Should Paid 'Menstrual Leave' Be a Thing?

The Atlantic ^ | May 16, 2014 | EMILY MATCHAR

[jttpwalsh]

I had a friend from Japan, I asked him about the fact that women get a paid day off every month; I did not think that was right. “Why not” he said “They aren’t worth having around at that time, it just makes sense !”. NOTE: Not my opinion, just relaying the sentiment, from afar !

[IIntense]

Sounds like she wasn’t well enough to be in the Air Force.

[IIntense]

if you want to be in the workforce no special treatment.

Uhhh, I agree. Let's remember though that single women have to work to support themselves---or try to get gov't. handouts.

I don't know why I am even commenting on this subject. Is nothing personal anymore?

[a fool in paradise]

But they are equal to a man in the workplace. With fewer days served, right?

[trebb]

When my sister was menstruating she’d be in debilitating pain, soaked in sweat and basically in bed for three days. She was a major in the Air Force’s OSI. (The first woman in the OSI.) So, three days of each month she was out sick. And, I mean SICK. I don’t recall that she ever said it was a problem with her boss. Quite frequently, the doctors laughed at her, simply not believing the problem was real. Trust me. It was real.

She is the exception to the rule - the trouble is, once we start accommodating the extreme cases, the gates open and anyone who claims the slightest discomfort gets a free ride on the bus.

[Gen.Blather]

“She is the exception to the rule - the trouble is, once we start accommodating the extreme cases, the gates open and anyone who claims the slightest discomfort gets a free ride on the bus. “

She did get out of bed, dripping with sweat, to supervise murder and suicide scenes. The job always came first.

I suspect that this situation will begin to ease and in another twenty years will be as unknown as death by cholera.

[hattend]

Hey, Emily. We aren’t an east Asian country.

Get back to work or make me a sandwich.

[trebb]

She did get out of bed, dripping with sweat, to supervise murder and suicide scenes. The job always came first.

My hat's off to her - she sounds like the type officer I would have been proud to work for.

[MD Expat in PA]

For some women, their menses is so severe and is quite debilitating and is a very real medical condition. It could be Hypermenorrhea or Dysmenorrhea and sometimes it is because of endometriosis. Sometimes these very real medical conditions can be treated with drugs (actually sometimes birth control pills are proscribed because they regulate hormones and normalize the menses) and sometimes it requires a DNC or in the most severe cases, a hysterectomy is in order if it is because of severe pre-cancerous fibroids. I had a relative who suffered from that and it only got worse after she gave birth twice. After many years of suffering from it and having blood flows every two weeks, sometimes continuously for weeks at a time and so severe that she developed severe anemia, her GYN finally agreed to a hysterectomy that she had been begging him to do for years and she doesn’t regret it at all even though she was only in her mid 30’s.

In the case of a documented medical condition, these women are, if they work for a large employer, already covered by FMLA and while they probably have to cover their absences with PTO or paid sick leave or allowed to take time off without pay, they are already allowed intermittent absences without fear of losing their jobs under FMLA if it is for an allowable and documented medical condition. So there is IMO no reason for an employer to create any special paid off time policy for them. They would and should not be treated any differently than any other employee, male or female with a legitimate medical condition. But OTHO, for most women, a normal menses, while it makes us feel quite miserable, bloated and irritable for a day or two out of the month is typically not something that requires any time off from work.

I was pretty much in the “normal” scale but OTOH, perhaps once or twice a year, especially when I was younger, I’d have a period so heavy, with so much passing of big blood clots, that nothing, not even the super sized tampons along with “heavy day” pads were enough to stem Aunt Flo (and not to go all TMI here or over share or make you guys sick and pass out, but there is nothing quite as embarrassing as bleeding out through a tampon and heavy pad and into your underwear and through your pants or skirt – but I bet a lot of you gals on FR know what I’m talking about).

And I am no wimp when it comes to pain – I went to work having a severely sprained ankle, lower back pain that made it difficult to drive or even stand up straight, a broken finger and one time a bout of rotator cuff shoulder tendonitis that made me nearly scream with pain and I didn’t miss a single day from work.

But then there were those times with my period that I had nearly flu like symptoms; a severe headache much like a migraine and so bad that I could hardly see or keep my eyes open, had to stay in a darkened room and then there were the body aches, a fever and chills and the severe cramping that made me double over with pain and no amount of aspirin Tylenol, Midol, helped at all. Most times, I’d just tough it out but there were some times that I was feeling so ill, that I’d call in sick from work and lay in bed all day with a heating pad. I never told my mostly male bosses that I was calling out sick because of my period; rather I’d tell them I had a stomach bug or a migraine. If I had a female boss however, I would tell her I was having a very bad period and she would completely understand.

I recall one of those very few times that I stayed home from work because of a very heavy and extremely painful period, my husband came home and complained that I was still in bed, that I hadn’t done anything like mowing the lawn since I was at home all day for “no good reason” in his opinion, and that hadn’t cooked any dinner. He seemed to think that having a period was no big deal and that I was just being “lazy”.

Then I asked him how he might feel if he felt like if parts of his lower intestines were being sloughed out and he was basically hemorrhaging blood internally and passing it out through his penis. And I reminded him that he was the man who nearly passed out when he cut his finger on a kitchen knife and then nearly passed out again in the ER when he had to get a mere couple of stitches, that I had to drive him to and from the ER and listen to him complain about it for days and how he couldn’t even take out the trash because he was “injured”.

I can’t wait for menopause.

Aside from about a year of hot flashes and night sweats and a temporary weight gain, that have now gone away completely, at age 52, I don’t miss having a period at all : ),

FWIW:

Alice Cooper - Only Women Bleed - Lyrics

[Engedi]

Very well put. I had heavy periods for about 5 years to the point of being anemic. I had to leave work one day as I bled through pants, my chair, hemorrhaged. Went for a normal Pap, Dr felt a mass, did a biopsy, came back as pre-cancer stage 4 of Uterus and Fibroid tumors. They scheduled a hysterectomy within a week. I almost skipped my PAP. So glad I didn’t.
Life has been good every since....

Yes, and so true about periods can mimic flu like symptoms....

[definitelynotaliberal]

The hormone in a Mirena is only intra-uterine, not system wide. For women who are confined to bed for 3 days a month, it might be worth looking into. Your other claims have even less merit, but of course, it’s your choice to inform yourself or not.

[ottbmare]

I did not make that up; what I wrote was pulled directly from the manufacturer’s warnings to prescribers. If you have a Mirena IUD, you must have seen this information in the course of signing the required informed consent.

[definitelynotaliberal]

I do have 1, I did read what I had to read, and I didn't see your text about charming side effects . The PI says that less than 1% get pelvic inflammatory disease. There are risks with everything. The Mirena is an optimal solution for me, and I believe that in the absence of hysteria, hype and sarcasm, more women would look into it. It doesn't work for everyone, but it is quite nice, and it is a solution.

[A_perfect_lady]

I’m 48 and I just cannot wait. Mine was definitely more manageable those years I was on The Pill. One doctor told me he thought I had Von Willebrand’s disease (a form of hemophilia) and I think he might have been right. It’s no joke. If my husband had ever given me any guff about it, I’d have led him into the restroom on Day 1 and said, “I want you to see this.” He’d have fainted. Fortunately no man has ever crossed me on a day like this, and it’s a good thing, because I’m normally a pleasant person, but Day One and Two of a bad month is absolutely no time to mess with me in any way.

[A_perfect_lady]

It’s really awful. I power through, but those first two days are just hideous. Hangover combined with flu. The months that Day One falls on a Saturday, I am so happy... I’ll cheerfully spend the weekend curled up on my sofa (and running to the restroom every 2 hours) and I don’t mourn the loss of my weekend at all. I’m just grateful not to be going through it at work.