The symptom no leadership program mentions, and the kit that gets you through the next one
According to WebMD Health Services, almost half of female managers and executives in San Antonio and across South Texas hide their menopause symptoms from colleagues at work. That concealment is hardest on a stage, with a clip-on mic and four hundred faces in the seats at a San Antonio conference, waiting to see whether you'll shed your jacket.
Why that figure is worth a second glance in San Antonio
What catches attention is not that women hide it. It's how many are concealing it at once, in the same kinds of rooms, each one sure she's the only person in the building whose face just flushed for no clear reason. Almost half of the women leading organizations are handling a symptom quietly, and the quiet is so complete that the woman two seats down, going through the same thing, has no idea she isn't alone.
Where the number comes from
WebMD Health Services released the figure in 2025, in a report on how menopause affects women and the businesses where they work. It surveyed women managers and executives, so it describes people in leadership roles rather than every woman at work, and it rests on what respondents reported about themselves. Because people usually understate whatever makes them uncomfortable, the 45% figure is likely the minimum, not the true share. In that same research, 34% said symptoms had led them to consider quitting their roles. A 2025 Deloitte study of 7,500 women spanning 15 countries makes an even harder case: 36% of those experiencing menopause symptoms endure severe discomfort without relief. These women are the ones standing up to present board decks, not the ones phoning in sick.
The moment it occurs
You are twelve minutes into the keynote in San Antonio. The slide is fine. Your heart rate is not. The heat starts at your chest and climbs to your hairline in about eight seconds, and you know from experience that your face has turned a color the front row can plainly see. You can pretend nothing is happening, or you can do the thing you never imagined you would, which is acknowledge it. You keep talking. You lose your place. You find it again. When it's over, the silence from the room is nearly worse, since you can't read whether people missed the moment or were simply being polite.
What this means for you in South Texas
That points to a practical fix rather than a question of your credibility. Your authority was never lost on that stage. You lost roughly four seconds of composure, and the audience will have forgotten that brief pause well before you do. The symptom is bodily, common and fleeting. What actually does harm is the rumination afterward, when you keep rewinding that pause until it turns into a judgment about yourself. Plenty of accomplished women in San Antonio, Schertz and Universal City are stuck in that same loop. That loop does not make any of them less capable.
The core points
Pack a small preparedness kit and keep it in your bag at all times. Layer a sleeveless top beneath your blazer so that removing the jacket feels like a strategy, not a retreat. During the walk to the front, grip a chilled water bottle rather than drinking from it. Slip a hand fan the size of a credit card into the podium tray. Also prepare a single sentence you can use if needed, such as: "Give me ten seconds." I'm taking this jacket off and we'll keep going." Said plainly, it sounds like command of the room, because that's exactly what it is.
Would you rather walk on stage with the kit in hand, or with the worry?