Menstrual leave, a lesson from the Iberian Peninsula: Portugal also stands by women. And what is Italy doing?

Menstruation isn't a whim, and pain isn't a taboo to be silenced between a day at the office and hours in a classroom. Portugal has understood this. And it has passed a law recognizing the menstrual cycle as a condition worthy of care and protection. With a concrete measure: three days of leave per month with no impact on salary or academic progress.

In Europe, the only other country with legislation on the matter is Spain . Starting in February 2023, the "trans law," in addition to guaranteeing gender self-determination for all over-16s, provides for menstrual leave , with a medical certificate. Portugal, unlike its neighbors, has introduced other cutting-edge measures and safeguards: it will no longer be necessary to have a medical prescription every month, as is the case in Spain. A clinical diagnosis certifying it once and for all will suffice. The law mentions, and most importantly, recognizes, both endometriosis and adenomyosis as chronic conditions: conditions that, in Italy, struggle to be classified as such. Furthermore, the Portuguese government is committed to reimbursing medications and treatments and ensuring access to them for all. It's a clear principle: the menstrual cycle is a condition to be recognized and treated through public spending.

Menstrual cramps can be disabling

Japan, in 1947, was the first to adopt legislation on the matter. And, as strange as it may seem to us Westerners, it is precisely the Eastern Hemisphere that is leading us in this direction. Along with Japan, there are Indonesia , Taiwan (where the maximum is three days per year, paid at 50%), South Korea (one day of unpaid leave per month), and Zambia (one day per month without notice or certificate). In short, a somewhat paradoxical situation. In a world where the right to menstrual leave has found its way even—and especially—outside Europe, Italy's absence is conspicuous , as it remains without national legislation on this front.

Hope for our country is sparked by a few examples—few, but no less significant—of individual situations. Like a high school in Potenza , which starting in September will guarantee female students up to two days a month for menstrual cramps. But if, as a WeWorld -Ipsos survey on menstrual poverty (the first in Italy) states, more than three in ten women reported suffering from it and losing nearly six working days a year because of it, it's clear that self-regulation and a few fortunate examples aren't enough.

The point is that in Italy, between the initiative of a high school and the pain of those who suffer, a systemic vision is still lacking . Indeed, the signs are pointing in the opposite direction: the continued rebound in VAT on sanitary products—which returned to 10% in 2024, compared to 4% in Spain and 6% in Portugal—is silent evidence of structural inequality . It has blood, it has bodies. And above all, it conveys the impression that those bodies and that blood are a luxury.

To unravel the situation, we could start by untangling the cultural knots. The study by AstraRicerche, for Essity and Nuvenia , which produces sanitary pads, conducted in 2024, reveals that social embarrassment linked to the menstrual cycle is not only experienced by women, but is also widespread among men. 22.3% feel uncomfortable talking about it. Beyond the embarrassment, however, there is a desire to join forces: 65.5% of men believe that talking about it helps overcome taboos and better understand the women in their lives (mothers, partners, sisters).

However, only 21% of men admit to discussing the topic "very or fairly often"—compared to 40% of women. A second survey, conducted by mUp Research for Initial, another feminine care company, also in 2024, revealed that 17% of men have never talked about periods, and 9% avoid them altogether . Among younger men, a staggering 54% report feeling embarrassed or completely silent on the topic. These data, combined with persistent stereotypes, fuel an almost forced cultural silence. This silence hinders the openness needed to make the menstrual cycle a topic of public interest.

As in an Aeschylian tragedy, the question arises spontaneously: what to do? From these "luxuries" and embarrassments, achieving that leave seems like a utopia. But not an economic one. At least according to the studies and estimates of Azzurra Rinaldi, economist and editor of the independent feminist media thePeriod . According to Rinaldi, introducing paid menstrual leave in Italy—modeled on the Spanish one—with 100% state coverage would cost around one billion euros annually; reducing coverage to 60%, the cost would drop to less than 600 million. Even in the broadest hypothesis—extending leave to all women of childbearing age, with three days per month—the burden on the public budget would not exceed 0.25% of the total expenditure. And looking at the Spanish experience, where there were approximately 1,500 requests in a year, the actual cost could be negligible: just over one million.

And if the issue isn't economic, then it's inevitable to look at politics. Why were Spain and Portugal able to agree on such a progressive law? The answer comes, at least in part, from some numbers. At the time of the "Transgender Law," in Spain , the female parliamentary representation was 46.8%. In Portugal, it's currently 37%. And in Italy? 33.5%.

So, what's missing? Dispel taboos? Build a world of work and education that gives due weight to the right things? Absolutely. But perhaps the simplest way to dismantle prejudices and clichés would be to adopt European legislation . In Strasbourg and Brussels, 38.5% of the Parliament's members are women. And the issue has already surfaced in the European Parliament: in 2021, some female MEPs called for harmonizing the right to menstrual leave within European gender equality policies. But so far, no concrete directive has been approved. Yet, common legislation is not unrealistic: the European Pillar of Social Rights—adopted in 2017—explicitly recognizes the right to gender equality at work and to health protection, leaving room for new measures in this area. Furthermore, in 2022, Parliament approved a directive providing for paid leave for family and care reasons, a sign that protection related to the menstrual cycle could be formally contemplated, if it fell within the same rationale.

So, that Utopia we were talking about could be an entirely imaginary land, or one yet to be discovered. We'll see. For now, we're navigating by sight. And sight, despite how much grammar insists on telling us otherwise, is predominantly male. But that doesn't mean it will stay that way. They say the menstrual cycle is a private matter. But there's nothing more public than a denied right. Perhaps it's time to rewrite this too, between the lines of a new social grammar , where rights can't remain confined to more or less immediate geographies.