Four senators published their report this Wednesday, June 28 on an issue relating to the health of women in the workplace. The possibility of setting up menstrual leave, following the Spanish model, for women suffering from painful menstruation, was studied. But the idea failed to obtain a consensus with senators Laurence Cohen (PCF), Annick Jacquemet (UDI), Marie-Pierre Richer (LR) and Laurence Rossignol (PS). Indeed, the first three “consider that the introduction of a broad system for “painful periods” is not justified if a disabling pathology is not associated with it”.
“In any case, for this type of pathologies, the answer is, according to them, a real therapeutic management rather than the establishment of a ‘leave'”, explains the report. Ms. Rossignol believes for her part “that this leave, within limits which would be defined by law, responds to a global issue of visibility of women at work and professional equality”.
Spain was the first European country to pass a law in February creating “menstrual leave for all women, in the form of sick leave granted by a doctor, fully funded by the state”, notes the report. The four rapporteurs, on the other hand, agreed on the fact of including endometriosis in the list of long-term conditions (ALD 30), which would make it possible to eliminate the waiting period linked to sick leave, and therefore the financial losses which resulting.
Endometriosis is a chronic female disease that affects between 1.5 and 2.5 million women in France, and which results in painful periods, but also sometimes digestive, urinary, lumbar heaviness in the legs… According to Alice Romerio, author of a study cited by the senators on the consequences of this disease on professional life, “endometriosis significantly affects the daily work and professional career of women who are affected”.
This proposal is one of the 23 recommendations issued by this report around three axes: adopting a gendered approach to health at work, developing and adapting prevention for women, better taking into account sexual and reproductive health at work. “Public policies for the prevention and compensation of occupational risks were first designed for male workers and the risks associated with male occupations”, underlines the summary of the report. And if “men are more exposed to visible and life-threatening dangers”, women “are mainly exposed to invisible and silent risks, linked to physical and psychological wear and tear”.