Health expert claims that employers should give female AND male workers three days off every month to accommodate women's periods

A health expert claimed that employers should be giving both women and men three days off a month to accommodate the menstrual cycle.  

Dr Mindy Pelz, from California, who is a world-renowned fasting and women’s health expert, appeared on Dragons' Den star Steven Bartlett's The Diary of a CEO podcast to discuss workplace wellbeing. 

Steven asked The Menopause Reset author what would be the 'optimal way' for an employer to set up a working schedule for a woman to be accommodating of her cycle.

Dr Mindy replied: 'What if every employee had three days off every single month, no questions asked? You take it when you want to take it.'

She said that it would be the 'most fair' to extend the same perk to men and that it should be the employee's choice when they want to take their days off.  

Dr Mindy Pelz, from California, claimed that employers should be giving both women and men three days off a month to accommodate the menstrual cycle

She recommended that women take their days the week before their period to 'support hormonal health'.  

'She said: 'What we know is, if you take it off the week before your period, when you come back you're going to be an even better version of yourself.

'Let your employee use their prerogative because you can't tell them when to use it with their period. I think that's the most fair because then the men can do it too.'

The health expert explained that women should be able to stay home and 'nurture' themselves on day 25 of their cycle to support their hormonal health. 

She said: 'To the women in the company what they need to know is that, that day where everything is crashing down on you and your stress is coming from all different angles, and you have to get up and push through on that day, and it's day 25 of your menstrual cycle - if it is appropriate to stay home then stay home and nurture yourself. 

'The moment a woman is pushing through that week before her period she is destroying her hormonal system. 

'I'm not talking about the moment you wake up and you're like ''yeah it's going to be a boring day'' or there's some ''difficult conversations I have to have today''.

'I'm talking about the moment when your energy's down you have brain fog, you might be having some cramps, you might be really irritable and you're like: "I can't take one more thing. How about I just nurture myself today and take care of myself, so I can show up tomorrow a better person".'

Elsewhere the health expert revealed that women shouldn't be fasting the week before their period. 

Dr Mindy appeared on Dragons' Den star Steven Bartlett 's (pictured) The Diary of a CEO podcast to discuss accommodations for women in the workplace and the benefits of fasting

She said: 'Estrogen which comes in the front half of a woman's cycle does really well with fasting because she likes you to be insulin sensitive.

'In a woman's 30-day period you have moments where estrogen is making her peak and you have moments where progesterone is making her peak, so if she's on the keto diet, if she is in calorie restriction, if she is fasting all the time she's not honoring the rhythms of these two hormones and that is a major problem.

'So we say don't fast the week before your period because you need glucose to be higher and you don't want cortisol to be high, and just like exercise increases cortisol so does fasting.'

Dr Mindy said the consequence of women fasting the week before their period could result in them 'losing their cycles.' 

She added: 'Around day 20 progesterone is building, she has to peak and then when she hits a peak the uterine lining sheds and you have a period. 

'If you are fasting during that time and you didn't bring your glucose up high enough, progesterone may not peak and then you don't have that shed of blood. If she's not bleeding then she's not detoxing.'