Should Paid 'Menstrual Leave' Be a Thing?

[haele]

7. Depends. Maybe if there's a doctor's note?

Every woman has a different experience at different times in their lives; while one woman can have an "uncomfortable" period that downing half a glass of cranberry juice every four hours can take care of, another woman might be bedridden with crippling cramps, nausea, and migraines for the 8 to 24 hours while it might be at peak flow no matter what OTC meds she might be taking.
Some women can control their period through exercise, diet, or birth control while others can't - and more than a few women are driven to accept "religious" moral controls over the comfort of their bodies and the ability to function every possible day they may otherwise need to.
If you don't experience the crippling periods, or know someone who is unable to hold a regular job due to a physical incapacity that is frankly considered a crude offhand joke in society, then it's easy to think this is a stupid little regulation for the benefit of crybaby wimminfolk or chicks who "just need to quit whining and man up".
I heard that from a new female manager tell a woman working on the cable floor who fainted about five minutes later from the pain. She was asking for an hour off the clock to lay down quietly on the couch in the women's room until her cramps passed and she could get back to work.
I suppose it was partly my fault (as the other female manager) and that of the other male managers who would just give in whenever "women's health issues" were mentioned; the woman was a good worker, but she suffered terribly one out of every 28 days. Whenever she worked on my crew, I'd let her take one or two extended breaks off the clock so she wouldn't have to take all her sick days off but she's still be able to work at least a partial day that day. I'd do the same for any person on my crew that suffered from migraines or allergies.

The other manager thought we were all being too soft because she took care of her periods by using birth control, and they weren't that bad anyway. She couldn't imagine why another woman wouldn't just do the same thing if they wanted to work.

Haele