By Janine Dumaguin
No, your eyes are not cheating you, it’s not a grammar mistake, it’s really mens. Short for menstruation.
Women’s ability to better manage their period symptoms with the help of a “menstrual leave” can benefit both their physical and mental wellbeing.
For a 25 year old employee who experiences severe menstruation pain, the first day of her period always consumes almost all her time, so she tends to file a leave of absence from work.
She reminisced about the times she forced herself to go to work when she had her first day of period, but ended up spending hours in restrooms and going home crying due to the unbearable pain.
Unfortunately, she is not alone in this battle as millions of womens in the workforce experience this kind of agony.
Varying levels of discomfort and pain during the menstrual cycle is what women endure every month. Yet, it is often worse in the workplace as women tend to ignore it due to pressure to outperform in a fast-paced economy.
‘I needed to work’
For these women, a menstrual leave might represent relief, but if it holds them back professionally and unproductive they might push through the pain and will still keep working.
Angelika Kate Villarosa, a 25 year old employee in the media, suffers from excessive bleeding that almost led her to be hospitalized, yet she decided to only take medicines.
“After noon, kinabukasan sobrang sakit pa rin, pumupunta pa rin ako sa likod pero ayoko na kasing umabsent. Alam mo ‘yung wala na akong nagawa noong last time tapos kinabukasan a-absent pa ako,” Villarosa said.
Often, women did not want or need an ambulance —- what they needed was simply to go home and lie down. Afterwards, they will still push themselves to work as if nothing happened.
As we are not giving so much attention to women’s physiological needs such as during their menstruation—working while suffering from painful periods is just the norm for most of them.
Hence, a paid “menstrual leave” law doesn’t want that to stay as a norm thus addressing the reproductive rights of every woman.
It also enables women to leave work without worrying about the negative consequences such as losing pay or falling behind in work.
As women, likewise Jan Marini Negado, an admin employee, would rather go to work despite being in pain than have their wages deducted due to absences.
“Kailangan ko pa rin pumasok, kailangan ko tiisin ang sakit,” Negado said.
Aside from this, women employees have to battle physical and mental challenges, which can affect their ability to accomplish their job tasks during their period. Invalidation of these health conditions of vulnerable women can lead to much worse consequences.
Embracing pain is a sign of strength
For Katrina Gracia Consebido, she believes that ignoring the pain does not mean strength and “hindi lang dahil nagkaroon ka and then pumapasok ka [at] bumabangon ka ay strong ka na.”
She explained that being able to feel the pain and address it does not define weakness.
“Maraming instances, maraming pagkakataon, at maraming aspeto na pwedeng mong tingnan ang babae na malakas siya,” Consebido added.
They say, fear women for they bleed every month without dying, and as for Villarosa, having menstruation is a symbol of our strength as we endure such pain every month.
“Ang menstruation nga ay isang sign na mas malakas tayo talaga. Kasi meron tayong ganon and every month at nararanasan natin ‘yung ganon pain,” Villarosa said.
Meanwhile, for Kaye she thinks having these policies must not be compared to the weakness of one person, especially women.
“Hindi naman siya dapat mag-matter or i-compare kung gaano kalakas ‘yung babae dahil lang nagkaroon sila ng menstruation or nagkakaroon sila ng dysmenorrhea every time na nagkakaroon, ay mahina na sila,” Kaye said.
Countries embracing this policy
Paid “menstrual leave” exists in still very few countries around the globe. Such policies, in varying scale, exist in countries such as Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, Zambia, and Spain who just recently implemented this kind of policy.
Out of 195 countries worldwide, this small number of countries proved that they heard the voices of women in the demand for reproductive rights. This policy is almost non-existent to women in other countries. – gb