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I said the word "period" in a work meeting last month at completely normal conversational volume, and I watched two grown women visibly flinch. Not because it was inappropriate — I was explaining why I needed to reschedule something — but because apparently we're all still collectively pretending this isn't a completely ordinary biological process that half the population deals with on a monthly basis for roughly four decades of their lives.
Here's the thing about whispering: it teaches everyone within earshot, including ourselves, that this is something shameful. Kids pick up on it. Coworkers pick up on it. And eventually you end up with a workplace culture where women feel like they have to hide something completely normal, which becomes its own quiet source of stress layered on top of whatever physical symptoms they're already managing.
This isn't just a periods issue either — it's part of a much bigger pattern. Recent workplace research has found that a significant share of women navigating perimenopause and menopause say the experience creates real challenges at work, and many have avoided asking for accommodations or even considered stepping back from career opportunities specifically because they were worried about how it would be perceived. That's not a personal failing on anyone's part — that's a culture problem, and it starts with the same discomfort that makes us whisper the word 'period' in a meeting.
● Say the word normally. Not loudly, not as a statement — just normally, the way you'd say "headache" or "allergies."
● If you're a manager, build in flexibility before someone has to ask for it. It changes the entire dynamic of the conversation.
● Talk to the women in your life about it, including the ones younger than you. A lot of stigma gets passed down simply because nobody interrupted the pattern.
One small, practical thing that's helped me personally: not worrying about visible lines or leaks during a long workday makes it so much easier to just exist normally instead of mentally tracking every trip to the bathroom. Our Seamless High-Waist Period Briefsare genuinely invisible under fitted work clothes, which sounds like a small thing until you realize how much mental energy that anxiety was quietly taking up.
If you want to read more on how this conversation is evolving in professional spaces,
this piece on workplace wellness trends covers how more employers are starting to build real support around women's health, rather than treating it as something to work around quietly.
None of us fixes an entire cultural pattern by ourselves. But every time one of us says the word at normal volume, it gets a little easier for the next person to do the same. That's worth something.
