On January 1, a woman in Chicago will be able to ask her employer for a fan under a law that explicitly recognizes menopause-related workplace needs. A woman in Los Angeles experiencing a similar hot flash has a veto message from her governor explaining that existing laws should already protect her. And a woman in Dallas has no state law specifically addressing menopause to point to at all, which at least has the virtue of clarity. Three women, all trying to get through their workday while their bodies do something they can’t control. Yet their legal options depend on where they happen to live. That’s the state of menopause protections in October 2026, and it reveals something worth questioning: why does something as immediate and ordinary as physical relief still depend so heavily on someone else’s permission? A law, a governor, an employer, an HR department. These protections matter, but a hot flash doesn’t wait for a policy decision or an HR conversation. Brra was founded on a different premise: women deserve relief designed into their everyday lives, not another interruption they have to negotiate their way through.
In Washington, menopause is finally getting a seat at the table. Congress has introduced the Menopausal Workers’ Fairness Act, and the EEOC is revisiting language that could shape workplace accommodations. That’s real progress. But somewhere across the country, a woman is halfway through a presentation when a hot flash hits. The legislation is still being debated. The rules are still being considered. And she needs relief now, not after the next vote or HR conversation. That’s the gap Brra is designing for: discreet, wearable thermal relief that moves with a woman through her day, rather than requiring her to step away from it. Workplace protections can expand her right to leave the room. Brra is working toward something equally important: her freedom to stay.
Now zoom in on the map. Rhode Island already requires accommodations. Illinois signed its Menopause Equity and Care Act in August, with workplace protections starting January 1, 2027, and insurance coverage in 2028. Philadelphia’s accommodation duty also begins in January. Then there’s California. AB 1940 passed the Senate 30 to 1 and the Assembly 65 to 9, and on September 30 Governor Newsom vetoed it, arguing that existing law already covers menopause and the bill would invite litigation. That makes three menopause vetoes since 2024. The first two said coverage cost too much. The third said protection went without saying. Pick one. Even where coverage mandates pass, self-insured employers can generally opt out, and many large employers self-insure. Fifty states, three jurisdictions with an explicit workplace duty, two of them not yet in force. Brra works the same way in Providence as it does in Sacramento.
Look at what every official path shares. The legal route: disclose a medical condition to your employer, enter a formal process, wait for someone to rule on undue hardship. The clinical route: find a menopause-trained clinician, get the appointment, the coverage, the prescription, and be someone for whom treatment is appropriate and wanted. Neither route is wrong. Hormone therapy remains the clinical first line, and accommodation law matters. But both open with someone else’s approval, and neither is in the room at 2:40 on a Tuesday when the heat arrives mid-sentence. The women outside both systems aren’t an edge case. They live in states with no law, work for employers with no policy, can’t take hormones, can’t get an appointment, or simply aren’t ready to tell their manager. “Won’t” is not a knowledge gap. It’s a decision, and infrastructure should respect it.
So here is where things stand at the end of October 2026. A federal rule that may narrow the one door that was open. A congressional bill that hasn’t moved. Three jurisdictions with an explicit workplace duty, two of them still waiting on the calendar. A governor who has now said no three times. Coverage mandates that self-insured employers can step around. Every one of those paths ends in the same place: a form, a gatekeeper, a yes she has to wait for. Brra was designed to skip that line entirely. No diagnosis, no prescription, no disclosure to HR, no ruling from anyone. Brra doesn’t need anyone’s approval. Neither does she. We built it that way because we’re far more interested in what becomes possible when women can live in their bodies uninterrupted.
Tayler Moore
Founder, Brra
10.28.2026