Right from the very beginning, girls were told that periods were something that needed to happen in secret; something that boys didn’t need to know about. It wasn’t subtle, this message: while the boys went outside and played football, the girls were kept inside to be given “the talk” about menstruation: what would happen, when and how. Some starter products were tucked into school bags as the boys ran around the field, oblivious. This was likely the experience of almost every teacher today when they were in school themselves.

It would be nice to be able to say that menstruation education has moved on since today’s teachers were children - and it has, in some ways. The updated guidance for relationships and sex education (RSE) that came into effect last year makes it compulsory for state-funded primary and secondary schools in England to teach all pupils about menstrual health and wellbeing by at least the start of the summer term 2021.

And this change to the curriculum is happening against the backdrop of a wider, fast-growing movement to destigmatise menstruation for students, with teenagers holding protests against “period poverty” and menstruation shame, and the government launching a scheme to provide free menstrual products in state-maintained schools.

But how much has actually changed for those teaching in schools? Is the shame that was instilled in them as children still present? Do they work in an environment where menstruation - and menopause - are not just still poorly understood but remain taboo?

The teaching profession is more than 75 per cent female, so these are questions that demand urgent answers. While not every woman menstruates, and not everyone who menstruates is female, those answers could tell us a lot about how far this woman-dominated profession is actually woman friendly. What’s more, those answers may determine the experience of the next generation of students, whatever their gender.

Nadia Collier, a family support worker at a primary school in London (who has also worked with Free Periods and The Red Box Project to get free menstrual products to schoolchildren) gives some idea of how shame around menstruation operates.

“I canvassed my colleagues at school and they said that, even as grown women, they’d normally stuff a tampon up their sleeve or top to hide it to sneak to the toilet,” she says.

This clandestine behaviour can extend right up to menopause, adds former teacher Chella Quint, who now runs Period Positive, an organisation that fights shame around “the whole menovulatory lifetime” (from first period to menopause).

“It was like the renegade teachers talked about menopause in the ‘punk staffroom’ rather than everyone discussing it in the main staffroom,” recalls Quint.

For staff who carry this shame around menstruation, it likely stretches back to when they were pupils themselves, confirms Gabby Edlin, founder of menstrual equity charity Bloody Good Period.

“Most teachers are of the generation that not only haven’t really been taught about periods but have also been made to feel not OK about them,” she says.

If they were taught about periods at all, it may have been in a scenario like the one described at the start of this article. The idea that menstruation was something to be embarrassed about was then “reinforced by companies making pads that don’t rustle or compact tampons you’re supposed to be able to hide in your hand and might look to someone like a pack of sugar,” argues Edlin.

By the time women reach menopause, it is unsurprising that the stigma is often fully entrenched, suggests Quint. “Menopause not being talked about is reinforced by three kinds of taboo: that periods aren’t talked about, that old age isn’t talked about and that infertility isn’t talked about,” she says.

Menopause has now been added to the curriculum for secondary schools in England. But for today’s adults, it was even less likely than menstruation to have got a mention during curriculum time when they were at school. Indeed, reports suggest that many women reach menopause with no clue what’s happening to them - or the people around them - and they are often unable to reach out for support.

Intergenerational stigma about menstruation

So, you’ve got a school staff, many of whom may be confused or embarrassed about menstruation and menopause. Then, you have a statutory requirement that they deliver effective education about these topics to students. It doesn’t add up.

“Sadly, in the UK, period stigma is an ongoing societal problem facing staff and students alike. We’re unlikely to tackle this if teaching staff don’t feel comfortable openly discussing and managing their own periods,” says Rose Caldwell, chief executive of Plan International UK, a charity that campaigns for girls’ rights.

Laura Coryton, who launched the petition to end the tampon tax in the UK and co-founded Sex Ed Matters, agrees that in order to stamp out the stigma for students, teachers need to tackle their own shame first.

“If a teacher tries to teach about periods, for example, and they feel uncomfortable, that’s going to rub off on the kids and they’re going to be taught that this is an uncomfortable subject,” Coryton says. “The problem of period stigma won’t really be solved unless we tackle it intergenerationally.”

That’s not going to be easy because the school environment is not always what you might call “period positive” - and that’s not just down to the hiding of tampons up your sleeve when you pop to the loo at break.

Stories from teachers about the challenges that they face when dealing with menstruating at work range from not having time to go to the toilet to change tampons or sanitary towels and bleeding through their clothes (only to have it pointed out to them by a student) to not feeling comfortable enough to speak to a member of the senior leadership team about period pain severe enough to affect their teaching.

“Oh my gosh, the amount of times I thought I was going to throw up in the bin and you’re just sat there and you think, ‘Oh, God, it’s going to happen and I’m going to end up on Snapchat throwing up into a bin’,” secondary school teacher Lauran Hampshire-Dell told Tes in 2019.

Hampshire-Dell, who has endometriosis - a condition whereby tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows in other places, such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes, and can cause severe pain and heavy bleeding (as well as sickness, diarrhoea and constipation) - says that, at a previous school, she was once told off by the headteacher for teaching a class while sitting down.

“Sometimes it’s a necessity because I can’t stand up and be all-singing, all-dancing, running around the classroom.

“But that doesn’t mean I’m not doing a great job. It just means that if I stand up, I might fall over,” she says.

School leaders may lack understanding about such issues, particularly if they do not struggle with difficult or heavy periods themselves.

This lack of understanding, combined with the ever-present shame that prevents women from speaking up, puts teachers’ wellbeing at risk. And that extends all the way to the menopause. “There is still an impression that menopausal women are all having hot flushes and if you give us a fan we’ll be fine. We need to move away from that,” explains Kate Sawyer, a Year 2 teacher in a primary school in the North West.

She’s currently perimenopausal and her symptoms have included anxiety, sleepless nights and needing to go to the loo “a million times a day” when she has her periods, which have become much heavier.

For the uninitiated, the perimenopause is the run-up to the menopause. It can last months or years, during which time women can experience symptoms. (The menopause itself is when you stop having periods altogether.)

Other perimenopausal symptoms include night sweats, forgetfulness, headaches, palpitations, aches and pains, low mood and, yes, the infamous hot flushes.

So, perimenopausal teachers across the country will be contending with a bespoke cocktail of these while trying to handle a class of 30-plus pupils.

Exodus risk

These issues are not new, but they are becoming more noticeable, and there are more women who now need support.

Menopause usually happens between the ages of 45 and 55 (though around 1 in 100 women experience early menopause, before they reach 40).

“If you look at the ONS [Office for National Statistics] statistics from 2018, there were 10 million people over the age of 50 in employment, so around 30 per cent of the workforce,” points out Michele Piertney, a senior adviser at the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas).

Plus, earlier this year, data from the ONS showed that, for the first time in the UK, there were more women aged 60-64 in work than not.

So, an older workforce, combined with cultural shifts meaning that women are working more and longer than before, means that a growing percentage of workers will be going through the menopause.

But, to date, it seems that many in teaching haven’t been getting the support they need - and this is having an impact on teacher retention.

Last year, Nicky Bright, then headmistress at Bruton School for Girls, in Somerset, took a stand at a conference, arguing that schools must be more supportive of menopausal teachers or risk an exodus of staff.

And Diane Danzebrink, founder of Menopause Support, who counsels women through menopause, says that she has seen how a lack of support in this area can lead teachers to leave the profession.

“I’ve worked with an awful lot of teachers and public-sector workers who either end up going part-time or leaving altogether because there’s a lack of support for them,” she says.

According to Sharon MacArthur, founder of Miss Menopause - which runs workplace sessions on menopause - part of the reason why women leave is that they often don’t even realise what’s affecting them.

“No one has told women what to expect during perimenopause so they just think, ‘I can’t do this job anymore’,” she says.

Unfortunately, the profession has to face the fact that it can be an unpleasant experience to be a menstruating or menopausal teacher - and the lack of support could be having a detrimental effect not only on their performance in the classroom (in some cases), but on their happiness and their willingness to keep being teachers.

So, what should be done? Thankfully, offering support for women who menstruate or who are menopausal is increasingly being recognised as a responsibility of workplaces in general - albeit with slow progress.

Interestingly, menopause is the aspect getting the most attention right now.

Last year Acas, which works with employers and employees to improve workplace relationships, published guidance for employers to help manage the impact of menopause at work and the NEU teaching union has created a menopause model policy for schools.

The guidance from the NEU about formulating such a policy includes suggestions to “create an environment where women staff members feel confident enough to raise issues about their symptoms” and allowing “cover for women who need to access toilet/washing facilities while they are teaching (to deal with heavy and recurring bleeding)”.

It sounds like good stuff. But doesn’t it also sounds like stuff anyone who menstruates would benefit from? That is particularly true for those who experience complications around menstruation.

Take endometriosis, for example. MPs recently called for urgent improvement in endometriosis care after it was found that the average wait for diagnosis was eight years, despite it affecting 1 in 10 women.

The majority of those consulted told MPs that their careers had been damaged by the condition, with 35 per cent reporting reduced income. So, yes, they’d probably have appreciated a bit of support at work.

That’s where the likes of Bloody Good Period (through its Bloody Good Employers scheme) and Period Positive (through its Period Positive Places scheme) come in. They want to see workplaces offer more support for all those who menstruate as well as providing guidelines.

For Quint, the starting point is education. She recommends running a session for all staff on periods and menopause, explaining what they are, what some of the taboos are and how you can unpick them.

“The education has to include people of all genders and all roles, from the chair of governors to the head and the lollipop lady. Everybody in the building needs to know that anyone who manages periods is respected and supported in the school, and that everyone at least knows the basics,” says Quint.

By including everyone, you avoid making potentially damaging assumptions. Not all people who menstruate identify or present as female. And not all women menstruate (stress, sudden weight loss and conditions such as diabetes are just some of the reasons why a person’s periods might stop).

More importantly, whether or not someone menstruates is entirely irrelevant. If those who don’t menstruate are to be supportive colleagues and managers, they need to be informed. If you’re not someone who’s ever bled through your clothing, it might not occur to you why not being able to access a toilet for hours is an issue, for example.

There will be blood

However, once menstruation and menopause become open topics, it becomes easier for staff to raise any difficulties with their manager.

“Obviously, some will choose to keep it private and that should absolutely be respected,” says Danzebrink. “But if somebody says ‘I’m struggling’, there should be a pathway, which may include speaking to HR or the head about what reasonable adjustments can be made.”

When it comes to things a workplace may need to consider, its facilities and working patterns are big factors.

Many believe that workplaces should provide free menstrual products, with Scotland recently becoming the first country in the world to make period products free for all.

“[In England], we’ve got a government scheme so all schools can get free period products for their pupils. But it’s interesting that doesn’t extend to staff,” Coryton notes.

“Having period products in the staffroom would help tackle the taboo among staff and would be really useful if you’re a teacher and need to nip to the loo really quickly.”

Edlin agrees with this. “You would never have staff bring in toilet paper or soap,” she points out. “So, why do we have this disconnect when it comes to period products? They’re not frivolous.”

Other considerations might include access to toilets, showers and cold drinking water, and the ability to change a room’s temperature (which all staff would welcome anyway).

Some schools have already started to make changes along these lines. Frankie Arundel is associate assistant principal of a secondary school in Sheffield that is following Quint’s Period Positive scheme.

“Our school has adapted some toilets to have individual cubicles with taps and bins inside,” she explains. “The taps in cubicles support menstrual cup use [they need to be emptied and rinsed between uses] and the individual cubicles give people space to change their clothes if they have a leak.”

Some things require a serious spend and may not be possible, but there are small and inexpensive steps that schools can take, too.

“You don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” MacArthur says. “Make leaders aware of the tools already in their kit bag. Someone told me they asked for a fan because they were going through the menopause and they were told they couldn’t have one because fans were for pregnant women!”

Of course, great facilities aren’t much use if staff can’t get to them. And classroom teachers, in particular, don’t have the luxury of being able to just pop to the loo whenever they need to.

But Edlin argues that it’s not OK to say “that’s just how it works in schools”.

“Why are the breaks between lessons so short that you can’t nip to the loo?” she asks. “Workplaces were not set up for people who menstruate but there’s no reason why these things shouldn’t change.”

Some considerations: could schools rejig the timetable to create slightly longer breaks? Could they work out a cover system for teachers? Could those who need regular toilet access have the classrooms closest to loos?

Any conversation around supporting women who menstruate in the workplace leads to the contentious topic of “period leave” - giving employees days beyond their sick leave allowance if they have difficult menstrual symptoms - which some UK workplaces already offer.

Even among menstruation activists, this idea causes division. There are those who worry that period leave will undo decades of work to prove women are just as effective as men in the workplace.

Coryton says that last point is not something she is concerned with. “I think the idea that women have to become honorary men in order to succeed should be challenged rather than pandered to,” she notes.

What everyone does agree on is that workplaces should consider flexible working to help staff manage their menstruation/perimenopause - for example, allowing people to come in later if they’re having difficulty sleeping, or letting them work from home if they’re experiencing menstrual flooding. And certainly, they should enable staff to attend doctor’s appointments.

Once again, schools are not the easiest places to bring in these measures. But the pandemic has shown that we can be more flexible than we thought.

Jessica Powell is a freelance journalist

This article originally appeared in the 29 January 2021 issue under the headline “Blood, sweat and tears”