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.

How did management/HR talk about it? Was it in your contract?

They didn’t talk about it specifically, but it was in my contract because of the relevant labour laws.

Big issue in Asia is that women aren’t really taken seriously in the workplace, guarantee if you were to take it regularly, you’d be fired or at the very least, stuck in a low-level position.

The most we’d ever talk about it is just joking around about it when out drinking much too late, like, we should call in sick with our period leave!!

I wouldn't need it, but I'd be perfectly happy for my days to be given to someone else if she needed to be off. I'd like to see some regulation, though, otherwise I can imagine people would take the piss.

Even if it was an entitlement to a couple of days off at no notice per month (to be taken unpaid or as annual leave), that would be an improvement on having to use sick leave every month.

@OlympicProcrastinator

Oh god no. Men hate us enough already. I’ve read so many comments online from men who claim they’d never hire us because we are whiney, bitchy, incompetent, will get pregnant and cost them money etc etc. It’s yet another stick to beat us with.

I never realised how many men hated us and what stereotypes they held until the Internet.

So we shouldn't do things because men will hate us more? Men will hate us regardless. This is why women should band together and not refrain from doing things because men will hate us - I think if women actually stood together instead of putting each other down then we'd have a decent chance against the men who hate us for being women, it's not the 1800s anymore.

What annoyed me about a woman telling me to go to doctor on here, is that it dismisses the idea that periods can be painful by themselves. It diminshes people's pain and experiences. That if you are having pain, it is your fault, or why are you not goig to the doctor to sort it out.

Periods can be painful and there is NOTHING wrong.

We all know this, but I will just summarise from this article:

"During your menstrual period, your uterus contracts to help expel its lining. Hormonelike substances (prostaglandins) involved in pain and inflammation trigger the uterine muscle contractions".

Periods can be painful.

The same way that childbirth is painful, and there is nothing wrong with the woman, it is a natural process. But it is very painful.

men who claim they’d never hire us because we are whiney, bitchy, incompetent

Workplaces would improve a lot, if they stopped employing men who are whiny, bitchy and incompetent, because there are plenty of those around.

I wouldn't agree with specific leave for woman but think that some flexibility around leave should be built in for all employees ie force majuere but less stringent.
I think "period" leave would just act as an another deterrent to woman in the workplace and I fear it would be abused by woman who would take it as a given. I see that in my work place where some colleagues take the max amount of paid sick leave every year and not a day more like it's a target they have to reach. Same people every year leaving the rest of us to pick up the slack.

Big issue in Asia is that women aren’t really taken seriously in the workplace, guarantee if you were to take it regularly, you’d be fired or at the very least, stuck in a low-level position.

Asia's a big place and, tbf, you may be speaking from experience of a different country to me. However, I spent some years working in India and did not find this to be true at all. In fact, I was genuinely surprised by how much more understanding employers were of women and how much more generous maternity leave and the return to work was than in the UK. An equal balance of male/female in senior positions and I never noticed any of them (us) not being taken seriously.

Granted, this was a professonal setting in companies that were competing for professional skills so is almost certainly not the experience in other industries etc - but they were light years ahead of us in term of female equality in the workplace.

@Aridane

Oh a cop out answer

Can see no one here dismissing or belittling other medical conditions or disabilities, just the comments that women should ‘see their GP’ if they are suffering from periods as if no one would have already thought of doing so

@Spaghett that is not true.

Perfectly normal periods can cause extreme and disabling pain for women.

A recent doctor said that period pains can be nearly as painful as heart attack pains

Wow! The number of women who don't want life to be easier for women is mind boggling....the one who doesn't think sanitary products should be free....ffs

No way should we get menstrual leave, it would be just yet another excuse not to employ women.
Although our most recent male recruit seems to use every excuse in the book of excuses not to come in including his wife's period was so bad she couldn't look after their baby!!
Everyone's sick to the back teeth of him now.

Perfectly normal periods can cause extreme and disabling pain for women.

That really isn’t normal. That level of pain should be reviewed for underlying causes.

The belief that normal periods can be that painful is largely why doctors send women away for an average of 7.5 years before diagnosing conditions like endometriosis.

@jcurve can normal childbirth be extremely painful?

Should we not believe women who say that every single childbirth is extremely painful?

People are saying normal periods aren't extremely painful.

But then if so many women suffer from additonal aspects to normal periods, such as fibroids, growths, endometriosis. That many women are likely to suffer with something affecting their periods

Isn't that a new "normal"?

Op the point people are making is that if it is causing extreme and disabling pain it is not within the corridors of normal.

And periods are not like childbirth. Unless medical intervention every single child birth is painful.

@Sarahpaula all of those conditions can be treated and alleviated. There is no reason to put up with the pain and thus normalise it.

I have PCOS and have had some really hideous periods, so I'm going to say yes this would be helpful. It would need a lot of working through logistically.

@jcurve but doctors often say that nothing is wrong with women when they go to them - which makes me confused.

Are painful periods normal.

Or are many of us suffering from underlying extra conditions, and the healthcare system is bad.

@Spaghett thanks for that, and I do appreciate your medical knowledge and input.

Having said that, I am still in bad pain for the fifth day, and painkillers have not helped it.
And you can see the stories of the many women on here suffering from very bad pain.