Perimenopause and Work: Mechanisms of Inequality and Biology

The article analyzes the relationship between the biological variability of a woman's body and the rigid structures of labor institutions. Drawing on concepts from the book The Hormone Loop, the author challenges the myth of the "ideal worker" as a biologically constant unit independent of reproductive or hormonal processes. She points out that perimenopause, much like pregnancy, does not automatically determine a decline in competence but becomes a point of intersection with systemic inequalities. The key conclusion is that the social and professional cost of biological transitions results not from physiology itself, but from the lack of adaptability of labor institutions, which often amplify biological changes into forms of exclusion or professional discrimination.