Your lower back starts to hurt like every month. You feel something tearing you up inside and all day long you suffer from pain in your belly. Your knees hurt, you feel crestfallen, sometimes in a bad mood, other times really wanting to cry. There are times when you feel nauseated, weak, have diarrhea, social isolation or insomnia. All of this comes from menstruation. Cramps, dysmenorrhea, endometriosis.
Those pains are incapacitating, even cause absenteeism at work, at school, however, they have become normalized. Asking for permission to miss work due to these menstrual pains, is it possible?
Can I ask permission to miss work due to menstrual pain?
You can ask for permissionhowever, is not stipulated in the Federal Labor Law that the company or the boss for whom you work is obliged to grant it to you. The so-called “menstrual leaves” are currently part of an initiative to prevent menstruation and the pain that results from it from becoming normal.
The symptoms that many women present are serious, however, they have been normalized to the point of not taking into account that they are pains similar to those registered in any other disease. Elva Vigildeputy for Morena, proposes to reform article 165 and add article 165 Bis to the Federal Labor Law, to establish that “Menstruating workers have the right to choose a day of rest with pay“.
On the other hand, representative Ana Laura Bernal also points out in another initiative that includes a paid work day’s leave for those who justify that due to the symptoms of their menstruation they cannot fulfill their work obligations.
Are the symptoms of menstruation very serious?
Among the symptoms that are experienced not only during the menstrual period but also in the premenstrual period, symptoms also occur:
- Abdominal cramps
- Back pain
- Joint or muscle pain
- Swollen and sore breasts
- Headache
- ​Fatigue
- Nausea
- Fainting
- Diarrhea
- Irritability
- Tension or anxiety
- Depressed mood
- Crying episodes
- Insomnia
- ​Social isolation
- ​Concentration problems
