Sick days for cramps
How do people (employers, coworkers) look at this?
Let's say there's a uterus that goes into daemonic convulsions, requiring its owner to take prescription drugs, putting her out of commission one full day every month.
eta: obviously, I'm asking about my friend Jen.
Could the uterus owner not pre-plan their meds to start taking them on their days off?
Say if their period was due on the Tuesday, start the pain meds on the Sunday, so that they are incapacitated on their own time.
I, personally have never come across someone who gets menstrual days off as a condition of their employment, unfortunately we are expected to work around it.
Jen says: Hmm, the problem is, the options are 1) severely debilitating pain*, to the point of nausea or 2) being made useless by the meds themselves. Should a cycle occur on a weekday, it's going to be one or the other.
(She's had flexible working arrangements and/or understanding employers for much of her working life. The deal is, she basically would be using up a sick day a month, every month.)
*in addition to a possessed uterus, there is a schwack of ovarian cysts.
eta: this is what i mean. how much does an hr person/supervisor really need to know about this sort of thing? i mean it is predictable, there are ways of working around it. just wondering whether it's dumb to bring this stuff up upfront, before six months of 'random' sick days go by, and Jen's branded a malingerer.
I know someone who has similar if not identical issues...Jen is lucky to have had such understanding employers.
I would just approach it the same way as any other medical condition, and mention it on the application form.
that makes sense. (even if it feels a bit risky :/)
oh, for the days of huts.
I would mention it and maybe offer a letter from the doctor explaining that it is not simply PMS but an untreatable condition.
That aside, does your friend Jen exercise? Speaking only for my friend Sue, she noticed her period pains reduced immensely by doing at least 45 min of medium intensity cardio everyday with 1-2 days off a week, and starting from day 1 of the period. The effect is nullified if you skip too many days, if the sports is too low or too high intensity or if it is not done for the full month. Also, a huge help is eliminating coffee and caffeine (that includes tea and soft drinks) and fatty foods one week before begining of period and eating iron rich foods (beetroot, livers).
I'll pass on that tremendously useful info, thank you! ;)
Exercise, I believe, has been touch and go for a while (and certainly more variable than the regime you describe).
Sue might be interested to know that several doctors have told Jen that bearing a child would make it all better.
(Maybe Jen should earn her bucks renting out the whole damn apparatus.)
Sue was lucky that for some reason, with age, and exercise her monstrous pains mellowed out to something that can be handled by normal painkillers. Her hormones seem to have clicked into something of a balance :)
Tell a potential employer you have a medical condition which will cause you to miss work monthly will most likely prevent you from getting a job.
Its like my husband and I were talking about the other night because my daughter has fibromyalgia - an employer will likely put up with these types of things if, on the good days, the employee makes themselves indispensable. Be the hardest worker in the place and the one day off per month becomes a low priority issue to the boss.
If you are an excellent worker.....I wouldn't mention it up front- let things progress naturally once you get to show what an awesome worker you are and how lucky they are to have you! Good luck!
I had similar issues about a decade ago. Luckily for me, it seemed tied to 1 ovary, not both, and though not everyone does, my ovaries do alternate (I can feel it, it's the left ovary that's causing the problems)... the lucky part being it was only every other month. It also varied with severity. Sometimes I'd have extremely sharp pains and throwing up, other times milder but still painful. Because it wasn't every month and varied in severity, it took me awhile to realize what was going on. I actually thought I was getting a flu like stomach virus every few months. So from a work perspective, I never got any harassment about it. It does sound risky to disclose the information on a job application for fear of being rejected for it, which is of course illegal but let's see you prove it. If I were to disclose the information I would definitely go the route of including a letter from a doctor. I'm not sure I'd include any wording about pregnancy possibly "curing" it though because then that also brings up the issue that they start thinking "so how long is she going to be working here before she requests maternity leave." Again, illegal to discriminate against her for that but it happens.
BTW: My doctor's told me the same thing: they do a surgical procedure which may or may not resolve it or I get pregnant. Seeing that they told me the surgical procedure may not resolve it and I was planning on getting pregnant in the next year or so, I decided on the wait and see approach. Bad news for me, I got pregnant and it didn't go away. I was still having the milder pains WHILE pregnant, particularly when the baby would kick my ovary (oh, the fun of pregnancy!). This really freaked the doctors out and they did ultrasounds of my ovary every month to make sure nothing weird was happening - they said it looked fine. After the birth of my first child, the pains came back after a couple of months, sometimes just as bad. :( Final good news: during and after second pregnancy the severe pains stopped. It's been 7 years and though I've not gone back to severe pain and throwing up, in the last 3 years I sometimes get the milder pains again, still just the left ovary. Nothing several ibuprofen can't handle but honestly, it's one reason to look forward to menopause! Part of me thinks you shouldn't tell Jen my horror story of it not stopping when/after pregnancy... it's bad enough that she's going thru this as it is!
She may eat well and exercise frequently already, but if she doesn't, I've been told that can help alleviate the problems. My doctor's never told me that, didn't hear that until after my issues had gotten milder. So I've no proof or personal evidence that it could have helped but if someone had told me that, due to the sometimes occasional severity of my symptoms, I would have tried changing me diet and exercise - though it's unlikely I would ever give up my coffee! Maybe she could check in to that.
Original Post by janelovesjam:
that makes sense. (even if it feels a bit risky :/)
oh, for the days of huts.
I don't see it any more risky than putting any other medical condition on the form, I am always up front with stuff like this, and so far I have never had it held against me.
I would word it carefully, in that I would say due to medication required I may need one day a month off.
I wouldn't go into great detail, unless they ask, and I would be sure to say that you are happy to give them permission to contact the Dr on this issue.
I have seen it happen, when people aren't honest it comes back to haunt them further down the line.
I would think painful, debilitating cramps is a completely legitimate thing to mention to an employer. I don't view it any differently than, say, being prone to migraines.
I work with a few people who get periodic migraines, which sometimes cause them to miss a day from work every now and then. Life happens.
Original Post by rain_bows:
Original Post by janelovesjam:
that makes sense. (even if it feels a bit risky :/)
oh, for the days of huts.
I don't see it any more risky than putting any other medical condition on the form, I am always up front with stuff like this, and so far I have never had it held against me.
I would word it carefully, in that I would say due to medication required I may need one day a month off.
I wouldn't go into great detail, unless they ask, and I would be sure to say that you are happy to give them permission to contact the Dr on this issue.
I have seen it happen, when people aren't honest it comes back to haunt them further down the line.
^This, but I would mention it after you are hired, maybe during your training or something like this. Do not make it into a big deal. Using the word "may" as mentioned above would be what I would do.
If it's a current job where she'd been working there for a while (1 year +) does she have something like intermittent FMLA? If she works at a large organization, filing for FMLA because of this reason would be what I would do.
I work at a hospital and folks here file for FMLA left and right.
Has the uterus owner tried progesterone only bcp? My uterus can't do with estrogen either.
Does the uterus owner want children? If not, endometrial ablation has a 95% success rate at making periods happy or non-existant. Most women get a tubal at the same time because you can still get pregnant, but if you do, it's life-threatening.
I have horrible cramps that last 3-4 days and I'm completely sick with flu-like symptoms. Pain meds don't seem to work.
I'm currently on a 14 day on Progesterone and 14 day off Progesterone to try and make my periods less demonic.
Cause of my age, getting a ablation done is difficult cause doctors want to preserve my freakin' useless uterus (my ovaries are borked).
I just want to thank everyone for their contributions. I sometimes let threads slip. Appreciate every comment, thanks.
Original Post by cptbunny:
Has the uterus owner tried progesterone only bcp? My uterus can't do with estrogen either.
Does the uterus owner want children? If not, endometrial ablation has a 95% success rate at making periods happy or non-existant. Most women get a tubal at the same time because you can still get pregnant, but if you do, it's life-threatening.
I have horrible cramps that last 3-4 days and I'm completely sick with flu-like symptoms. Pain meds don't seem to work.
I'm currently on a 14 day on Progesterone and 14 day off Progesterone to try and make my periods less demonic.
Cause of my age, getting a ablation done is difficult cause doctors want to preserve my freakin' useless uterus (my ovaries are borked).
My friend Nora had great results with 14 day progesterone (it wasn't bcp, it was just hormone replacement). In fact, she doesn't know why she stopped taking it, since her periods have gotten steadily worse since she went off of it.
Incidentally, the terrible pain is the result of rioting prostaglandins.
Prostaglandins activate the body's inflammatory and pain response.
If you can prevent the prostaglandins from getting started in the first place, you can greatly diminish the amount of pain they are able to produce during your period.
Aspirin and naproxen are two painkillers that act by blocking the action of oxygen and enzymes on arachidonic acid, preventing it from becoming prostaglandin.
What does this mean?
It means, that if you start taking aspirin *or* naproxen (not both) a day or two *before* you would normally get cramps, and then keep taking it during your period, you should experience a dramatic lessening of pain due to cramps. Obviously, this is mostly useful to women who have pretty regular periods and can predict when their cramps would occur.
*I am a doctor of love, not medicine.
Naproxen and the like are dangerous to take long-term, though. I get nervous with the idea of taking it for 7-10 days.
Good to hear someone had good results with the 14 day progesterone (it's HRT for me too). I guess I'll see how it is for me in a couple weeks.
Original Post by nomoreexcuses:
Original Post by cptbunny:
Has the uterus owner tried progesterone only bcp? My uterus can't do with estrogen either.
Does the uterus owner want children? If not, endometrial ablation has a 95% success rate at making periods happy or non-existant. Most women get a tubal at the same time because you can still get pregnant, but if you do, it's life-threatening.
I have horrible cramps that last 3-4 days and I'm completely sick with flu-like symptoms. Pain meds don't seem to work.
I'm currently on a 14 day on Progesterone and 14 day off Progesterone to try and make my periods less demonic.
Cause of my age, getting a ablation done is difficult cause doctors want to preserve my freakin' useless uterus (my ovaries are borked).
My friend Nora had great results with 14 day progesterone (it wasn't bcp, it was just hormone replacement). In fact, she doesn't know why she stopped taking it, since her periods have gotten steadily worse since she went off of it.
Incidentally, the terrible pain is the result of rioting prostaglandins.
Prostaglandins activate the body's inflammatory and pain response.
If you can prevent the prostaglandins from getting started in the first place, you can greatly diminish the amount of pain they are able to produce during your period.
Aspirin and naproxen are two painkillers that act by blocking the action of oxygen and enzymes on arachidonic acid, preventing it from becoming prostaglandin.
What does this mean?
It means, that if you start taking aspirin *or* naproxen (not both) a day or two *before* you would normally get cramps, and then keep taking it during your period, you should experience a dramatic lessening of pain due to cramps. Obviously, this is mostly useful to women who have pretty regular periods and can predict when their cramps would occur.
*I am a doctor of love, not medicine.
Dr of Awesome, you mean!
Jen tells me that at the first sign of pain, which is usually a day before the period, she takes 500 mg Naproxen (x 4, with a ton of food), swapping with Tylenol/Codeine, which does help with the pain (reduced by about 85%) but makes her head spin.
A more effective alternative (re pain & mental sharpness) she likes but tries to minimize (liver tox, weird bruises) is Toradol. (Aspirin? Really? Wow... Will put it to her :)
TWO days before, now... Experiment for next time! Brilliant :)
