As I reach another birthday each year, I always say a silent ‘thank you’. Not just for the blessing of getting older and my health, but because each year I age, my periods have become lighter.

In the past, they’ve stopped me from swimming, taking holidays, even going to events.

So, when I heard that the Spanish government had passed a law allowing menstrual leave from work – the first European country to do so – I felt thrilled.

Time off lasting three to five days is now available for those who suffer ‘incapacitating’ periods.

I think it’s the best idea I’ve heard in years.

The reason? Because for years in my youth I endured heavy periods that made my life hell.

I started my periods early – aged 11. I was the first girl in my class, and in my group of friends. While many of them were still playing with Barbies, I was carrying around a wodge of heavy duty sanitary towels in a bag, hoping I could get to a loo without being seen.

My periods were heavy almost immediately. There was no gentle youthful start for me, but full-on heavy flow. For the first two days of my cycle, the pain would be so bad that I’d need a hot water bottle, and would bite my pillow in agony.

It made concentrating at school an effort: I was far more worried about whether I was leaking to care about fractions.

And they often started without warning, too.

Once as a teenager, I was outside a cinema (wearing a white skirt for good measure) when my period started randomly.

Get a man to bleed heavily once a month through his trousers on the train and see how quick a bill for menstrual leave would be passed here, in the UK

A girl in the queue discreetly told me and I sat during the rest of the film, jumper wedged under my bottom, dreading getting up again. My skirt was crimson. I was so ashamed, I went home in tears.

School was a nightmare. I’d wear two maternity-style sanitary towels inside two pairs of pants layered over each other. Still I suffered embarrassing leaks. Sometimes it would be after sitting on a bus, my jeans stained. Once it was at a friend’s on the sofa.

I dreaded my period every month and would often be inconsolable.

I hoped it would get easier as I got older – but I was wrong.

After university and when I got my first job, I still had heavy periods. Working as a trainee journalist, my job was desk-bound and whenever I was on, I would dread getting up to the loo in case I had leaked.

I’d wear my two pairs of pants, two sanitary towels – bulky and uncomfortable – but still would leak into my trousers (always black – to hide any staining). It was awful.

I wished for so long that I could just take the first two days of my period off – to stay home where leaking and pain could be dealt with. But this was 1999 – we didn’t discuss periods in the same way we do now.

I carried on like this for years, decades, even – dreading leaks, jumpers tied around my waist, paracetamol at the ready.

This continued until I had my first baby, aged 31. Strangely, after my son’s birth, my periods became a lot lighter. Things got better. At last I could wear only one sanitary towel and ditch the second pair of emergency pants.

So, when I heard about Spain’s much-needed menstrual leave I thought back to the younger me, changing quickly in the loos at work, always wearing black, always shifting in my seat at work to avoid leakage and thought: yes!

Finally people like me with heavy periods are being given the chance to not face work feeling uncomfortable or embarrassed.

Even having that first cycle day off would be helpful – you could deal with the heaviest flow day at home not worrying about embarrassing leaks.

I know there’ll be the naysayers who think we should just ‘get on with it’ – but they’ve obviously never suffered through the nightmare of heavy periods.

Get a man to bleed heavily once a month through his trousers on the train and see how quick a bill for menstrual leave would be passed here, in the UK.

I think, as with many things our Euro cousins do faster than us, we will be slow to react because we often have this stoical, British stiff-upper-lip about everything – even periods.

Spain has done a wonderful thing in passing this menstrual leave. Women are at the mercy of our hormones all our lives – periods, pregnancy, perimenopause, menopause. It’s about time we were given some slack.

Spain has cracked it. I hope the UK follows suit.

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