Menopause Laws by State: 2026 Data & Statute Tracker

Ten of the 50 states had enacted a menopause-specific statewide statute as of July 31, 2026: California, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Virginia. Seven of those ten have an insurance or health-plan component.

That is the clean, reproducible answer to menopause laws by state under the rule published on this page. It is also only the first answer. These statutes do different things, take effect on different dates, and reach different people and plans.

A state coverage law is not a promise that every resident’s plan must pay. KFF’s 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey found that 67% of covered workers nationallywere in self-funded plans. KFF states that private-employer self-funded plans are exempt from most state insurance laws, including mandated benefits. That 67% is a national covered-worker figure — not a state estimate and not a figure for women alone.

Maryland’s own fiscal note shows the reach problem more sharply at the state level. In 2024, 890,245 of 2.58 million commercially insured Maryland residents under age 65 — 34.5% — were in fully insured plans subject to state regulation. That was 17.4% of Maryland’s nonelderly population. The same note records the Maryland Insurance Administration’s advice that the 2026 menopause mandate does not apply to the nongrandfathered individual and small-employer markets.

Below is every qualifying state, the official source for every positive classification, the actions that did not qualify, the exact inclusion rule, and downloadable data that reproduces the count.

Ten states qualified as of July 31, 2026: California, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Virginia. A “Yes” means the state had an enacted statewide statute whose operative text expressly names menopause or a related stage and creates a binding requirement. It does not mean the ten states created the same right.

The full table matters because the 40 negative classifications are part of the research.“No qualifying statewide statute located” means no measure met this tracker’s published rule by the cutoff. It does not mean no bill, executive action, local ordinance, regulation, court decision, or generally applicable law could matter in that state.

This tracker counts enacted statewide statutes whose operative text expressly uses a menopause term and creates a binding duty, coverage rule, program, training provision, accommodation, or other legal requirement. Bills, vetoes, executive orders, resolutions, local ordinances, and general hormone-therapy laws that never name menopause are kept in a separate layer.

We wrote the rule before calculating the result and applied it to all 50 states.

A state qualifies only when all four conditions are met:

1. The instrument is an enacted statewide statute.
2. Its operative text expressly uses at least one qualifying menopause term.
3. It creates a binding duty, benefit, program, coverage rule, training provision, accommodation, or other requirement.
4. An official primary source confirms enactment on or before the cutoff.

menopause
perimenopause
postmenopause
postmenopausal
menopausal
menopausal symptoms
menopause-related
menopause-related condition

The same verified records produce different numbers when the unit changes. This audit finds 10 states, 15 enacted policy packages, and 17 chaptered bill instruments. A source that counts bills, companion bills, resolutions, executive orders, local ordinances, or pending measures is answering a different question.

The state count is the headline because the search question is “menopause laws by state.” California, Illinois, Louisiana, and New Jersey each enacted multiple qualifying packages but each state counts once. Maryland and Rhode Island enacted companion bills, so two bill instruments produce one legal package in each state.

The dataset makes the arithmetic visible. Filter Qualifying statewide statute? = Yes and the result is 10 rows. Count the unique package rows marked Package count flag = Yes and the result is 15. Sum Instrument count and the result is 17.

California has two qualifying laws: a 2024 clinician-education measure and a 2026 health budget trailer bill with private-plan, utilization-review, information, and Medi-Cal provisions. The private-plan sections and the Medi-Cal section are separate, and collapsing them into one sentence produces the wrong scope.

AB 2270, Chapter 636 (2024) directs healing-arts licensing boards to consider including coursework in menopausal mental or physical health in continuing education.

SB 164, Chapter 27 (2026) took effect immediately on June 29, 2026. Health and Safety Code section 1367.252 and parallel Insurance Code provisions require specified contracts or policies with outpatient prescription-drug benefits to cover medically necessary FDA-approved treatments used for menopausal symptoms. The named categories include hormone therapy, low-dose antidepressants, anticonvulsants, osteoporosis medicines, and nonhormonal medicines for vasomotor symptoms.

The private-plan section expressly excludes Medi-Cal managed-care contracts and Medicare supplement contracts. A separate Welfare and Institutions Code section makes the same FDA-approved treatment categories covered Medi-Cal benefits, subject to medical necessity, federal approval, and federal financial participation. The information-program duties and specified utilization-review rules begin in 2027.

Connecticut’s qualifying law is a public-health toolkit law, not an insurance or workplace mandate. It was approved May 14, 2026; the relevant section takes effect October 1, 2026; and the toolkit must be distributed by June 1, 2028.

HB 5514 / Public Act 26-13directs UConn Health’s Health Disparities Institute to develop a toolkit for people who have experienced symptoms of perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause and for health-care providers.

Illinois has three enacted policy stages that are often blended into one claim. The 2022 law covered hysterectomy-induced menopause, the 2024 therapy law broadened private-plan coverage beginning in 2026, and a separate 2024 law created an annual menopause health visit for a narrower set of policies.

Public Act 102-0804 created coverage for hormone therapy to treat menopause induced by hysterectomy. HB 5295 / Public Act 103-0703 then amended the private-plan rule for coverage on and after January 1, 2026: specified group, individual, and managed-care plans must cover medically necessary hormonal and nonhormonal therapy for menopausal symptoms when the statutory conditions are met. Its Medicaid provision remains limited to medically necessary hormone therapy for hysterectomy-induced menopause.

SB 773 / Public Act 103-0751 is a different benefit. For specified policies covering more than 25 employees, it creates an annual menopause health visit for covered people age 45 or older and bars deductibles, coinsurance, copayments, and other cost sharing, subject to the statute’s health-savings-account rule. The benefit applies from January 1, 2026.

A policy covering 25 or fewer employees is outside the SB 773 annual-visit mandate. That threshold should not be rewritten as a universal employer-size rule for every Illinois menopause benefit.

Louisiana’s 2024 law combines coverage with an access rule: specified issuers must cover medically necessary care, and the law bars prior authorization and step-therapy or fail-first protocols for prescribed HRT used to treat menopause or perimenopause symptoms.

HB 392 / Act 784 (2024)also directs the Louisiana Department of Health to make hormonal menopausal care available to Medicaid-eligible people under the act’s terms. It took effect August 1, 2024.

HB 944 / Act 855 (2026) creates the Women’s Health Consortium and places perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause within its advisory and coordination remit. It is not an individual coverage entitlement.

Maine’s law is a public-information program. It does not create an insurance mandate or a K–12 curriculum requirement.

LD 1079 / Public Law 2025, Chapter 472 directs the Department of Health and Human Services to partner with health-care providers, community programs, and hospitals to create and disseminate information about perimenopause and menopause. The law was approved July 1, 2025 and took effect September 24, 2025.

Maryland’s 2026 package combines clinician education, coverage, policy evaluation, and community-health work. Its insurance provision begins January 1, 2027, and the state’s own fiscal note records a material market limitation.

SB 892 / HB 1365, Chapters 605–606 (2026) requires specified carriers to cover evaluation and management of menopause and menopause-associated symptoms as determined by the treating provider. Other provisions take effect July 1 or October 1, 2026; the insurance provisions begin January 1, 2027.

The Department of Legislative Services fiscal note records the Maryland Insurance Administration’s advice that the mandate does not apply to the nongrandfathered individual and small-employer markets. It also reports that, in 2024, 890,245 of 2.58 million commercially insured Maryland residents under 65 were in fully insured plans subject to state regulation.

New Jersey enacted one clinician-education law and one broad treatment-coverage law. The coverage law’s general effective date is April 9, 2026 — 90 days after enactment — not July 8. A specified individual-market category begins January 1, 2027.

A 5309 / P.L.2025, c.175 allows up to three credits of menopause continuing education to count toward specified physician and nursing license-renewal requirements.

A 5278 / P.L.2025, c.200requires specified plans and programs to cover medically necessary treatment for a diagnosis of perimenopause, menopause, and associated symptoms. The named categories include hormonal and nonhormonal treatment, behavioral-health care, pelvic-floor physical therapy, bone-health care, preventive services meeting the statute’s criteria, and counseling or education. The act took effect on the 90th day after its January 9, 2026 enactment and applies through its issuance and renewal rules; policies under P.L.1992, c.161 begin January 1, 2027.

Oregon requires specified plans to cover enumerated FDA-approved drug categories and expressly reaches PEBB and OEBB self-insured public plans. The enacted text does not create an Oregon Health Plan menopause mandate and does not contain the utilization-management protections attributed to it in some summaries.

HB 3064, Chapter 500 (2025) names hormone therapy, SSRIs and SNRIs, vaginal estrogen, osteoporosis medicines, neurokinin B antagonists, topical hormone therapy, and bioidentical hormones, limited to drugs approved by the FDA. It applies to specified health benefit plans and health-care service contracts issued, renewed, or extended on or after January 1, 2026.

The act also applies to PEBB and OEBB plans issued, renewed, or extended from that date and to their self-insured plans for periods beginning on or after January 1, 2026. That public-plan language is why “self-funded plans are never reached by state law” is too broad. Private-sector ERISA plans and state-created public plans are not the same thing.

Rhode Island is the only qualifying state in this audit whose enacted statute is centered on explicit workplace reasonable accommodation for menopause or a related medical condition. It took effect June 24, 2025.

S 0361 / H 6161, Public Laws 2025, Chapters 225–226 amended Rhode Island’s existing reasonable-accommodation law to add menopause and related medical conditions, including the need to manage vasomotor symptoms. The Fair Employment Practices Act generally covers employers with four or more employees.

The statute creates a separate accommodation duty on request; it does not condition that duty on an ADA disability finding. It preserves an undue-hardship defense, bars forcing leave where another reasonable accommodation can be provided, and adds notice and posting duties.

Virginia’s enacted menopause law is an insurance mandate, not the workplace bill that was vetoed. The act became effective July 1, 2026, and its coverage duties apply to specified policies and contracts from January 1, 2027.

SB 790 / Chapter 955 (2026) requires specified Virginia-regulated accident and sickness policies and HMOs to cover evaluation and management of perimenopause and menopause, including medically necessary hormonal and nonhormonal therapy.

The accurate structural point is that the act identifies state-regulated policies and HMOs, while private-sector self-funded employer plans are generally outside state insurance mandates under ERISA. SB 258, the workplace bill, was vetoed and is not law.

Seven qualifying states have an insurance or health-plan component: California, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, and Virginia. The laws differ in covered markets, treatment categories, utilization controls, public programs, dates, and exclusions.

A coverage law can require a drug category without creating a special visit benefit. It can require a visit without requiring every medication. It can regulate utilization review without eliminating medical-necessity review. It can reach a state employee plan while missing a private self-funded employer plan.

No. State menopause mandates reach the products and programs named in each statute. Private-sector self-funded employer plans are generally outside state mandated-benefit laws, while a state may expressly direct its own public self-funded plans, as Oregon did for PEBB and OEBB.

A fully insured plan is one in which an employer purchases insurance and the carrier bears the claims risk. A self-funded plan is one in which the employer bears the claims risk, often with a third party administering the plan.

KFF’s 2025 survey found:

• 67% of covered workers nationally were in self-funded plans.
• 80% of covered workers at firms with 200 or more workers were in self-funded plans.
• 27% of covered workers at firms with 10 to 199 workers were in self-funded plans.
• 37% of covered workers at firms with 10 to 199 workers were in level-funded plans.

Those are national employer-plan figures, not state-specific menopause-coverage estimates.

Rhode Island was the only qualifying state in this audit with a statewide statute expressly centered on reasonable accommodation for menopause or a related medical condition. The statute still has employer-coverage, request, notice, and undue-hardship rules, so it does not guarantee every requested accommodation.

Rhode Island’s law covers employers within the state’s Fair Employment Practices Act, generally those with four or more employees. It creates a menopause-specific accommodation route rather than requiring the employee first to prove an ADA disability.

Two near-misses show why current text and status matter:

• Virginia: SB 258was vetoed. Virginia’s insurance bill became law; its workplace bill did not.
• Illinois: HB 5284had passed both chambers and was sent to the Governor by the cutoff. Senate Floor Amendment No. 4 removed the introduced bill’s standalone menopause-discrimination category and standalone accommodation violation. The final passed text instead revised insurance provisions and pregnancy-accommodation notice language. It was not law at the cutoff.

Government activity outside the 10-state count is preserved rather than hidden. The separate layer includes bills awaiting a governor, failed or vetoed bills, executive orders, resolutions, a local ordinance, and enacted hormone-therapy statutes that do not expressly name menopause.

Washington is the cleanest example of why the separate layer exists. It had an explicit menopause-focused executive order and an enacted hormone-therapy statute that may reach menopause care in practice. The executive order is not a statute, and the statute does not expressly name menopause. Calling Washington a qualifying state would break the rule; saying nothing happened would erase relevant government action.

Delaware and the three Illinois bills were the most time-sensitive classifications at the cutoff. A later signature, veto, or automatic enactment requires a new dataset version rather than a silent edit to the 2026-07-31 release.

This audit did not identify a federal statute in effect by July 31, 2026 that creates a general nationwide menopause-specific workplace-accommodation or insurance mandate. Generally applicable federal laws may matter in an individual case, but they do not turn into menopause-specific statutes merely because menopause is involved.

• ADA:Menopause is not automatically a disability. A related impairment may qualify when it meets the ADA’s individualized definition, and reasonable-accommodation questions are case specific. See the EEOC’s accommodation guidance.
• FMLA: Leave is not automatic. An eligible employee may qualify when the condition and treatment meet the serious-health-condition rules and the employee and employer satisfy the other requirements. See the Department of Labor’s FMLA guidance and its menstruation and menopause at work report.
• State insurance mandates and ERISA: Private-employer self-funded plans are generally exempt from state mandated-benefit laws, as KFF’s survey documentation explains.

On February 12, 2026, the FDA announced approval of labeling changes for six menopausal hormone-therapy products. The changes removed boxed-warning statements about cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, and probable dementia from the affected labeling. The FDA did not remove the endometrial-cancer boxed warning from systemic estrogen-alone products where that warning remains applicable.

That is a labeling action, not a coverage mandate. It changes approved labeling; it does not require a health plan to pay for a product.

Seven of the ten qualifying states first entered this strict count in 2025 or 2026: Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Virginia. Several enacted duties were not yet operational at the cutoff, and several passed bills were still awaiting final action.

The dates change the practical answer:

• Connecticut’s toolkit section takes effect October 1, 2026, and the toolkit is due June 1, 2028.
• Maryland’s insurance provisions begin January 1, 2027.
• Virginia’s coverage provisions begin January 1, 2027.
• New Jersey’s special P.L.1992, c.161 policy category begins January 1, 2027.
• California’s plan-information program and specified utilization-review rules begin in 2027.
• Delaware SS 1 for SB 319 and Illinois HB 5284, SB 3325, and SB 3688 were not law at the cutoff but could change status after it.

A map without dates cannot answer whether a provision is in force. A count without instrument type cannot distinguish a law from a resolution. A coverage headline without plan scope cannot tell a reader whether the mandate reaches the plan in front of them.

The HRT Index Research searched official state legislative, public-law, code, governor, and agency sources for statutes whose operative text expressly uses menopause-related terms. Secondary trackers were used only to discover candidates. Every positive classification was checked against an official state source.

Which of the 50 states had enacted a statewide statute whose operative text expressly named menopause, perimenopause, postmenopause, menopausal symptoms, or a menopause-related condition by July 31, 2026?

1. Enrolled or chaptered law text.
2. Codified state statute.
3. Official legislative bill-status page.
4. Official governor signing or veto record.
5. Official state agency implementation material.
6. Secondary sources for candidate discovery only.

Where an official summary and operative text differ, the enacted text controls.

The headline unit is the state, not the bill. Multiple measures in one state count once. Companion bills count as one policy package but remain separate bill instruments in the measure-level file.

The downloadable state file contains every field used to calculate the headline:

Filter: Qualifying statewide statute? = Yes
Expected result: 10 rows

Count Package count flag = Yes
Expected result: 15 policy packages

Sum Instrument count
Expected result: 17 chaptered bill instruments

Research cutoff: July 31, 2026
Last full 50-state verification: July 31, 2026
Dataset version: 2026-07-31

This dataset classifies menopause-specific statewide statutes. It does not decide whether a law applies to a particular person, employer, treatment, or health plan, and it does not claim that a state marked “No” offers no relevant protection.

The table does not determine:

• Whether a particular employer is covered.
• Whether a requested workplace accommodation is reasonable.
• Whether an impairment qualifies under the ADA.
• Whether an employee and employer meet FMLA requirements.
• Whether a health plan is fully insured, private self-funded, or public self-funded.
• Whether a treatment is medically necessary.
• Whether an exclusion or grandfathering rule applies.
• Whether a private right of action exists.
• Whether a regulation, court decision, local ordinance, or later enactment changes the result.

The 67% KFF figure is national and applies to covered workers, not women specifically and not each state. The Maryland reach figures come from Maryland’s official fiscal note and should not be projected onto other states.

“No qualifying statewide statute located” is a documented result under a published rule. It is not proof that no obscure regulation, agency manual, court ruling, or generally applicable law exists.

The complete 50-state dataset, measure-level file, pending-action file, claim ledger, methodology, and source log are available in open formats. No email address, account, or form is required.