcome due to menopause symptoms, and those who missed work lost a median of 3 days a year (Faubion et al., Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2023). This was a US clinic sample, so treat it as a rough benchmark for Switzerland. The default salary is close to the Swiss median gross wage (CHF 7,024 a month in 2024, full-time equivalent); use your own. Replacing an employee costs one-half to two times their annual salary (Gallup, 2019); the headline uses the low end. Absence is valued at salary divided by 250 working days. Exit rate is your own assumption.
Already have corporate health insurance? Here is where Zora fits
Your medical plan may cover some consultations and treatment. Employees still need to recognise their symptoms, understand their options and find a doctor who knows menopause care, and many never get that far.
Zora works alongside your existing insurance and benefits. We help employees get reliable information, navigate their care options and reach suitable specialists, and we give HR manager training, policy templates and, on the Complete programme, anonymised reporting. You strengthen menopause support without replacing your medical plan.
How Zora works
For your employees
Employees join the Zora app with a company code, or single sign-on for larger teams. They can learn about perimenopause and menopause, understand what your benefit covers, book a confidential care navigation call and find partner doctors and specialists.
For HR
- Kick-off, week 1. Agree goals, countries and which employees are eligible.
- Policy and benefit design, weeks 2 to 4. Draft or update your menopause policy and flexible work guidance using our templates.
- Launch, typically weeks 4 to 6. A launch talk for employees and managers, plus a communications pack for HR to send.
- Live support. Employees book care navigation calls and use the Zora app.
- Reporting, every 3 months, on the Complete programme. Anonymised usage, common themes and our recommendations, reviewed with your account manager.
Privacy
On the Complete programme, HR receives anonymised, aggregated reports only: how many employees used the programme, which services they used and the common themes. On every programme, HR never sees an individual employee’s health information, bookings or test results, and employees can get help without telling their manager. Employee data is stored on Amazon Web Services in Singapore and handled in line with Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act.
Clinics and doctors in Switzerland
Zora’s clinic and doctor directory does not list providers in Switzerland yet. It lists 421 clinics and 1,185 doctors across 25 countries, mostly in Asia Pacific and the Middle East (browse clinics or browse doctors). Employees in Switzerland can still use Zora’s education and the Zora app. Ask us how your team in Switzerland would use Zora before you launch. See Zora’s employer guides for every country.
Rules and eligibility in Switzerland
Sick pay
Under Article 324a of the Code of Obligations, employers pay three weeks’ salary in the first year of service and an appropriate longer period after that, set in practice by cantonal scales. The Bern scale, for example, rises from one month in year two to six months after 20 years (Zurich Insurance). Many employers insure this with sickness daily benefit insurance, which usually pays 80% of salary for up to 730 days minus a waiting period.
Gender Equality Act
Article 3 of the Gender Equality Act bans direct and indirect discrimination on the basis of sex, including in working conditions, promotion and dismissal (Gender Equality Act). Menopause is not named, so base decisions on documented, job-related reasons.
Hormone therapy cover
Estradot, the most common estradiol patch, was removed from the list of medicines covered by basic insurance after a price dispute (SWI swissinfo.ch). Employees may now pay for it themselves or through supplementary insurance.
Cantonal parliaments
The Canton of Zurich replied to a parliamentary question on menopause at work in June 2026, pointing to existing flexible work options rather than a new programme (Canton of Zurich). There is no statutory menopause leave.
Why employers choose Zora
Companies including Hilton, LinkedIn, Sanofi, HSBC, Mastercard, Carousell and Singapore Management University work with Zora Health. We work alongside your existing insurance, helping employees use the cover they already have and find suitable doctors and specialists based on their needs.
Zora Health helped me to reclaim my confidence to thrive at work!
Questions HR teams ask us
Do Swiss employers have to give menopause leave?
No. There is no statutory menopause leave. Employees use sick leave under Article 324a or sickness daily benefit insurance, annual leave or flexible arrangements unless their employer offers more.
How long must employers pay salary during illness?
Three weeks in the first year of service, then an appropriate longer period set by cantonal scales, unless an equivalent sickness daily benefit insurance applies.
Does basic insurance cover hormone therapy?
Some products are covered after the deductible and co-payment, but Estradot, the most common estradiol patch, has not been covered since 1 September 2025.
Is menopause covered by discrimination law?
Not by name. The Gender Equality Act bans direct and indirect sex discrimination in working conditions, promotion and dismissal, and some menopause-related situations may overlap with it.
What do Swiss women want from employers?
In the MenoSupport Suisse study, only about one in five felt their employer was supportive. Flexible hours, awareness and manager training are the usual starting points.
Does Zora replace our health insurance?
No. Zora works alongside your insurance. We help employees understand their options, find suitable specialists and use the cover they already have.
How much does menopause support cost an employer?
It depends on the programme, any allowance and expected uptake. Use the budget planner on this page for a first estimate, then ask us for a tailored proposal based on your headcount and countries.
How quickly can we launch?
Typically 4 to 6 weeks from contract to launch, depending on scope and countries. Most companies start with a single talk.
Related guides for Switzerland employers
Build a menopause support programme for your team
Whether you are introducing menopause benefits for the first time or improving an existing programme, tell us your headcount, countries and priorities. We will come back within two working days with suitable services, an indicative budget and a practical rollout plan for your Switzerland team. No obligation.
Sources
- MenoSupport Suisse 2025 report, HWR Berlin, The Women Circle and Inselspital Bern (2,259 employed women)
- EMAS, New Swiss study reveals the real impact of menopause at work, September 2025
- Canton of Zurich, Government resolution RRB 2026/0591, June 2026
- Bern University of Applied Sciences, HAWK research project
- Eurostat, Employment rates by sex and age (lfsa_ergan), 2025
- SRF, Swiss median wage CHF 7,024, November 2025
- Federal Office of Public Health, Cost-sharing in basic insurance
- SWI swissinfo.ch, Swiss women forced to pay for hormone therapy, November 2025
- versicherung-schweiz.ch, Gynaecologist costs, May 2026
- Zurich Insurance, Continued payment of salaries during illness
- Gender Equality Act, Article 3
- Gallup, This fixable problem costs US businesses $1 trillion, 2019
- Mayo Clinic News Network, Faubion et al., Impact of menopause symptoms on women in the workplace, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, April 2023