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.

There would be a huge amount of piss taking which would spoil it for those genuinely suffering.

I can completely see how people will take the absolute piss out of this and then claim ‘discrimination’.

People with those illnesses get reasonable adjustments. Women tend to not even get diagnosed.

Being incapacitated by your period usually means you do have something else

I have reasonable adjustments for mine which seems a good compromise

What about those people who have chronic illness? Why should they have to follow the sickness process but someone on their period doesn’t? They haven’t brought it on themselves either

Take my mind off the pain is funny
when it’s bad I’ve been on all fours with paramedics, gas and air and morphine. that’s when I ring in sick as I can’t speak let alone work

I’ve tried to see the gp multiple times. I only ever get told to lose weight. I’ve lost over a third of my body weight and they still aren’t interested. What else am I meant to do,
c

If you aren’t well enough to be in work, it’s sick leave. Otherwise you need to discuss with your employer reasonable adjustments that might work eg annualised hours.

It's sickness in the sense of a bodily condition stopping you from working. If you are that bad then you may well have a medical condition like endometriosis.

Just a normal period: not a medical condition.

I don’t want my colleagues, especially male, to know when it’s my period. Period.

Change doctors or see a different one, it took me 10 years
mirena is great if you can have it
use the words “I think I have endometriosis and I would like to be referred to gynae” (wait lists are long though)

Good employers should be flexible, where possible. A member of my team who suffers works from home for a couple of days a month, so she can wear joggers, not have to travel in, be near the loo etc. It makes a huge difference to her, and is only a minor inconvenience to the business.

There shouldn’t be a blanket rule for everyone who has a period that if you’re having a rough one just take time off no consequences. Imagine how many woman will take the mess with it. However if you have a genuinely hard time or an actual condition there’s nothing to stop you talking to your employer about personal adjustments

Absolutely not we already have enough reasons for employers (generally) to not really want women with their pesky issues and caring responsibilities etc. to work for them 🙄

I was the same (now retired). It would never work out.

I felt awful working while I had my period, but there was no other option.

No, but the severe symptoms you describe would qualify as sickness. Most women are not incapacitated during their period.

This.

I can't imagine how it would have been possible to allow for this within a secondary school setting. In my case - as a young woman - my periods were very irregular. Once I was older the damned thing came round once a fortnight.

N, this is what sick leave is for if your too unwell to work.

If it's making you sick then it is a type of sickness though. Normal periods, if you can call them that, aren't. It's appalling that there isn't proper medical treatment when some women are really suffering but menstrual leave would just put people off employing women. It could be weeks of extra leave a year. Flexible work is a good idea. Or taking annual leave? Not ideal obviously.

Yup. I recall that a colleague in another department took the day off 'to wash the sheets' after she had a heavy period...

Mind you, she wasn't really missed - she was a middle manager involved in a support capacity and didn't have any classes of her own.

If your periods are preventing you from going to work, you need an appointment with your GP.

I imagine if 'menstrual leave' suddenly became a thing, half the workforce would start chancing their arm in some places of work.

If endometriosis was taken seriously, more women could well be diagnosed with it, and could then take necessary days off due to a diagnosed disability.

Unfortunately, endometriosis pretty much only affects women so therefore doesn't count.

No, that's why I go to work when I'm on my period. If you can't work then you're ill. It's not normal to be unable to work for a few days every month.

Women may well need adjustments in the meantime though, from referral to surgery it was 2 years for me and 8 years before that before anyone listened to me
i think standard diagnosis for endometriosis is 8 years so you won’t pop to the GP and get sorted