By Vanessa Chalmers Health Reporter For Mailonline
Published: 23:30 BST, 27 June 2019 | Updated: 23:30 BST, 27 June 2019
View
comments
Painful periods cost women around nine days of lost productivity each year, a study has calculated.
Scientists say women are coming into school or work even though they are unwell - a term known as 'presenteeism'- and therefore under-performing.
The landmark study is the first of its kind, addressing a subject which scientists said remains a taboo.
More than eight in ten women reported working or studying while suffering with pain or a mood disorder - and said they were less productive because of it.
Painful periods cost women nine days of lost productivity at work every year, a study in the Netherlands has found. Stock photo
The findings, published in the British Medical Journal, also found crippling symptoms force women to take sick leave one day a year.
Researchers in the Netherlands quizzed almost 33,000 women aged between 15 and 45.
The participants were asked to reveal the details of their menstrual cycle and the severity of their symptoms. The average period lasted five days.
Menstrual symptoms prompted nearly a third of the women to visit their family doctor, and around one in seven to see a gynaecologist.
Overall, women went into work when they were unwell an average of 23 days out of the working or study year at school.
Based on their symptoms affecting a third of the duration of their day, researchers calculated that this amounted to almost nine days of lost productivity each year.
Sometimes the symptoms were so intense women needed to take time off work or school, with one in seven doing so. Nearly 3.5 per cent said this happened almost every menstrual cycle.
Periods can be so painful they are distracting. They are painful because the muscles of the womb are contracting to encourage the lining to shed.
This compresses the blood vessels in the lining of the womb, which temporarily cut off the blood supply – and hence oxygen supply – to your womb. Without oxygen, the tissues in your womb release chemicals that trigger pain.
Aside from the bleed phases, there are three other phases of the cycle which each affect a women's mood.
These are the follicular phase and ovulation, the ovulatory phase and the luteal phase.
Many women experience symptoms in the week or two before their bleed starts,
