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 bin bleeding for two solid weeks now when should I go to work plus I usually only get a two week break between periods lol

You are still in pain so something is wrong. Book an appointment with another GP and if you can't, the same one. Take someone with you, walk in with a piece of paper with everything written out ready to talk. When they say what can I help you with today you say, I want to be referred to a gynecologist and here is why, list your symptoms, tell them you have lost weight with no change and repeat so I want to be referred. The words you need are impact my life, not normal, in pain.

It took me 10 years to get diagnosed with endometriosis. My cycle is 24 days, I spend 3 days of that in pain equivalent to labour. I am on prescription pain meds as well as using whatever else works (TENs machine, heat pad) ovulation is also horrifically painful as are other times in my cycle. I don't work because there is no way I can think straight when that is happening. No one would employ me.

I think menstrual leave just means women won't be employed. My MIL was employed by a man who did admit he employed older women who have had their children because their small business could not afford maternity leave. Not everyone works for a large multinational company.

No.

At a certain point employers would have a real moral justification for not hiring women.

It's also important to remember that it is not just women who have issues they need to work around. Many people do, be it chronic health problems (the guy who needs to get up early to take his pain meds and stretch for an hour before being mobile for the day though he will be in constant pain.) to people who have life issues (mum carrying also for her elderly incapacitated mother,) to people with serious money problems, and more.

If you are unlucky enough to have very serious menstrual problems you may need to consider than some jobs might not be suitable, and you may have to use some medical leave, and you may need to make an arrangement with your boss. Like, wfh a few days or make up hours later. Not workable for all jobs obviously.

But it is doable to manage for the vast majority, I say this despite having problem periods my whole life. when I was younger, heavy and painful. Now massively heavy and unpredictable.

I really feel recently that people just don't seem kind of mamby-pamby. Life isn't always nice and comfortable. That's just not how things are, no one is owed comfort all the time that's just not reality.

But not every one has a job that allows making up the time. I manage a team of 27 at the airport. Check in agents, gate agents and ops people. Once the flights have gone there's nothing to make up. most of my team are women, I could end up with hardly anyone at work and I need a minimum number of people on duty at any one time in order to service each flight.

Well, it wasn’t a thing I could ever done. Even when I had problems. Firms can’t run anything around things like this. 🤷‍♀️

the discrimination cases would be tenfold

If you're struggling with your period to the point that you can't go to work, then you need to push for a referral to gynae for investigations.

I have PCOS and my periods used to be a nightmare until I got a diagnosis and treatment.

Lets face it people women get the shite end of a very dirty stickl compared with men.

Periods - messy and disgusting
The horror and degradation that is childbirth
Menopause

Given the choice I would never have been born a woman.

While one half off humanity must suffer to bring into being the children of all humanity we will never have equality.

Decent healthcare and being taken seriously by medical professionals about menstrual issues should be a thing.

@ItsTheSeasonOfTheStick why do you think it's your employer's responsibility to mitigate for the failures of your healthcare provider?

They just don’t care. They only ever tell me the same thing.

You have my sympathy. I've always had awful periods, but they're even worse now I'm in peri. I have been working from home since covid, but I would really struggle to be in the office on my worst days now. I feel much worse on the first few days of my period than I do with any cold or virus, but have to just soldier on.

If we got time off just for periods we would by default need the entire pregnancy off, and a large chunk of peri and menopause.. noone would ever hire a woman again.

No. I'm tired of people finding even more reasons to accuse women of failing to behave as functioning adults in the workplace. We suffer enough discrimination becasue of our sex as it is.

I know what horrible, barely containable, excrutiatingly painful periods are like. I've had endometriosis for years. I've had to suck it up and get on with it; so must others.

Would it be your own fault if you were ill?

I think employers should stop expecting their employees to be robots

Who'd be an employer.

It’s crazy.

If you are genuinely incapacitated, you are sick and need to take it as sick leave.

If you are sick so much with it, you are triggering workplace persistent absence policies, then you need to get treatment.

I don’t have periods (!) but I have worked with gout (absolute agony to even stand), high fevers (pre Covid), zero sleep etc etc. It’s often easier to work than stay home as it at least distracts you.

And I have worked with female colleagues who have gone years between absences.

Flakey people just don’t do well or earn the respect of their colleagues. Ultimately someone has to do the work and granting a set of people extra leave just piles the work on everyone else.

Presenteeism is a curse as well and shouldn’t be encouraged

But why would, or should, a business pay the same wages to someone not working as much? It seems unfair to the business, and also unfair to the people working more for the same pay.

I suppose everyone could work and get paid less but that will affect productivity and salaries overall.

Some people cannot work, it’s not being able to be distracted, it’s fainting, vomiting, screaming in pain
get treatment yes but it takes time
I fought so hard for a diagnosis and for people to understand and still other women minimise it as “pop down the doctors and get medication/sorted”

there is no cure, no medication, even a hysterectomy won’t cure endo

mine are painful, but I work through miscarriage too. I worked when I was in labour with my first. That’s certainly painful. When my shift finished we went in and I was 9.5 cm. So that’s definitely painful. Yes in hindsight I shouldn’t have done that cos they didn’t care about me and I was fully entitled to take off! But taking off for a period is a bit of a stretch, even if painful. That’s every month!

It’s taken generations for women to be seen as reliable employees and not simply housewives/childbearers/carers. It was not that long ago (1950’s) that women in some professions had to give up work once they married. Menstrual leave would just re-inforce the view that women are delicate creatures and unreliable employees who should remain in the home.

Exactly.

That is a separate argument.

I have adeno and endo and would welcome such accommodations. I have a senior role so no such thing as flexi time etc. I have tried to manage it over the years (because it takes years to be diagnosed) by wfh when in a flare but it's not always been possible.

On those days I've had to go into the office during a bad flare/period I'm wearing black trousers, period pants, a heavy duty pad and a tampon (which can be difficult as they push against an area of endo) with a change of clothes in my bag. I also layer up on the pain relief and imodium (iykyk). There have been times where I've had to get on my hands and knees in the accessible loo and do hypno birthing breathing to get through the cramps - this normally happens when I'm passing clots so I then need to try and get on the loo to pass it rather than flooding my clothes.

Thankfully after years of juggling all this with a demanding job my symptoms are being controlled by the mirena coil which has been life changing but could stop working at any time. I'm desperate for a hysterectomy (only cure for adeno) but that's a whole other battle

So contrary to many PP I don't think it's a ridiculous idea to offer such leave and if we want equality (I appreciate some here don't) then we need to start accepting that not all women can skip through their period with a couple of paracetamol.

Forward thinking employers are starting to introduce such leave and, to date, I don't think any have stopped employing women. What I imagine they do have is a loyal, engaged workforce.