Women offered time off from work for cramps

Women, hands up if you've had to skip work because your period pain was so bad you couldn't leave the house?

Menstrual pain is something half the world can suffer. Those women who don't get it are lucky.

CNN has reported that just this Sunday Anhui province introduced new regulations allowing female workers who suffer severe menstrual pain to take one to two days off every month, after presenting a doctor's certificate.

This is something already afforded to women in Shanxi and Hubei provinces, while Guandong has been looking into creating regulations as well.

Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan also have laws guaranteeing women days off during their periods.

While Asian countries are understanding of what women go through on a monthly basis, it's not only Asian women who suffer debilitating period pain. Research suggests that globally, one in 10 women suffer from menstrual cramps so bad they can interfere with their daily activities.

But as Quartz reports, there's little research on period pain.

John Guillebaud, professor of reproductive health at University College London, told Quartz the cramping can be as “bad as having a heart attack.”

The specifics of why some people suffer more than others is not well understood, experts say, and despite the number of women who suffer from severe cramps, existing treatments are limited, including dulling the symptoms by taking painkillers or using the pill as contraception, which tends to reduce the flow of the period.

So, while those women in Asia are given time off to suffer through the pain, actually finding a cure for it is still a way away.

Regardless, there have been other calls around the world for leaders to recognise the plight of menstruating women and take a leaf from China's book. Whether they are listened to remains to be seen.

Women offered time off from work for cramps

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