To think menstrual leave should be a thing?

[ItsTheSeasonOfTheStick]

It might just be me, but I find coming into work on my period really hard. I get awful cramps, I feel sick, I am exhausted even after sleeping a full night and I can feel myself bleeding all the time. I just find it so overwhelming and I’m in an awful mood. I’d happily work extra hours for the rest of the month to make up for it, but I genuinely find the first couple of days so hard to work through.

I have endometriosis, the first few days of my period are hell, pain that affects my bowel etc. as a 46 year old I’ve been dealing with it for 33 years. Rarely have i actually taken time off for it, this would be another discrimination against women, employers would employ Jack instead of Jill in 99% cases. Fighting for equality means we get equal sick leave.

It would cost companies too much and they would be less likely to employ women.

Exactly… so it shouldn’t be sick leave, it should be reasonable adjustments. Obviously discretion can be used in cases whereby someone could be taking the piss though.

There's no special paid leave for chronic conditions though.

Exactly, so menstrual leave shouldn’t be a thing either. Too open to CFs.

How would you determine that? They could claim sex based discrimination.

I really do try not to take time off with mine but if I can’t get off the floor then I can’t work
hoping the operation may have helped for a bit as my endo was so so severe

I agrees that if your period is that painful and preventing you working regularly then you need to see the GP and keep going til they take it seriously. I have PCOS and the best way for me to control that is to be on the combined pill (still at 48). That isn’t suitable for everyone. I can basically pick and choose when to bleed or choose not to bleed at all.

Flexible working could help if you’re in the type of job where your can work from home and don’t have to meet people face to face. Teachers would struggle with this. I’m an ex teacher. I still work a lot in schools though but do work my admin from my choice of office or home. But if a school is expecting to see me for training or to run an intervention with a child, it would be pretty disruptive to cancel each time I was on my period. I can see many jobs this would be an issue with.

You’re right - and that’s what I meant. Workplaces in general are an ableist environment where few employers will be willing to adjust an employee’s working pattern to accommodate several sick days a month, regardless of the reason. I was not implying menstruating is a disability.

Generally speaking we all feel a bit crap when on our period. I'm perimeno, have rediculously heavy bleeds, feel shattered all the time with life and the mental load, and I have awful depressive symptoms after my period. Do I take time of work? No, or course not. I put my big girl pants on and get on with it. Feeling tired, crampy, and unmotivated due to our menstral cycle is normal, but if it's that bad that you can't pull yourself together and go to work suggests there's something else at play.

I run an NHS dental practice. If this became a “thing” we’d literally be shutting down surgeries, cancelling patients in their hundreds and working at a great loss.

@vincettenoir interesting I didn't know this i have it.what can I expect ?

I have never heard anything more ridiculous.
What about erctile leave, which would surely happen far more than once a month?

Doesn’t tend to lead to vomiting, fainting and severe pain
i get people are probably thinking about normal periods but there does need to be a little thought that not everyone can physically work on certain days of the month and that they might have adjustments for that

it feels like I’m back at work being gossiped about for being off for “period pain” and how unfair it is

I think flexi leave should be a thing, could you ask to do this? It works on 13 4 week cycles a year so you could tie your flexi days in nicely with periods.

I don’t think menstrual leave should be a thing really I think it should just be sick days if you’re too sick to work. However if medical condition that makes it really bad and it’s ongoing perhaps then it would be a reasonable adjustment? Although I know not a disability.

I think we all need to toughen up a bit these days. We can't treat workplaces as support systems that pay our wages while we opt in and out according to what suits us best.

This. If you're in such pain that paracetamol isn't cutting it go and get something stronger?

Or go on mirena. Ive not had periods at all on it.

So speaks a person that ever had undiagnosed endometriosis and adenomyosis because the people of our “”generation“ were expected to just deal with it and pass out and vomot on a daily basis was jut “Women’s troubles”

How does one ‘suck it up and get on with it’ when one is passes out and is laying unconscious in a pile of one’s own vomit? Clearly I’m just too soft for this world 🙄.

Pain relief doesn’t help if it is something like endometriosis
I took paracetamol, naproxen, dihydrocodeine and oramorph. Plus a period patch, tens machine and heat pad. I thought if I stabbed my own ovary they might operate quicker
it’s like telling someone in labour to take a paracetamol

I suffer extremely heavy cycles and do struggle for the first few days of work I take painkillers regularly and also now use tranexamic acid to help my periods which I got on private prescription it's really helped me

Dare I say I think menopause leave also should be a thing

Ah yes, Spain. A country where doctors cannot prescribe HRT until you have been period free for at least 12 months because peri-menopause doesn’t exist, apparently. I’m not making this up, I work for the health service in Spain and this is the legal framework. It’s a little bit backwards in many ways, particularly when it comes to female healthcare, so please let’s not hold it up as a paragon of any kind.

I suddenly started suffering from very heavy and painful periods after the birth of my second child. Heavy as in I couldn’t make it through an hour with a super ginormous bucket-fanny tampon and a nighttime pad without destroying my clothes. I was doubled up in pain, white as a sheet, vomiting and passing out. So of course I went to the doctor, who informed me that as my last blood test didn’t show anaemia I must be exaggerating and he couldn’t help. I was very pleased to see a lovely blood stain on his chair when I got up to leave. But yes, when we have a problem let’s just get treatment 🙄.

Of course the solution is not as simple as menstrual leave for all. Far more important is how women are treated by the health services and frankly society, with such a dismissive attitude. Yes, I sucked it up and got on with it for years and very rarely did I take a day off because of difficult periods, but as I worked far more hours than most of my colleagues I’m not going to feel bad about it on the odd occasion that I did. I didn’t actually realise I was in labour with my first child because the pain of contractions was nothing compared to the period pain I was used to, quite gentle and pleasant by comparison in fact. It’s time we got over minimising this sort of thing because we’re scared of looking weak and being disadvantaged - we all know that if men suffered this shit, science would have found a solution long ago.

Do you really think lots of us aren’t using medication or haven’t tried the coil and various other things to help ourselves? 🤦‍♀️

Yeah, we need to just toughen up apparently.

Some people are clueless.

I know right? Short of just knocking me out, there wasn’t anything else
I had an 8.5hr laparoscopy for the endo and didn’t take a single painkiller after as it was nothing compared to the endo pain beforehand