Women’s intimate health. “Now you can talk about periods without having the impression of saying ‘with a Kalashnikov’.”

Reduce the value of the rules

Since 2015, the “pink tax” no longer exists (before that, 20% VAT was taxed on hygiene products, compared to 5.5%). But your period continues to be costly, with studies estimating between €8,000 and €23,000 over a lifetime. 15,000 should be added to the necessary protections, the cost of meetings with a gynecologist, care in case of pain. According to Opinion Way data, about 4 million French women do not have the means to buy sanitary protection, including a quarter of young people, emphasizes Maud LeBlon, general manager of the Rules primary association, which leads to health risks such as infections. . He is happy to see that for several years of secondary or higher education, universities like Ren 2, business schools, schools where they install hygiene product distributors.

On March 7, Elizabeth Bourne announced that reusable period protection (washable sanitary napkins, panties, and menstrual cups) would be reimbursed by Social Security for those under 25 starting in 2024. An initiative welcomed by many, including Gael Baldassari, founder of the Kiffe ton cycle movement (provider of “menstrual education”), who wants public authorities to go as far as free. Because this compensation represents a drop in the ocean of the total cost of menstruation, only 3 to 5% of protective measures are reusable. “The management of these reusable products is difficult for people in great uncertainty,” notes Maude Lebloss. This event should really serve the target people.” Another drawback is the lack of hindsight into the actual safety and effectiveness of these latter defenses.

This video of men flouting the rules for women is going viral during the US midterm elections

build a leave for the pain

From February 16, menstrual leave for women with painful periods became a law in Spain. In France, environmentalist and socialist MPs are also working on legislative proposals to create compensatory, medical privacy leave for all, and the prime minister assured in late April that he was “looking at the device”. Going through the law? On this side of the Pyrenees, opinions differ, while local experiences are multiplied, for example by the municipality of Saint-Ouen (Saint-Saint-Denis).

On the business side, Carrefour, which employs 50,000 women, will introduce an endometriosis holiday rather than a menstrual holiday from July 1, preferring to focus on the most common pathology from July 1. A strong mark, but one based on a specific criterion chosen “for efficiency and clarity, with the advice of expert associations in the sector”, explains Carrefour group commitment director Karine Kraus. The event is aimed at RQTH (Disabled Worker Quality Recognition) women who will take advantage of one day of automatic paid leave per month without having to see their doctor every month. For employees who often work in physical occupations (stores, warehouses), it is a better feeling, the group perceives it as a triple profit; in terms of employer branding, as this strengthens the attractiveness of the group; and organizationally, it reduces sudden sick leave.”

A positive initiative that Karine Kraus hopes will inspire other groups. “Some believe that it is not the company’s business to develop such devices, others that it is against the progress of the feminist struggle,” says Aline Bouff, a doctoral student in sociology at the University of Geneva, regarding this bill. Where menstrual leave already exists on an experimental basis, it is rarely used, the researcher says, because it is too complicated administratively and for fear that private data will be passed on to the employer. Does the period leave itself at risk against those it is supposed to protect? Gael Baldassari calculated that 2 days of paid monthly leave equals 600 career days. It will inevitably be a loss of opportunity for the employees,” he believes. Some consider temporary leave instead, allowing them to make medical appointments. On the other hand, beware of opportunistic companies that may engage “timed wash” with measures that will affect only very few workers.

It is better to detect endometriosis

In January 2022, Emmanuel Macron announced the launch of a national strategy to fight endometriosis, a disease that affects 2 million French women, accompanied by a research funding program of 20 million euros. After more than a year, what has changed? “Endometriosis is now occupying media space,” recognizes Gael Baldasari of Kiffe ton cycle. President of Endofrance association Yasmin Kandau explains. “Today we are in the process of building regional health sectors.” The goal? “Achieving multidisciplinary care with therapeutic alliance between treatment, surgery and supportive care”.

Endometriosis is now taking over the media space

Gaëlle Baldassari, from the Kiffe ton cycle

If the diagnosis still takes an average of 7 years, the therapeutic wanderings could be reduced thanks to the innovation of the startup Ziwig. Founder Yahya El Mir and his teams developed a non-invasive diagnostic tool based on microRNA analysis. Practical (a saliva test is sufficient), reliable and cost-effective (this will avoid thousands of annual diagnostic surgeries), Endotest is already available in eleven countries, and discussions have begun with the highest health authority in France to consider reimbursement. Articles, scientific papers, conferences and even a graphic novel… The need for information on this disease (but also on other disorders such as polycystic ovary syndrome or adenomyosis) remains enormous. “During three years of investigation, I learned the extent of the problem and the lack of knowledge,” confirms Camille Grange, journalist, co-author of the documentary with illustrator Matilda Manka. Dangerous injuries (Flush Editions).

Intimate health: a subject of feminist struggle

“We can now talk about the rules without having the impression of saying ‘kalashnik’,” laughs Gael Baldasari. Instagram accounts multiply, like elementary rules or menstruation, are exchanged in a relaxed, light, committed way. Artists also respond. Thus, in 2015, Canadian Rupi Kaur launched a vendetta against Instagram, which censored a self-portrait of her lying on her back covered in blood.

2014 photographer Marian Rosenstill captures the subject with a remarkable series. curse while Laetitia Burge paints patterns on handkerchiefs based on her own blood. Back in 1978, American feminist Gloria Steinem wondered what a world would be like in which…men menstruated. This is where the weighty comics of Camille Besse and Eric La Blanche were born. Superman and his “Super Rules”, Darth Vader regrets menopause…, If men had periods (Ed. Le Lombard) deftly captures the political dimension of intimate health.