Millions of women navigate the transition of menopause every year, experiencing physical and emotional shifts that can affect many aspects of their lives. In recent years, researchers have begun asking whether these hormonal and symptomatic changes also influence economic behavior, such as how women handle financial risk.
A recent study published in the Journal of Economic Psychology set out to test this idea. The analysis revealed that while menopausal women appear to take fewer financial risks than non-menopausal women, this difference is entirely explained by age, rather than the biological transition itself.
Biology, aging, and economic decisions
Risk-taking plays a major role in financial planning, career moves, and health decisions. Because menopause involves significant drops in hormones like estrogen and progesterone, some evolutionary and psychological theories have suggested the transition might alter a woman’s sensitivity to rewards. From an evolutionary standpoint, some models propose that a post-reproductive life stage triggers an adaptive shift toward safety and stability.
These hormonal and physiological changes unfold alongside the broader aging process. Older adults consistently exhibit greater risk aversion than younger individuals across many psychological and economic surveys.
Researcher Helena Fornwagner of the University of Exeter wanted to find out if the biological changes associated with menopause translate into measurable differences in economic decision-making. Past research has shown that menopause can affect employment rates, job performance, and overall quality of life. However, little evidence existed regarding its direct impact on behavioral economics and choices made under uncertainty.
Fornwagner hypothesized that menopause might make women more risk-averse, prompting an investigation to separate the effects of this biological milestone from the general process of getting older.
Testing risk preferences in the lab
To test this, the study recruited 1,789 women in the United Kingdom across a wide range of ages. Participants completed an incentivized investment task designed to measure their willingness to take financial risks in a controlled setting. Each woman started with a small amount of money and had to decide how much to keep and how much to invest in a virtual coin flip. A successful flip multiplied the investment by two and a half, while a failed flip resulted in losing the invested money.
Alongside the investment game, participants filled out detailed psychological and health questionnaires. They completed a standard assessment of menopausal symptom severity, rating experiences like hot flashes, sleep problems, and joint pain. They also answered questions about their general mental health and well-being.
To determine menopausal status, the researcher used two different classifications based on the women’s self-reported menstrual cycles. A narrow definition only included women who had not had a period for 12 consecutive months. A broad definition included women who were currently experiencing perimenopause, a transitional phase characterized by fluctuating hormones and irregular periods.
Disentangling age from menopause
On average, the participants chose to invest more than half of their starting funds into the coin-flip game. When looking strictly at the raw data, menopausal women invested less money than women who had not yet reached menopause. This pattern held true regardless of whether the narrow or broad definition of menopause was applied.
However, menopausal status is naturally tied to a person’s age. When the researcher adjusted the statistical models to account for age, the behavioral gap between the two groups disappeared. The analysis showed a gradual, linear decline in risk-taking as participants grew older. There was no sudden drop in investment amounts during the typical menopausal window of 45 to 55 years old.
Fornwagner ran multiple tests to ensure the reliability of these results. She compared women of similar ages, accounted for the severity of menopause symptoms, and factored in whether participants were using hormone replacement therapy. She also utilized statistical equivalence bounds, a method used to determine whether an observed effect is practically negligible. Across all these different checks, menopause had no independent effect on a woman’s willingness to take financial risks. The results were statistically equivalent to zero.
Reevaluating behavioral assumptions
The study suggests that the shift toward more cautious decision-making often attributed to menopause is actually part of a broader age-related trend. Older individuals generally tend to be more risk-averse than younger people, a pattern that appears to explain the investment choices seen in the experiment. By separating the biological transition from chronological aging, the data challenges the assumption that menopause inherently alters a woman’s economic preferences.
The researcher notes that the data collection relied on self-reported menopausal status, which carries some measurement limitations. Perimenopause can be an ambiguous stage, and recall errors regarding menstrual patterns are possible. Using multiple definitions of menopause provided a safeguard against some of these classification issues.
Because the research relies on a snapshot of different women at a single point in time, the findings might reflect generational differences rather than changes within an individual over time. Tracking the same group of women over several years would be required to completely rule out any localized shifts in risk-taking behavior as they transition through menopause.
