An endometriosis campaigner visited a school in the Fens amid a national debate surrounding student absence requirements.
Jen Moore's "exceptionally positive and productive" meeting with Neale-Wade Academy - where she spoke to staff about period pain - follows last week's announcement that the March school would no longer accept certain phrases from parents.
Among them were the terms 'ill', 'poorly' or 'unwell' as well as 'period pains' (without medical information) and 'has a cold'.
In the past week, the story - which first broke on the Cambs Times - has also been covered by global LBC Radio and the Daily Mail and Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling also posted on X about the debate.
READ MORE: J. K. Rowling on March school's new absence rules debate
READ MORE: Neale-Wade Academy in March reverses medical note rule
Since then, the school reversed its decision, saying that "medical notes are not required when submitting a student absence.
Speaking after her visit to the school to give a menstrual education session, endometriosis campaigner Jen Moore said she was "thrilled" with the u-turn.
"When I first saw the news articles earlier this week, I was incredibly frustrated.
"Periods are surrounded by a deep-rooted stigma that we need to actively work to dismantle," said the women's health expert, who is from Papworth Everard.
"Painful periods are not normal, but sadly they have become normalised. They are often signs of underlying issues such as endometriosis, adenomyosis, PCOS or fibroids; all of which can be incredibly debilitating.
"Sadly these conditions are often dismissed by doctors, so asking for medical information is problematic in itself - the average diagnosis time for endometriosis in the UK is currently eight years and 10 months."
Having this week spoken about such issues at the House of Lords, added that she reached out to the school last week and offered support in menstrual health education.
READ MORE: Neale-Wade Academy in March bans student absence phrases
She also said she offered resources to improve understanding amongst staff and students of the impacts that painful periods can have.
"I’m pleased to say that they accepted my offer straight away and we met this morning to create a short, medium and long term plan to improve menstrual health support at the school," added the 35-year-old, who is currently writing a book on endometriosis.
"It was an exceptionally positive and productive discussion, and I look forward to working with Neal-Wade to foster a safe, open and inclusive menstrual health policy, not just for current students, but future ones too."
Find Jen on Instagram via @jen.dometriosis.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here