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 might be a solution if you explain the problem to management. Maybe ask if you can work a shorter day, from home, on the most painful days and make up the hours during the following week?
I don't think it would be worth putting a whole 'menstrual leave' policy in place because not every menstruating woman needs this, but it would be good for workplaces to be aware that it is a problem for some, and try to make an adjustment.

This.

Absolutely not. Get medication and toughen up. See also:- the menopause. At this rate with period leave, maternity leave and menopause leave - a women’s career will only last a couple of years. Imagine if men demanded the same time off in line with equality and equal rights!

Wasnt this the argument that was used against having women in the workplace in the first place? 😭😭

it depends on your role. If you do work that you could easily make up the hours for without impacting others workload then fine but anything where it’s critical on staff being in like nursing, care, teaching, policing etc then that’s just not sustainable. Obviously if your sick your sick but I wonder how many would be in need of moving their Saturday night shift and making up the hours on a Wednesday day shift.

Occupational Health would be the best bet whilst waiting.

If they see it as a reasonable adjustment, they may well grant it on an individual basis.

This is not a realistic option. I suggest you seek some medical help.

You’re misunderstanding. The rights would be leave for period leave, maternity leave and menopause leave for everyone needing it: it wouldn’t be rights for women to have that leave and not for men.

I think this is a much more nuanced conversation.

On the one hand, of course menstrual leave as standard is a ridiculous concept.

On the other hand, there absolutely are women whose periods are debilitating and for them, some reasonable adjustments can and should be made.

But then, what are those? And how do we make them? with any other disability or illness, there would need to be some kind of proof. You can't just say, "I have migrains so i'll take time off whenever I like". Instead, if it's an ongoing issue, you would need information from a doctor, specific assessment of your specific cneeds, and a solution that works for both you and your employer. It would have to be similar in this case.

But then we come up against the next issue - women's menstrual issues rare routinely not taken seriously, nor are treatments particularly well understood or explored. The poster upthread who talked about 7 day heavy bleeds etc for 40 years being a case in point. This is NOT normal, and yet she's spent her life thinking it is. OP has pointed out that she's tried to seek help but got nowhere. We know, for example, that endemetriosis takes, on average, 10 years to diagnose. 10 Years? That's outrageous. So you could, once you have a confirmed diagnosis, perhaps ask for help... but what do you do for the 10 years before that?

I am self employed in a job that involves quite a lot of concentration and thinking work as I integrate research and analysis into various pieces of content. As peri menopuase started to kick in, I realised that I had about a week a month where I coul dbarely keep up with basic admin. I was lucky - it only took about 18 months for me to get this stabalised. But that's still a ridiculously long time, and that doesn't inculde how lng it took me to even realise the problem in the first place.

So no, menstrual leave isn't and shouldn't be a thing. BUT we absolutely can and should do better for women.

Spain has the right idea, recently they became the first European country to offer paid menstrual leave, with a law providing three to five days of paid leave per month for incapacitating menstruation. So if you’ve been formally diagnosed with that then you get the time off I imagine.

Also you just know if this was unique to men they’d have put some reasonable adjustments in place already.

I agree with you OP that you should be allowed reasonable adjustments. Some countries allow one unpaid day of leave whilst others allow one paid day so perhaps changes acknowledging this will eventually arrive in the UK also.

Im just so grateful to be able to wfh most of the time and it’s been life changing for many reasons but especially for dealing with these cramps achy days.

hopefully you’re not talking about people with diagnosed period conditions as there isn’t really medication that works
i got sick of people telling me to toughen up and it was just period pain when my bowel was folded in half

period pain is normalised but it is not normal especially if simple painkillers don’t work

It would lead to greater discrimination against women. We’re already discriminated against because we have children so disrupt workplaces in the sense we might up and leave at any point if we get pregnant or if we already have children, might have to have time off last minute if they’re sick. Imagine if women requested to take a week off every single month? It just doesn’t work. It would cause businesses to collapse, not to mention the public sector.

as part of my "this is a more nuanced conversation" comment above, I think there's also an intrinsic issue with the way we have normalised working practices. We have creted a system where the gold standard is based on what works for a man with little or no caring responsibilities, in good health, and living within a reasonable commute of the workplace.

But women aren't the only ones who are excluded by this default work practice. Men with more caring responsibilities, or less good health, are excluded too. It's just easy not to notice that because there are plenty of men who ARE available and who are happy to be doing it and who are dominating workplaces.

But imagine a world in which this basic default was never set up? Where default working hours were different? Where priorities were different? Of course it's possible, but involves wholesale change.

Try being a teacher with heavy bleeds that can't go to loo for hours on end!
But no, menstrual leave is a ridiculous idea.

lol at get medication and toughen up. I have had endometriosis for years and then also got diagnosed with adenomyosis. I have medication, have had procedures done, but still most months I have days off severe pain, heavy bleeding, so bad that it makes me sick and sometimes I can’t walk or stand up straight.

The adenomyosis could be helped with a hysterectomy but I would still have endometriosis.

So what is this magical medication you speak of because I’ve tried everything my private gynaecologist has offered?

I agree with you. Flexible working would cover it. We will never have equality until women do not have to pretend they have the same biology as men. We don't.

It certainly shouldn’t be a standard thing, I’ve never needed time off for periods. I am lucky and can just take some ibuprofen and get on with it.

However those with serious issues around menstruation should be able to have reasonable adjustments around it and have it treated as what it is - a legitimate medical issue. We don’t get to choose whether or not we have periods after all and how bad they are is nothing to do with us either and that should be recognised in the same way as other medical conditions.

Good luck with that though.

My manager is a guy and already knows way too much information about my health. Telling him I’m on my period would really be a step too far.

It took me 20 years of going to the GP to finally get a referral to gynae and endometriosis diagnosis. There were many times I went to work bleeding really heavily and feeling really really ill, perhaps I shouldn’t have done but when you’re young and trying to make a career it’s not exactly helpful to miss a day or two of work every 25 days 🤣 I don’t really enjoy WFH but it made it much easier to work on my worst days because I could wear comfy joggers and attach my hot water bottle to my belly! Thankfully since being diagnosed with endo I’ve got the mirena and it’s really changed my life.

I think employers need to be more aware and accommodating of women’s health issues, but I don’t agree with menstrual leave, I worry it will just put women behind again.

A necessary wholesale change - in which the economy is for the people not to make stacks of wealth for people who don't need it.

Its a mad idea.

Exactly. So many women on here too who don’t seem to understand.

I think it would be too open to misuse. I mean every single woman could take it for more than a week every single month.

And what about women who don't menstruate but might have other health problems?

If someone is unwell due to their period they should just take regular sick leave.

Of course they shouldn't be discriminated against.

But to offer specific leave for such a day to day bodily function I think would leave employers on their knees.

If your periods are genuinely bad enough for you to be missing work then you should talk to your manager about it. Get a doctor's note and explain the situation, and say that you're happy to make up the hours at another time. If this isn't detrimental to your role, I don't see why they wouldn't let you do it. If you're not well, you're not well. If you can't work, you can't work.

dont Be soft