Spain approves bill to become first country in Europe to offer menstrual leave. Draft new legislation – leaked to Spanish media outlets – proposes giving workers who suffer from severe period pain three days of optional medical leave a month, with two additional days permitted in exceptional cases.
The Spanish policy was proposed for workers who suffer debilitating pain during the periods, rather than those who only have slight discomfort. The Spanish Gynaecology and Obstetrics Society states about one-third of those who menstruate experience dysmenorrhea—extreme cramping that occurs before or during a period. Dysmenorrhea symptoms range from headaches and diarrhea to a fever and stomach pain.
I don’t understand. If you feel sick because of your period, shouldn’t you just get sick leave? If I have a head ache should I get head ache leave?
That would mean getting sick leave every month with an associated visit to the doctor whereas I’m guessing this is more of a permanent situation where a doctor only need to sign off on it once
The problem is that you often need an attest from the doctor to show that you are sick. (in Belgium it’s finally no longer necessary for one day leave). You can’t expect women to bother the doctors every time they have their period. Hence, some special leave/structure for such occasions would be my guess.
Well. Imagine getting sick leave every month for years. This can go either unnoticed or cause problems with sick leave monitoring which happens in all companies and its part of the performance evaluation. When it is legislated it won’t be treated as sick leave
When it’s several days every single month, that accumulates fast and the company starts to ask questions in my experience. one company took it seriously and let me work from home on those days but others I had to leave because of this.
When the problem cannot be solved medically, we think it is very sensible that there should be temporary incapacity associated with this issue
It is important to clarify what a painful period is, we are not talking about a slight discomfort, but about serious symptoms such as diarrhoea, severe headaches, fever
Should be done everywhere.
This is good news for menstruating persons of all genders regardless of genitalia.
I can definitely see a lot of women needing and appreciating that. My girlfriend gets some pretty bad ones every so often, she’s passed out on occasion because of it. If it helps women be more comfortable and safe when mother nature decides to flip them off, I’m all for it.