Coworker is radioactive and I'm secretly PG

[Cynthesizer]

Hello all,

I am 12 weeks pregnant, awaiting my first scan. For serious reasons I do not want my pregnancy to "go public" until the end of the month - so don't tell anybody!

A coworker who has had radioactive iodine just sent an email to the entire company stating that he is returning to work next week unless there are any secretly pregnant women ("lol not that there are, right?") we are an informal company so the tone was light and jokey :) there has already been some banter in the thread about "of COURSE no one is!" And men joking that they are PG and he should stay away!

He is quite radioactive and has been advised not to come into contact with PG women, babies etc, and not to take public transport or pick up his cat. I don't know for how long he is expecting to be at this level of radioactivity, and I fear that asking will out me as the secretly PG woman!

I broke cover and spoke privately to my manager who was incredibly ecstatic and delighted about the pregnancy, but she doesn't know how I/she could keep my officemate away from the office without revealing my pregnancy, which I certainly don't want to do before the end of July.

Any clever thoughts? I know the informality of the situation is a nightmare - imagine sending an email to the whole company asking if anyone wanted to speak up about something they're clearly keeping quiet! - but we are an informal bunch who get along well.

So far the best solutions we've had are for the manager to tell the boss to put the kibosh on him coming back because SOMEONE is PG, or for me to suddenly affect a sprained ankle for a few days, neither of which are quite satisfactory....

How long will he be radioactive for?

Really, I think the only responsible thing for your management to do is to assume that any woman of childbearing age in the office is potentially pregnant and potentially at risk if in contact with radioactive man. After all, a woman in the very early stages of pregnancy might not even realise herself that she was pregnant.

He won't have been told not to go near pregnant women (or the cat actually), just not to sit right next to them.

This is a typical patient advice leaflet for treatment for overactive thyroid

My friend had a radioactive iodine treatment and was given similar sounding advice.

She was "Spider-Man" for a week (the recommendations your colleague received) and as I was 10 weeks pregnant, I politely avoided her for two. And then when I did see her I was mental paranoid.

I would ask your boss to find out the absolute specifics of your colleagues medical recommendations. My friend works in a secondary school. She went back to work after 5 days with a "I am in my office of anyone needs me but I'm staying here so I'm not in general populous"
There was also a notice on her classroom door for pupils... Just in case.

Do not put your baby in any avoidable risk.

Your boss can literally say "we'd love to have you back but please can you email me all the specifics? I know that there are colleagues ttc and I really don't want to be in a position where we discover in a few weeks that there was a pregnant colleague in our midst"

And if they won't do that then take yourself off until they are no longer Spider-Man.

Oh. CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR PREGNANCY!!!

Er, he has to stay away. Senior managers must tell him so. If not they are putting other staff at risk, which is not on.

(Congratulations anyway)

Senior managers must state that 'Unfortunately, it is not appropriate for him to return to work at this time as they cannot guarantee the safety of all employees given the potential risk to unborn children and pregnancies in the early stages which may not be public knowledge. We have sought guidance from HR professionals and have concluded that we cannot ask personnel to provide these personal and confidential confirmations especially as there is a risk that a person could unknowingly be pregnant. However, he is welcome to return to work remotely, wishing him speedy recovery and assuring him of the support of the whole company.'

The period of suggested avoidance is three weeks.. its not that long in the scheme of things for him though I can understand he may want to get back to normal life ASAP.

What anotherday said. No way should he be coming back to work just yet.

For absolute clarity on this, your manager should ask the person at the workplace who is responsible for health & safety to seek the opinion of a consultant Radiation Protection Advisor (RPA). This is a chartered professional who would be able to advise appropriately & also clarify any applicable relevant legislation.

My cat had radioactive iodine treatment while I was PG and she had to be boarded at the vet's for two weeks before she could come home (and she didn't go to the vets until a few days after the treatment at a different animal hospital, so more like 3 weeks avoidance).

He should be definitely staying away!

As a rule I'd think he should stay clear of any woman of child bearing age, because contraception can fail and even women using it could be unknowingly pregnant, so I'd use caution regardless.

Perhaps your manager could ensure that, so that there is no focus on you.

The manager needs to contact him and say there may be people who are in the early stages of pregnancy and who aren't announcing it yet or don't know yet and we can't be sure so you need to stay off until you aren't a potential risk.

What happened in the end OP?

Oh sorry, I forgot!

UPDATE: My manager and I sat down together and worked on an email to the Big Boss. Thanks to everyone for their posts, they helped us assemble the right language to use for the situation.

It went something like "the company has a duty of care to young people who may be planning families or who may not know that they are currently pregnant. It is not our business to know the exact status of everyone's family planning, but it is our job to ensure their safety."

The BB read it and agreed immediately as anyone would, she said the coworker could only come back to work with a letter from his doctors saying he was at a safe level to sit next to pregnant women. As there are several women who sit next to him or work in close quarters with him, including me, this did not single me out.

After I'd thought about it for a bit, I realised that (like I said above) I wasn't too anxious about having him back at work, after a few days, it's not like the radiation was REALLY going to jump across the desk and into my uterus and it would be decreasing all the time.

BUT! I'm really glad I said something, because it turned out he WASN'T 100% safe for pregnant women and babies to be near!

So he had told his doctors that he didn't work in close quarters with any pregnant women (as nobody had replied to the public email...!!) and that work was definitely ready to have him back, and then he told work that his doctors said he was fine to come back! Cheeky!! It was a bit like "ask your mother/ask your father" in a loop. he really wanted to come back to work and he really didn't think he would be putting anyone in danger.

After BB spoke to him, he had to go back to his doctors and get a letter, his doctors felt very conservative about it, and in the end he had to work from home for a few more days.

I'm very glad I said something!

Thanks to everyone for contributing the great language to use in the email, it really helped me and my manager express ourselves.

Great news OP. He had a bit of a cheek considering he was putting people at risk but I suspect he naively thought no one would be pregnant, not thinking of women who might not know etc.

Good work was supportive too,

Why are people being injected with radiative iodine?

To be fair to him, the risk is very small, especially after the first two or three days. If it was for thyrotoxic therapy that is a much smaller dose than for thyroid cancer too. Basically, we ask people not to snuggle up to pregnant women and kids for two weeks, but 3m distance and you are pretty much safe. Glad it was all resolved though

And it's normally a capsule that is swallowed LionHeart

Yes lionheart people get radioactive iodine for things like thyroid cancer. It goes away in a few days and is fine. I knew that on one level but was also privately freaked out because it seemed like the only way to get away from him was to disclose the pregnancy.

As I sit less than 1 meter away from him all day for 8 hours a day (chairs back to back), I was pleased to not be outed as the pregnant woman, as I would be the only person moving my desk that extra 2m away...! Lol!

Pleased your work came through for you op.