The event highlighted diverse experiences of fertility in the workplace, and showcased how employers can best support employees with their fertility journey.
Here’s what you may have missed from the event.
Fostering judgement-free conversations around fertility
One in six people go through fertility issues in their lifetime. HR should support people with their fertility journey, explained Claire Ingle, co-founder and head of people and social impact at Fertility Matters At Work.
“Fertility doesn’t just impact people in the here and now, it impacts people as they go through their career,” she said.
Julianne Boutaleb, consultant perinatal psychologist and director of parenthood wellbeing platform Parenthood in Mind added that employees can often feel afraid to share their difficulties with fertility due to how it will impact their career, whether that is in being passed over for a promotion or not being taken seriously.
“If we are to create psychologically safe workplaces, we need to encourage people to safely signal that their vulnerability is okay and welcome,” Boutaleb said.
Fertility is an HR issue, Natalie Silverman, co-founder and CEO of Fertility Matters at Work added. “There is a lot that we’re asking you as a manager or as HR professionals or colleagues, but we are adamant that we want you to see fertility as a people issue. Mainstream media has very much portrayed this as a women’s health issue, and it’s just not.”
Read more: Fertility and business: How can managers better support employees?
Simon Blake, CEO of LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall, explained that LGBTQ+ employees can face specific barriers to discussing fertility at work.
He told HR magazine that a “combination of stigma, information gaps, and misunderstanding about how much they need to know” prevents employers discussing fertility with LGBTQ+ employees.
He encouraged HR to ensure that language about fertility is inclusive of all employees.
“Be really thoughtful in a workplace about how we talk about fertility, having children, and routes to routes to parenthood," he said.
"Build on the existing language around fertility and increase that so it feels much more inclusive. Sometimes people will say replacing language, and for me, it's about how you build on that language, because we want everybody to feel seen and included.”
Nine in 10 (90%) people experience anxiety or depression while dealing with fertility challenges, according to the charity Fertility Network UK. Meanwhile 61% of employees feel uncomfortable discussing fertility with their employer.
Two fifths (41%) of people going through fertility treatment experience suicidal thoughts, and 42% of people who have been through a fertility journal suffer with complex trauma, Boutaleb added.
HR should recognise the gravity of employees’ fertility experiences in the language they use, Boutaleb suggested. “It is important that the language that is used is of grief, of loss and death,” she emphasised.
But line managers and HR should not be expected to be experts in everything fertility-related, the event's panellists all agreed.
“Policy definitely sets the framework,” Blake said. “But if you are confident in your role as line manager, or in your role as HR, [it’s about] making sure that the policy framework enables good, quality conversations.”
Read more: Dismissal of pain impacts women's careers
Acknowledging and supporting diverse fertility experiences
Silverman invited five panellists to share their different experiences with fertility.
Michael Johnson-Ellis, founder of Two Dads UK, a same-sex surrogacy support provider, and My Surrogacy Journey, a non-profit organisation, explained that he was told he had committed “career suicide” when he shared his fertility issues at work.
Though he was not out as gay at work at the time, he remembered that HR asked him: “Why do you want children? You’re gay,” after he confided in his CEO about his difficulties accessing surrogacy care.
“It ultimately led to me leaving,” Johnson-Ellis said. He shared that, in his role, HR often has a lack of understanding of what surrogacy leave or adoption leave is.
Vanessa Haye, a writer and commentator on black women’s health, was diagnosed with “unexplained infertility” and had her pain dismissed when she reported that she thought she was experiencing an ectopic pregnancy.
She emphasised that there can be a lack of understanding at work about the “gendered and cultural experiences of fertility”, such as medical gaslighting experienced by some women from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Haye advised HR to collect data about know what people’s experiences are with fertility. “Support can’t be done blindly. If you’re not understanding the intersections of people who walk through your door, you can’t change what you can’t measure,” she noted. “Knowing who you manage has to inform policy and has to inform culture.”
Read more: Bereavement and baby loss: How HR can support
Becoming fertility friendly
BBC News reported last week (28 October) that fertility rates in England and Wales have dropped to a new low.
Fertility support should be part of employers’ retention, attraction, engagement and futureproofing strategy, Ingle emphasised.
Mary Knight, global director of ethics and sustainability at biopharmaceutical group Ferring Pharmaceuticals, explained how her organisation became fertility-friendly certified, an accreditation provided by Fertility Matters at Work.
“We started off building what started as a policy, but became a much bigger framework,” she explained. Ferring provides pharmaceutical care to people looking to have children around the world, so the framework was created to “lead by example and create a society where [the business] remove[s] barriers to become a parent”.
This involved three pillars, which included: providing unlimited fertility financial support for all employees; parental leave in the form of 28 weeks paid for birthing and non-birthing parents, five days for fertility treatment, and four weeks for those who have experienced a miscarriage; and continuous support and training.
Rebecca Percy, diversity and inclusion lead at energy company EON UK also reported that the business became fertility friendly by providing comprehensive support for family building. EON's approach included creating a Fertility Forum where people can reach out for support as well as 15 Fertility Friends who have been on their own fertility journeys and could support other employees with theirs.
EON also provides unlimited parental leave, as “there is no right amount”, Percy said. Its HR team tracks the uptake of the leave, and more than 99% of people eligible for it take it. Having the support of senior leadership has been crucial for this buy in, she explained.
HR could also offer specific fertility benefits, suggested Kate Donnellan, partnership manager at fertility clinic Apricity Fertility. These could take the form of financial support, diagnostic testing or private healthcare.
Donnellan stressed that HR should provide whatever support they can in their organisation. She said: “Fertility benefits are about improving access to care in whatever capacity that is.”
