Bridget Phillipson has described suffering "absolutely crippling" pain and constant vomiting during her periods when she was younger, and said the UK has a "system and a culture that's built for men".
The Minister for Women and Equalities said more needs to be done to take women seriously, and called for a "much bigger conversation" around women's experiences, including the menopause, endometriosis and maternity care.
'People just think you're being a bit melodramatic'
Speaking on the Dig It podcast with Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball, Ms Phillipson - the former Education Secretary - said her monthly periods were "debilitating" and caused her to take time off school.
She said: "For me, the pain was absolutely crippling every month, just absolutely crippling, and it was accompanied with really unfortunate vomiting, like constant vomiting, which kind of passed over time. But again, people just think you're being a bit melodramatic.
"Like, 'well, it can't be that bad. It's just your period. It happens once a month'. It was really really debilitating. I came out the other side, and I was fine, but there are really dismissive attitudes even today."
Call for a whole society approach
Ms Phillipson said her school was understanding but said it was "irritating" having to take a day or two off school every month. "If I could have been at school, I would be there, but if you physically can't get out of bed," she added.
She called for a whole society approach to better value women, saying men also must "step up". She said workplaces without the right support meant industries were losing "talented women right at the peak of their experience".
She said: "I don't want to see women stepping away from brilliant careers and jobs because they're not being properly supported. That isn't just damaging to that individual woman, that's a tragedy for all of us.
"We lose out as a society where we don't value and recognise the contribution of women. Government's got a role to play, all of us have a role to play, but actually I think we need men to step up as well and provide us with the support, not it always falling to us to have to campaign for the change that we want to see."
Government's Women's Health Strategy
In April, the Government launched a renewed Women's Health Strategy to stop women being "ignored, gaslit, humiliated and disrespected". Then Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the NHS is "failing women and girls on even the most basic measures of healthcare".
The strategy set out several pledges to improve women's experience in the NHS, including cutting waits for gynaecology care and a £1million menstrual education programme to ensure girls are better equipped to recognise the difference between healthy and unhealthy periods.
During the podcast with Ms Phillipson, concerns were raised about an overburdened NHS as well as a lack of understanding or research into women's health conditions.
Ms Phillipson admitted women's voices were not valued enough. "We don't take what women have to say seriously, whether that's around menopause or endometriosis, or what we've seen more recently with some really appalling examples of maternal healthcare and the utterly shocking experiences that so many women have been through. We don't listen to women. We don't value what they have to say.
"In shining a light on what needs to happen around the menopause, that also opens up a much bigger conversation I think about how we just don't value women's experiences and the things we all go through at different stages of our lives are seen as things we just have to put up with and just deal with in silence."
Asked if enough is being done to help women during the menopause, she said: "We've got a system and a culture that's built for men and that doesn't recognise women's unique experiences and that's what I'm determined to change."
