Rhode Island Enacts First-In-Nation Menopause Workplace Protection Law

By Whitney Brown - Lehr Middlebrooks Vreeland & Thompson, P.C.

November 6, 2025

When she protested the EEOC’s overly-broad Pregnant Worker Fairness Act regulations, now-EEOC-Chair Andrea Lucas criticized the regulations’ exhaustive list of pregnancy or childbirth related medical conditions as requiring the accommodation of nearly every physical or mental condition that could arise from womanhood, or at least having a female reproductive system. It was a more than fair point, as the EEOC defined such covered conditions to include things like back pain, endometriosis (heavy and/or painful periods), menstruation, hormonal changes, and the use of contraception. Only one major phase of the female reproductive cycle was absent from the EEOC’s regulations, and that was menopause.

Well, if I didn’t know better, I would think that that gave the legislators of Rhode Island an idea. Rhode Island just amended its pregnancy accommodation law to cover pregnancy-related and menopause-related conditions, including “vasomotor symptoms,” i.e., hot flashes.

It’s an interesting idea, and one that could catch on, especially in the form Rhode Island used: as an amendment expanding an existing piece of legislation.

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