#CostaRica 🇨🇷 #BDS_Article: Female Biology: The Overlooked Factor in Labor Relations

Since the enactment of the Labor Code in 1943, lawmakers have recognized pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding as milestones deserving protection. Without delving deeper into whether the existing regulation is sufficient or fair, there are certainly clear rules—including special protections and specific rights—that employers use as standards to regulate labor relations.

However, outside those specific stages, the female body and its biology go largely unnoticed in the legal design of work and organizational structures. It appears as though the system assumes that all workers perform under identical biological conditions, as if the body were not a decisive factor in job performance.

Throughout their careers, many women experience health situations linked to their reproductive system that do not fall within any special labor category. For example: fertility treatments, debilitating menstrual pain, endometriosis, recurrent pregnancy loss, gynecological surgeries, or menopause. None of this is new to us; it is part of the female biology reality. Yet, in many cases, these situations are treated as if they were merely individual medical issues, unrelated to work.

Within companies, however, this reality translates into absences, recurring medical appointments, variations in performance, the need for last-minute workplace adjustments, among other impacts. For women, it often results into ongoing uncertainty, because there are no clear frameworks: what one organization understands, another may question it; what one manager acknowledges, another sees it as lack of commitment. In other words, two individuals with the same condition may experience very different workplace realities, depending on the leadership they report to.

For this reason, many female employees conceal or minimize health conditions so as not to be perceived as less available, productive, or reliable. Frequently, hiding a fertility treatment becomes a workplace survival strategy. Working while managing physical symptoms or hormonal treatments requires an additional effort that often goes unseen, undertaken to avoid being perceived as less productive. Ultimately, however, this affects mental health, along with the constant concern about job stability due to circumstances that stem from nothing other than one’s own biology.

But why does this matter today? For years, many women have silently managed an essential dimension of what it means to be a woman. Fortunately, the world of work is evolving: there is increasing discussion about holistic health, work–life balance, employment sustainability, and mental health. In that context, it would be difficult to argue that female biology is irrelevant to the organization of work.

Let us be clear: I am not advocating for the creation of privileges or special angles that could lead to abuse of rights. Rather, I propose the need to eliminate stigmas and develop a more realistic understanding of this issue. Workplace equality does not consist solely of applying the same rules to everyone; it also requires asking whether those rules were designed with realities in mind that do not represent the entire workforce.

When female biology and women’s reproductive health are not recognized within organizations, what might appear to be an individual health matter can become a factor influencing stability, well-being, performance, and professional trajectory—not because women work less, but because they work under conditions that the system’s design failed to anticipate.

In Costa Rica, there is currently no clear regulation on this matter. While legislative bills addressing this issue begin to move forward, organizations can take proactive steps by adopting measures that do not overlook the biological differences of the human body, such as:

• Reviewing internal health and wellness policies: Specify which recurring medical conditions or prolonged treatments may require temporary adjustments, based on objective and documented criteria.
• Establishing clear protocols for recurring medical absences: Absences do not necessarily imply a lack of commitment; having consistent criteria prevents improvised decisions and reduces the risk of unequal treatment.
• Training managers and Human Resources personnel: Understanding how to manage sensitive medical situations helps prevent handling errors, conflicts, and potential claims.
• Performance evaluations based on objective criteria: Separate performance assessments from temporary medical circumstances.
• Documenting adjustments: If the company temporarily adapts working conditions, the change, its duration, and its basis should be formally documented.

Labor relations must evolve when reality demands it. We cannot speak of mental health or holistic health while simultaneously disregarding female biology and reproductive health. What impacts a person’s life cannot be treated as irrelevant to the employment relationship.

This is not about creating privileges; it is about recognizing that true equality is not built by ignoring differences, but by understanding how they shape the actual working experience.

Rebeca Artavia

Partner, BDS Asesores