Fertility treatment and work

[MyIVFHart]

Hello all,

Before I get into it here is a little relevant background:

My husband and I started ICSI treatment back in January of this year, we had been waiting a while as I decided to egg share. It all started well and I told work I was egg sharing but nothing more.
Sadly 2 weeks into the injections my husband was taken ill and had an infection in his tubes, we had to abandon the cycle. I was so disheartened after so much waiting and numerous past issues, I didn't leave my bed/ room for days. The doctors signed me off with stress.
One week later I returned to work and told my manager that we had been facing IVF, he was great but I had decided I didn't want HR knowing.

We picked up the treatment again in May and then I was rushed into A&E with appendicitis. I had to have surgery for removal, so once again no more treatment and I was off work due to the surgery.

We finally got back to it last month and made it to egg collection, after collection I was told I was at high risk of severe OHSS so we couldn't do a fresh transfer. The embies are frozen and I took a week off as holiday for this part - luckily as I was quite unwell.

But it got worse! I did get severe OHSS and was rushed to hospital. Unfortauntetl this was after my holiday had ended so I was off sick again!

I have returned to work and have now told them why i was off with OHSS etc. I am now on a warning for sickness. These have been my only occurrences and it has been a huge case of bad luck but actual sickness!

I am not sure if there is anything I can do or just face the fact that I may get in further trouble if I am ill again? It is making me stressed as I worry about things going badly with transfer and needing time off or what if I just simply get sick :(
I feel like I am being punished for being ill and needing this treatment

Wow that seems really hard. I really think you should tell hr. they might count some of these absences differently if they knew more of the story - particularly the ohss.

Did they only warn you once you told them why you were off? If so, that's awful.
Frozen transfers are nowhere near as involved as stimulation and egg collection, so I don't think you need worry, but call your clinic and ask.

I'm not sure the cause of the sickness would make any difference, at the end of the day they have procedures that require a review/interview after so many absences. Have they actually given you a formal warning though? If so that's appalling. Surely the point of having triggers is so you can review if there's anything the work place can do or to potentially flag up people taking the piss.

I am on an informal warning at the moment, it then increases to formal and potential dismissal after this.

My worry is that I need more time off after transfer or if I get bad news. But I guess I will just have to work through it.

I understand the policy and I totally get it needs to be there I just didn't know if there was anything I could do that would help my situation with the upcoming transfer etc.

Sounds like you've had a really rough journey and very unlucky. I don't know much about employment laws but I find it hard to understand how they can give you a warning for being ill considering what what was wrong with you. Did you have sick notes from the doctors? Because if you can prove you genuinely were ill that might help.

I'm not a HR professional but this is the advice HR gave me when I recently had someone working for me who was undergoing IVF.

From the point the embryo was implanted she was deemed to be pregnant and so any illness after that point was treated as pregnancy related and therefore excluded from the sickness disciplinary rules. This was the case even if the pregnancy didn't progress further.

What I don't know is whether this is the law, or whether this was just the policy of the company I was contracted to at the time, so I'd urge you to go speak to your HR department.

The same company also excluded any illness related to the IVF cycle from the sickness disciplinary, but I know that was definitely just their own internal rules and not every company will be as lenient or understanding.

I'm not a HR professional but this is the advice HR gave me when I recently had someone working for me who was undergoing IVF.

From the point the embryo was implanted she was deemed to be pregnant and so any illness after that point was treated as pregnancy related and therefore excluded from the sickness disciplinary rules. This was the case even if the pregnancy didn't progress further.

What I don't know is whether this is the law, or whether this was just the policy of the company I was contracted to at the time, so I'd urge you to go speak to your HR department.

The same company also excluded any illness related to the IVF cycle from the sickness disciplinary, but I know that was definitely just their own internal rules and not every company will be as lenient or understanding.

Yes with us any days off sick after transfer are classed as pregnancy related and therefore don't 'count' as it were.

I have my medical notes and discharge letters from hospital stays so I have handed those over. Sadly as we use the Bradford score it is very strict so IVF is not included in any way.

Thank you FrangipanBlue, Acas have advised something similar about after embryo transfer so I just hope I don't get ill between now and then. It is making it so much more stressful :(