A woman is campaigning for statutory sick pay for period pain after feeling like her “insides were ripped apart”.
Fazilat Paracha, from Toxteth, is calling on the government to consider giving women and those assigned female at birth Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for up to three days a month when they suffer from severe menstrual pain. In most cases, SSP is paid when employees are sick for at least four days in a row, but Fazilat’s petition is hoping to make sick pay available for menstrual pain from day one.
The 24-year-old suffers from severe menstrual pain and recalled how it impacts her life “in every way possible”.
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The Edge Lane Nike store retail assistant told the ECHO: “We go through physical changes in our bodies and menstrual pain for me feels like my insides are literally ripping apart and I can't move.
“It is severely painful and it impacts my whole life, emotionally and physically. I’m not able to complete my tasks or excel in life because when I’m in severe pain and agony, I can’t catch a break. I can’t work and function the same way I would like to. I couldn't imagine that being the life of someone that's a mother, someone that has way more responsibility like a carer.
“This is from me, someone who doesn’t have endometriosis, cystic fibroids, or an ovarian cyst. So I can only imagine the people who do have them and are going through this to be in excruciating pain and yet still managing to come forward and work every day - I think it's astonishing.”
Period pain is “common and a normal part” of a menstrual cycle, according to the NHS. The NHS website claims most will get it at some point in their lives and is usually felt as painful muscle cramps in the stomach which can spread to the back and thighs. The pain can come in intense spasms while at other times it may be dull but more constant.
The pain occurs when the muscular wall of the womb tightens. This can be made worse for those who suffer from the likes of endometriosis, which can cause debilitating pain and heavy bleeding in one in ten women, and some trans men and non-binary people, it affects.
Although Fazilat doesn’t suffer from endometriosis herself, she said, as a woman “no more”. Fazilat’s campaign comes after Spain passed a new bill that surrounds women’s health - something Fazilat claims is constantly overlooked here in the UK.
The Liverpool John Moores University student said: “It’s time for change now. We need to follow the examples of our fellow nations. It is about time we start recognising that women's health, especially severe menstrual pain, is something that can mentally devastate a woman and it’s something that we cannot change. We do not choose this.”
Fazilat believes severe menstrual pain contributes to the gender pay gap as those who suffer are often overlooked for higher positions as they can’t commit to working when they are on their period.
The international business and management masters student added: “You can’t do anything about the pain - you don’t choose to have it. You can’t live with it and you can’t work with it. You are just left in this in-between phase where you’ve either got to work part-time and not fully support yourself or carry on through it. “
Fazilat hopes to get local MPs involved and her petition to take off and eventually be debated in parliament. The petition can be signed online.
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