Menstruation Policy

I think we all need to consider those who struggle with menstruation, including dysmenorrhea which can also be endometriosis or uterine fibroids. A menstruation policy would help employees to speak out about their situation, and not feel guilty taking a sick days due to reoccurring pain every month, and in fact provide useful information and support on how best to go about this in the workplace.

I think we all need to consider those who struggle with menstruation, including dysmenorrhea which can also be endometriosis or uterine fibroids. A menstruation policy would help employees to speak out about their situation, and not feel guilty taking a sick days due to reoccurring pain every month, and in fact provide useful information and support on how best to go about this in the workplace.

A very good point. I guess my thinking would be that work to increase awareness in the workplace is they key to making people feel more able to talk about period-related concerns. Putting it down on paper in a policy might be part of that overall plan, but a policy alone doesn’t achieve an huge amount by itself.

I agree that there needs to be wider awareness of all sorts of conditions and reduce any stigma or embarrassment, especially about regular occurrences (we all know reactions to, say, absence for a day every month from managers and peers!) People with IBS, Chrohn's etc will experience similar symptoms on a regularly occurring basis but we wouldn't necessarily have separate policies for them. Awareness of how we help people feel safe to talk about any condition or phase of life (since neither menstruation nor menopause is an illness or condition in itself though they may produce some uncomfortable or downright excruciating effects on a frequent basis) and know how to look after themselves and seek support feels more appropriate than a myriad of policies. And I have experienced the downright excruciating elements of both phases of life so I'm not trying to scoff or downplay the genuinely awfulness that some/many experience.

The counterpoint is that headlining policies about women's health has been shown to have a detrimental effect on the hiring decisions of male and female managers who - consciously or unconsciously - perceive greater risk and a greater bureaucratic burden in making job offers to women.

The same impact can been in promotion decisions - that where consciousness of women's health is headlined, women are overlooked more readily for promotion.

How much of that detrimental effect would you say is due to the relative lack of women in leadership positions?

And/or is it that women in leadership role who are making hiring and promotion decisions are kicking the ladder away from beneath them...?

My impressions are purely anecdotal on this question, but it's been my experience that male business leaders seem more keen to implement policies of this nature than their female counterparts. I don't think there's particularly anything sinister behind it, so much as it is men looking for a "safe" guide on how to manage things they don't understand and don't want to have to look at too closely.