**Period leave should be an option for people working on their periods.** * Period leave could be very helpful for those who experience painful periods. [Period symptoms](https://www.healthline.com/health/womens-health/period-signs#bloating) can range from abdominal cramps, bloating, digestive issues, and tender breasts to heavy bleeding, vomiting, migraines, depression, and fainting. Periods can be extremely uncomfortable and affect how well someone works. * Optional period leave would allow one to decide if they need the time off or not without fear of retribution or judgement. If one doesn’t need the time off, then they don’t need to take it. * Women who are on birth control may experience less periods or no periods at all, which is another reason to make period leave optional. * Period leave could include time off work or working from home if one is able. There would need to be some sort of regulation around it, sure, but the idea is overall positive and would help de-stigmatize periods.

It should be an option not only for the sake of the woman who is having to suffer through her period, but also for the people who have to work with her and bear her ill mood, snapping, and poor work quality because she feels like such crap she can't concentrate. Anything that's detrimental to the overall well-being of the work environment needs to be avoided. Just like no one wants a sick person to come into work and spread their illness, no one wants a woman to come to work on her period and spread chaos and destruction.

**People who experience severe period pain shouldn't have to fight extra battles...** - There is still a damaging taboo around menstruation that needs to be addressed in the workplace. Studies suggest that [most women who suffer from period pain find that it has affected their ability work](https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2017/07/31/most-women-workers-have-found-it-harder-work-due-p), yet only 27% have ever said this to their employer. A massive [20% of women](https://www.aafp.org/afp/2012/0215/p386.html) experience severe menstrual cramps or 'dysmenorrhea'. This policy would help to destroy the taboo around periods and allow women to rest when they need to. - The current culture where women have to push through is sexist. Women should not have to fight more battles and be ‘tougher’ than men in order to ‘make it’ in the corporate world, or in any workplace. Fighting through extra pain is a point of pride for many women, but it shouldn’t be this way. - The common objections to this proposal, predictions that period leave [could make women seem ‘weaker’ or put employers off hiring women](https://www.healthcentral.com/article/paid-period-menstrual-cycle-work-leave), are not reasons to abandon this idea. The fact that we are aware of potential increased bias means that we should set up extra measures to counteract this (e.g. quotas that ensure women have equal opportunity) rather than opposing the change. Implementing period leave would be a step towards inclusivity in the workplace and towards removing taboos around menstruation in society at large.

**I support period leave but worry that the patriarchy runs too deep for women to be unscathed after its implementation.** I myself spend a few days a month in extreme agony due to my period. I admit to having to call into school and work sick because of my period pains and am therefore one of many women who would love to have and would extremely benefit from period leave. My worry is that period leave would lead to a resentment of female workers. In some Asian countries, including Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea and certain Chinese provinces, [women are allowed to stay home for a designated part of their monthly periods](https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20170908-can-period-leave-ever-work). Few take advantage of it, though, many citing fear of sexual harassment or perceptions of weakness. And when the Italian parliament considered introducing national period leave in March, many wondered whether eligibility for three paid days a month off [risked discouraging employers from hiring women in the first place](https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20170908-can-period-leave-ever-work). In a perfect, and non-patriarchal, society, *yes*, women should get period leave. But realistically, I worry that it would just be another setback for women in the fight for employment equity and respect, as awful and backwards as that is.