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Background: Mood and physical symptoms related to the menstrual cycle greatly affect women’s productivity at work and often lead to absenteeism. However, employer-led initiatives to tackle these issues are lacking. Digital health interventions focused on women’s health (such as the Flo mobile phone app) could help fill this gap given their anonymity, scalability and accessibility. Objective: We aimed to 1) measure the impact of disturbances related to the menstrual cycle on work-related productivity in users of the Flo app; 2) characterize levels of support and benefits women receive in the workplace and 3) explore whether the Flo app could help mitigate the impact of issues related to the menstrual cycle on productivity and absenteeism. Methods: 1867 users of the Flo app participated in a survey exploring 1) the extent to which their menstrual cycle negatively impacts their workplace productivity, including whether menstrual cycle-related symptoms led to absence from work in the previous 12 months; 2) whether Flo users feel supported by their manager and whether they receive specific benefits regarding issues related to their cycle and 3) the role of Flo in the management of menstrual cycle symptoms, preparedness, bodily awareness, openness with others, perceived support and mood.Results: The majority of Flo users reported a moderate to severe impact of their cycle on workplace productivity. 45.2% of the respondents reported absenteeism, with an average of 5.8 days of work missed due to their cycle. 48.4% reported not receiving any support from their manager and 94.6% said they were not provided with any specific benefit for issues related to their menstrual cycle. 75.6% declared they want such benefits. Users stated that the Flo app helped them with the management of menstrual cycle symptoms (68.7%), preparedness and bodily awareness (88.7%), openness with others (52.5%) and feeling supported (77.6%). Furthermore, users who reported the most positive impact of the Flo app were 18-25% less likely to report an impact of their menstrual cycle on their productivity and 12-18% less likely to take days off work for issues related to their cycle.Conclusions: The menstrual cycle can have a significant effect on workplace productivity and absenteeism, and resources available to employees are scarce. Digital health apps, such as the Flo app, could equip individuals with tools to better cope with issues related to their menstrual cycle and facilitate discussions around menstrual health in the workplace.
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Ponzo et al. (2022) studied this question.