Viral campaign simulating period pain with electrodes stirs up debate over menstrual leave in France

“Will you allow me to inflict pain upon you temporarily?” So begins an experiment, carried out by two legislators from France’s Ecologists party, geared towards raising awareness about how painful menstruation can be. The test, which was performed with an electrostimulator and video-recorded, went viral, thanks in large part to the reactions of the male legislators who accepted its challenge. “Ahhh, stop, stop!” pleaded one of them, bent in two at the waist. “Very unpleasant!” commented another, with a strained look on his face. The objective was to drum up support for a proposed law that the Ecologists have presented, which seeks to institute menstrual leave in the country, similar to a law that already exists in Spain.

The idea behind the experiment was for legislators lacking a uterus to feel this kind of pain for themselves. They were to put themselves in the shoes of people who suffer such intense discomfort, and can even be incapacitated, when they have their period. “When someone tells me that they’re in pain, I generally believe them. But I wanted to have this experience to see, to understand, what it was like,” Erwan Balanat, one of the 10 legislators who underwent the test, says by phone. “Indeed, it hurts, it takes you off-guard and causes obvious loss of concentration,” adds the politician from the centrist party MoDem, which is aligned with President Emmanuel Macron.

“It’s an intolerable pain,” Louis Boyard, of the leftist party La Francia Insumisa, comments via email. His party leads the opposition in France’s lower legislative house, and is linked to Spain’s Podemos party. “The simulator is definitely useful for raising awareness among certain legislators, but what we really need is to believe women when they tell us about their pain. It’s problematic that men find it necessary to ‘prove it’ through a simulator,” he says.

The videos hit their mark. Images of the legislators screaming, letting loose nervous laughter and contorting themselves from the pain were shared more than 4,000 times on the X social platform, and accumulated more than two million views. During the experience, they were asked to read a description of the reasoning behind the proposed law, which seeks menstrual leave of up to 13 days a year. The legislators had to pause their reading each time they received shocks, which were designed to mimic intense period cramps. The recording is set to a Mozart sonata, which adds a certain comical tone to its proceedings.

“It’s a slight demonstration of what we feel every month, or if not necessarily every month, at least regularly, in our lives,” says Marie-Charlotte Garin in a telephone conversation. Garin is the creator of the project, along with Sébastien Peytavie. Both belong to the Ecologists party. The video sought to “impact, bring the attention of and arrive to many people,” she continues. “Also, for us to be able to speak about this topic, which nowadays continues to be quite taboo,” she says.

The idea for the experience came from their team, and was proposed to legislators of varying political stripes. To bring it to life, they employed an electrostimulator used in athletics. The machine connects with the body through electrodes and is able to operate at varying levels of intensity.

Believe women

Similar to the MoDem party’s Balanant, Boyard underlined the fact that incapacitating periods can be accompanied by vomiting, dizziness, digestive problems, general malaise and migraines. “It’s an incomplete picture of these pains,” said the centrist legislator, who thinks that “when there are medical teams and researchers who confirm that periods can be painful and incapacitating, you don’t need a simulator to believe them.”

Still, the Ecologists’ proposal has not yet attracted a necessary amount of support. The bill was rejected at the end of March by a parliamentary committee. The lower legislative house was scheduled to take another look at it last week, but ultimately, it did not make it to debate. But the matter is beginning to make its mark within the national discourse. In February, the Senate, led by the conservative Republican party, rejected another, similar law sponsored by the Socialist party.

Since 2023, some French cities have begun to implement this kind of leave for their government employees, such as Grenoble, Strasbourg and Lyon. The first to do so was Saint-Ouen, a northern Paris suburb. In Spain, menstrual leave, which formed part of abortion reform, took effect last July.

The idea of such a measure is still decisive and has yet to achieve government consensus in France. The deputy minister (who operates underneath the minister) of health, Frédéric Valletoux, recognized the importance of discussing and addressing the issue, but is opposed to the proposals that have so far been presented due to various reasons, from respect for medical privacy to fear that such requirements would contribute to gender-based hiring discrimination. The former minister of transportation Clément Beaune, who hails from the Macronist Social Democrats and who also submitted himself to the electrostimulator, rejects such concerns. “If we think that’s the case, we should abolish maternity leave!” he said in an email to this publication.

He adds, “The law should adapt to the pain that millions of women suffer, not the other way around. It’s not fair to require women to evolve in the workplace, asking them to pretend that they live the same life as men. As men, sometimes it’s difficult to imagine what women experience in their day to day lives.”

In the video, a short text states that “one in every two women suffer painful periods” in France. After the experiment, the male legislators spoke with Garin about what they felt and asked her questions. Is the pain always like that? Are there moments in which it lets up a little? Not all the legislators will vote in favor of the law. “Some were already supporters and could understand its utility, but they’re not necessarily in agreement with the version that we proposed,” explains Garin. “But I think that the all the debate our bill has sparked will push them to come up with their own device,” she says.

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