To whom it may concern,

I am writing this letter as a woman with a monthly period. My period comes with incredible pain from the cramps happening inside my uterus. If you didn’t know, while our periods are happening the lining of our uterus (so inside skin) is shedding off of us which can be painful. The pain can also come from large clots of blood and/or side effects from birth control or medicine to control the pain. I am explaining all of this because this pain can be so debilitating that it's hard to get through a workday.

In my personal experiences, the pain has been so bad that I haven’t been able to walk or get out of bed. It’s cruel to ignore how a human being is processing and feeling this pain just so they do not have to call out of work. I believe that any employer should not only have sympathy but empathy for their employees enough to consider what they put themselves through while on their periods. I believe these employers would show that empathy for someone with cancer, a broken leg, diabetes etc. 

People who get periods have to deal with this one week out of every single month. 12 weeks a year, we are burdened with having to deal with period pain and work duties. It can be incredibly overwhelming and discouraging. 

I urge employers to please consider menstrual days off for your employees. Please consider offering each of your employees three days off with pay for menstrual weeks. It’s incredibly hard to focus when you're in pain, it’s incredibly hard to get much of anything done when you're suffering. 

Please think of the people in your life who are struggling because they aren’t given the proper resources to physically, mentally, emotionally care for themselves. We must make it a duty to care for one another and be humane in this world.