Do you think that we should get menstrual leave?

[Sarahpaula]

I have had such a terrible period this month. I was in so much pain. I feel so weak and tired. I know that many women feel like this. Do you think we should have an entitlement to menstrual leave from work?

Some countries already have menstrual leave in place. Mainly in Asia, from what I can see.

Here is an article:

in Taiwan, menstrual leave legislation was amended as recently as 2013. It guarantees women three days of menstrual leave a year on top of the 30 days half-paid sick leave given to all workers.
The extra three days came after a coalition of politicians claimed that incorporating menstrual leave into regular sick leave would be a violation of women’s rights. Indonesian women, too, are allowed two days a month menstrual leave and South Korean workers AND students are entitled to take days off when they’ve got their period as sick leave.

Attitudes like this just help companies to discriminate against women. Like women aren't already facing enough discrimination. Also, what exacy is 3 days a year going to accomplish? Now let's talk about Menstrual Synchronization. The more time women spend together there is a higher chance of synchronization. Now how are companies going to handle that. Several women want menstrual leave at the same time

I have horrible periods and bad reactions to birth control. The problem I have is if women were allowed time off for periods they would become less employable.

There needs to be way more research into period problems, they’re not taken seriously enough and the cures can be as bad as the curses.

It’s a nice idea but I don’t know how it would work in real life, cancelling meetings and things because you needed a menstrual day I don’t think would help women in the workplace, especially male dominated professions.
It would be amazing for me if it was, it’s just the 1 hour for me when my period first arrives, if I take it easy and take tablets quickly I’m ok. If not then I feel faint and I’m sick which wipes me out for the day.

I don't see why inequality for men/women who don't have periods should be an issue. Women get maternity leave because it's acknowledgement of our anatomy that we carry babies, and you get illness discounted at work in acknowledgement that pregnancy can effect woman.

The problem is that the temptation would just be far too great for countless women who are lucky enough to have no need for it, but can’t resist claiming three bonus days off every month that are there for the taking in return for a quick lie that can’t be verified or disproven. Not just women: men would be exactly the same, given the chance, but they obviously wouldn’t be able to blag it! This would have the result of poisoning the well for the women who DO suffer and genuinely need the time off, and we’d just end up with something even nastier than the Bradford Scale, with women automatically falling under suspicion of lying where men simply won’t.

The Bradord Scale is a vile piece of work, and it discriminates against lots of different medical problems, issues and conditions which aren’t kind enough to happen in one big single block to normally-problem-free people and then never return. The BS (appropriate abbreviation) is supposedly designed to eliminate liars throwing sickies, but it actually has the exact opposite effect, meaning that those who are fortunate not to actually get sick can game it to score some good free blocks of holiday whereas those with regular migraines, severe period pain, asthma attacks, neurological flare-ups etc. etc. simply don’t have that luxury and end up being forced to go in to work when they really shouldn’t have to – maybe having to cover extra work for their lucky well colleagues who fancied a nice break courtesy of the BS formula.

Most of these countries you have mentioned which already have menstrual leave are not normally those most closely associated with women's rights.

Yes, I wonder what the whole picture is. Do the women have equal employment rights in the first place, or is the menstrual leave just a patronising sop handed out to the lowly, insignificant, unimportant female workers, in contrast to the male workers who get all of the Big Important Jobs That Actually Matter – as if they were tiny children needing to be allowed regular nap times or something

The idea that you just go to your GP and gynaecological issues are investigated just 😂😂😂 unfortunately I was diagnosed 25 years later after I first presented at a GP with severe pain. Unfortunately for me the endo was very progressed and in over ten locations and my insides are damaged as a result and I don’t think I will ever be pain free. Even now when I have a tiny spot of blood (on the pill) I have to take very strong painkillers and feel so ill. I have been bed bound for weeks at a time before my operation.
Honestly it pains me how little understanding is given to this condition

Oh goodness no - cringe - way to put back women’s rights. And just get the fuck off to a doctor

How many people regularly use all their sick leave? Surely jn extreme circumstances you could call in sick?

(NOT addressed to the poster immediately above)

The Japanese law, whilst providing for limited menstrual leave, does not require the employer to pay the employee

@Sally872 I get no sick pay at all. Sure I'm not the only woman in this situation.

I can see articles online saying that in 2017 , Italy was planning to be the first country in Europe to have menstrual leave. That it was proposing a bill to pass in Government to let women take three days of menstrual leave per month.

I can't see online anywhere if the bill was passed or not
Does anyone see it?

Nope, not passed

No European country has such a law

@PatriciaPerch Thank you. Much appreciated and very noble. I am sorry if you have suffered unnecessarily. I really do believe women need to link arms and force their agenda for high quality clinical care for womens' issues. Too often we make excuses.

Opera singers in the 19th century had menstrual leave (IIRC)

And women fasting during Ramadan don’t do so during Ramadan (or pregnancy or breast feeding)

I am so tired of reading women blasting the idea of menstrual leave. I have seen women working their day at work through nausea, prescription painkillers and still doubled up in unexpected pain.
I can bet both of my ovaries that menstrual leave would come into effect the month men start having periods.

Opera singers in the 19th century had menstrual leave (IIRC)

To be fair, though, their roles were hardly at risk of being taken by men except maybe the castrati.

One more thing I used to be sick of hearing at one of my old workplaces: you can’t work from home with kids when they are ill. Apparently, they are keen on hiring women with kids now as they pandemic has proven how capable us humans are’! Boils my blood every time I think of these things.

The problem is that the temptation would just be far too great for countless women who are lucky enough to have no need for it, but can’t resist claiming three bonus days off every month that are there for the taking in return for a quick lie that can’t be verified or disproven.

To be honest I would probably feel like doing this if other people were having an extra 2 days off every 3 or 4 weeks, especially because you know some people (probably the same ones that call in sick over every little thing) would stay off with periods that many others would not consider debilitating.

I can bet both of my ovaries that menstrual leave would come into effect the month men start having periods.

But as a PP has said, it's the fact that men don't have to contend with periods, pregnancy, menopause, breastfeeding, accusations of being 'hysterical' etc. that has played a huge part in their being able to rule the world in the first place.

If all of the billionaires in the world suddenly lost all of their money and assets overnight, they wouldn't be in a privileged position any more to be able to make rules protecting the poor (or at least the kind of poor whom they can see in the mirror) - they'd just get silenced and shoved along to the food banks and UC claims offices along with those who've always been forced there.

If an idea like this comes into action, it might even push the NHS and GPs to develop a more coherent system for diagnosis.

@lookatallthosechickens

Companies are required to make reasonable accommodations for disabilities (different than sick leave- things like equipment, seating, working patterns, etc. I had a male colleague who worked from home every few months for a week or so at a time because of his back issues. Another female colleague with fibromyalgia who occasionally had to work from home because she was ok to work in a chair at her computer but not up to commuting on public transport. Everyone grumbled (especially about the female colleague of course) but the accommodations were made because it’s the law. Uncontrolled vaginal bleeding requiring multiple changes of medical dressings every hour as a chronic condition is a disability and should be treated as such rather than as an acute illness.

“Medical dressings”? Trying to make it sound ever so dramatic? It’s a period. Not an injury. The same period women since the year dot have had, and got on with. A period should not mean putting life on hold, being bed-bound for 24-48 hours at a time, unable to function.

Some of us just get on with it, pain, “gushing”, etc etc etc aside. Others need their brows mopped and a pat on the back for being a woman. It’s exhausting.

But as a PP has said, it's the fact that men don't have to contend with periods, pregnancy, menopause, breastfeeding, accusations of being 'hysterical' etc. that has played a huge part in their being able to rule the world in the first place.
It’s not the same world though, is it? Journey of a thousand miles and all that...

Some of us just get on with it, pain, “gushing”, etc etc etc aside. Others need their brows mopped and a pat on the back for being a woman. It’s exhausting.
Really? How brave of you! Perhaps you haven’t ever had the periods this poster is talking about? Or may be you just don’t know what it means to have to take prescription pain killers to feel ‘normal’. Pain killers that have hideous side effects, some of which are enough to put you into bed on their own.
It’s cool to have normal periods, periods that can be managed with over the counter pain killers perhaps. But you are coming from a place of previledge and I hope you realise it.