Study finds menstrual cramps leads to loss of 9 days of productivity annually

No matter how much fun and frolic women in sanitary pads advertisements indulge in, the truth doesn’t change. Those five days in a month are far from fun. It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that women dread those days. A menstruation cycle often comes with a bunch of problems of its own. Think mood swings, loss in productivity and painful cramps. While some do a good job of ignoring it, others usually grab onto a few home remedies to relieve the pain. Sadly, not all women are at the receiving end of the same kind of pain. Some have it tougher than others. Some women experience cramps so painful that they need to take a painkiller to function.


While the corporate workforce is still on the fence about allowing leave to them female employees during menstruation, new research has emerged that might just put increase their pressure to come to a conclusion.
According to the research, the severity of cramps has a massive impact on women. The study that was published in the British Medical Journal, said that the pain caused by menstrual cramps is causing women to lose approximately nine days of productivity in a year.
32,748 women between the age of 15 to 45 years participated in the study. The participants were asked details about their menstrual cycle – length of the period, the severity of symptoms and if they have missed work due to period pain. The research then found that about 26000 of the respondents reported that they went to work even when they felt ill, which is known as presenteeism but had lower levels of productivity on that day. The research found that about 33 percent of the annual productivity is lost due to presenteeism, which came down to about 8.6 days in a year.
From the over 32000 women that were studied, about 4514 women also reported missing work due to period pain. Only about 3 percent of the participants said that they miss work during every or almost every period. This was reported more in women of 21 years of age or below. The study also found that only 5% of women who stayed home or took leaves due to period pain, actually told their employer or school the reason for their absence.
The study found that menstrual pain is causing a great loss of productivity among women, and presenteeism is, in fact, a more pressing issue than absenteeism.