8 hours ago 3

I'm offering my employees menstrual leave — because thinking periods don't affect your work is outdated

Periods are a part of life for many, but talking about them — and the challenges of working while pushing through painful cramps and energy-sucking fatigue — remains largely taboo. In a 2023 UVA Health study, 45.2% of women using the Flo app reported needing to take time off due to period symptoms, but most felt they lacked workplace support to address these concerns.

Tori Dunlap, founder of Her First $100K, wants to change that. In a recent LinkedIn post, Dunlap shared her company’s new policy offering menstrual leave, stating that it’s the “human” thing to do.

“Periods can be painful, exhausting and debilitating. Pretending they don’t affect work is outdated,” Dunlap wrote “We build policies around reality, not stigma.”

Dunlap has long been a champion of empowerment for women and other marginalized individuals. After managing to save $100,000 at the age of 25, she quit her job to build a business — which includes the Financial Feminist podcast, a book and programs like Stock Market School — that would inspire her followers (particularly women) to reach their own financial freedom. Dunlap herself is already a multimillionaire at the age of 30.

Now, she’s found a new way to push for workplace equality — by recognizing the ways in which menstruating individuals are disadvantaged when forced to work through pain. In this interview with Yahoo's Priscilla Blossom, Dunlap shares what inspired her to create the policy, how it works and what the response has been.

Periods are a normal biological reality, but we’ve built workplaces that act like they don’t exist. I’ve had my own experiences of trying to push through cramps or migraines because “work comes first,” and I know so many others have too. So creating a menstrual leave policy came from the same place so much of our work does: listening to women and marginalized folks about what they actually need. It felt like a no-brainer that if we’re serious about building an inclusive company, we can’t just ignore something that affects half the population every month.

The policy is really simple by design. Our employees can take paid time off specifically for menstruation-related symptoms, no questions asked. We don’t require doctor’s notes, explanations or for anyone to “prove” their pain, because that’s invasive and unnecessary.

The reason we implemented the policy in the first place is to carve out this time from PTO. Ultimately, if we didn't have it, our team could just take sick time or PTO. We purposefully made this policy to both show our values and also to give inherent permission and validation to this kind of pain.

Right now, our team is all women. We’re a fully remote team with about six employees and another 10 contractors. But if we had non-menstruating people join our team, they still get the same benefits of PTO and sick time. The request process is the same as any other time off — click a button, notify your manager — but without any pressure to disclose more detail than they want. Privacy and trust are baked in. Our menstrual leave policy has already been used, which makes me really glad. It means the policy isn’t just symbolic; it’s actually giving my team members the ability to take care of themselves without guilt.

From employees, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. We've had multiple posts about the policy go viral on Instagram and LinkedIn. A couple of people told me they felt seen in a way they hadn’t at any other job. From other founders, I’ve gotten a mix of “This is incredible, I wish more companies did this” and genuine curiosity about how to implement something similar. From the public, most people have been supportive — especially women who have dealt with painful periods while still being expected to perform at 100%.

Sure, there are some naysayers, but I remind people that flexibility and rest don’t make employees less productive — they make them more productive. Burnout and presenteeism are much more expensive than just giving someone a day off when their body needs it. Also, companies have been quietly accommodating things like golf outings, happy hours or even nap pods for decades, but when it comes to something that disproportionately helps women, suddenly it’s “controversial.” That tells me the resistance isn’t about logistics — it’s about bias. And again, it’s the same as PTO or sick time, just carved out to show our values.

The broader point here is that we have to rethink what a humane workplace looks like. Menstrual leave is just one example, but the principle applies everywhere: trust your people, honor their humanity, and you’ll get better work in return. I want Her First $100K to model what’s possible — because if a small company like ours can prioritize this and other policies like a weeklong company break per quarter and four months of paid family leave, larger organizations with far more resources can too.