Let's Talk Burnout and Periods

It's the weekend, so let's talk about something totally unrelated to work, periods!! 

Just kidding. 

Periods are very much related to work, and health and wellbeing.  If you were flying the flag for Mental Health awareness on Thursday, you cannot ignore periods today. 

And you know I like a story by now, so let's start with this one.  

Once upon a time, way back to 1990, a 10 year old girl (me), started her periods.  

She was told by the teachers not to discuss it with any other students, (as we hadn't yet done the session where the girls go to one classroom to put tampons in a glass of water whilst the boys are in another classroom putting condoms on a banana), but, she also had to ask permission to use the teacher's toilets whenever she had a period as they were the only ones with a sanitary bin. 

Trying having to ask to use a teacher's toilet and NOT having everyone ask what's going on with you.

From this very first period, the little girl bled very heavily every month, experiencing a lot of pain each time, and started to need to take a few days a month off school.

As her periods increased in pain, flow and frequency, at 12 years old, her GP put her on the pill, to regulate her cycle.

This didn't stop the pain.  It did though mean that for as often as was recommended, I'd keep taking the pill to stop my cycle completely.  Let me tell you, now in my 40's and understanding more of what the pill does to our hormones, our cycles and our bodies, I'm shocked that at 12 this was seemingly the only option - and I know I'm not alone in this being a 'solution'.

Fast forward then to my 20's.

I'd had my sons.

I'd had contraceptive implants, injections, the coil, varying pills, and still the pain, was heaviness and the frequency was ridiculous.

I'd spent more than a decade having to double up on towels and tampons, and still having leaks, and embarrassing moments.  When you're too scared to get up off your seat in a classroom or a boardroom, that's not a nice feeling.

At 28, I wanted to give my body a break from all the pills and potions, and every year, I asked to be sterilised.  At 28, and only with the permission of my husband, I was sterilised.

Let's pause here for a moment and not overlook this point.

I'd asked to be sterilised immediately after the birth of my sons, whilst I was pregnant.  I was told not to rush it.

Every time I needed to have contraception changed, or updated, or it was making me ill, or the side effects were too much, I asked to be sterilised.  And each time I was told I was too young, and to wait until I was 28.

And when I was 28, my husband had to give his permission to the consultant. This was in 2008 not 1908.  

Now these appointments, and these conversations, and the constant pain, and the side effects, were all impacting me, my life, and my work.

Except I'd learned to hide it all so well, that it rarely needed a day off anymore.

I mean, firstly, in the 90's, any adverts about periods weren't really about periods, they were about horse riding and swimming - because you could do anything whilst on your period!

I'd been told whilst at school, when I couldn't get out of bed, that my attendance was slipping and it could start to impact my grades.  It didn't.  But you had to have perfect attendance!  

Which by the way, this perfect attendance then continued when I started work.  Especially when you started to be rewarded with one whole extra days holiday for perfect attendance!! 

And, confession time.

I hated, any woman who used her period has an excuse not to come to work.

When I was appointed HRD one of my peers and I had an intro meeting arranged, she called me, to say she wasn't coming in as her period pain was too much and used be working from home.  And I slated her (in my head), for years.

How dare she!!

I remember the first time I heard about period leave. And I shouted at the TV.  How DARE women even consider wanting something that would surely set back equality in the workplace and women at work for decades and we were still already having to fight too hard to get our seat at the table and our voices heard.

I'm ashamed to say that I was a woman, not just hating on women for using periods (and pregnancy) as an excuse not to do the work, but as someone who write and created policies to directly impact women (myself included) from having the support they needed.

We all need to do better! 

At 32, as a result of my first Burnout, I had an endometrial ablation, for severe endometriosis.

Stress and Burnout can impact your periods, your fertility, can cause issues and problems with hormones, and health and can lead to endometriosis.

Only after the ablation was it considered that I could have had this for my entire life and that I was potentially just one of the 'lucky ones' who had been able to conceive with it.  

And, stress was what I was told was the leading contributor to where I was now at 32.

The ablation though didn't just stop my periods.  It put me into menopause. Something else that took years to be confirmed. 8 years actually.  And when I finally went on HRT it felt like the lights had been turned back on again.

And now, at 44, I'm officially post-menopausal, and I can tell you I feel human again!!!

At 34 though, two years after my periods stopped, I heard about cycle tracking.  

And even though I no longer had a bleed, I could track my moods, my creativity, the week every month where I want to hibernate and the week where I am the most social, chatty, people person (which my introverted self still doesn't recognise).

And this tracking became something that I paid attention too.  Although it took me almost a decade until I actually started to plan my diary and my workload around it.  And whilst I may be a couple of days out every so often, I plan around cycle.  

And if you're not already doing this, follow Samantha Garstin.

It's only now I'm in my 40's that the work of people like Samantha, and Lisa Lister and Alexander Pope have really impacted how I work.

The decades of pushing through, ignoring the pain, wearing black to hide any embarrassment, dosing up on feminax, period taxes, ignoring my cycle, doing all I could to ignore and switch off my 'feminine power' every single month, were for me, what I was told what it looked like to be a woman.

Except that's only true in a man's world.

I achieve a lot. Every week, every month and every year. I'm still the top performer I was at school and work, and even more so, because I'm tuned in more to my cycle, not less.

Daniel Pink's book WHEN, focuses on times of the working day to carry out certain tasks based on our energy levels.  Imagine being able to do this every month, and instead of always being 'on', giving ourselves what we needed, based on the week of the cycle and really tapping into some of that power.

Stress and Burnout are causing serious issues for teens, and women everywhere.   Our hormonal health, is as important as our physical, emotional and mental health.

Having to take pills and potions to stop our flow, or control our moods, are causing us more stress, and so the cycle continues (literally).

We're talking more about menopause in the workplace.

We're still hearing that periods aren't a workplace issue.

And many leaders still believe that Burnout is just a buzzword.

Despite recent stats saying that more than 50% of the workforce is at or close to Burnout.

The hormonal, mental and emotional health of at least half of those reported to be experiencing Burnout is likely being impacted, and we're still avoiding the bigger issues.

Wellbeing, is reportedly top of the agenda for many organisations, and yet still, we're confusing sticking plaster wellbeing initiatives with what it means to actually create workplaces for well-beings.

At least half of the population have periods.

At least half of those are experiencing Burnout.  And that means at least half could be experiencing hormonal, mental and physical health challenges relating to their periods.

EVERYTHING you do is leading you one step closer to Burnout, or one step closer to wellbeing.

And it's time to Banish Burnout!!

Kelly

www.kellyswingler.com

#Burnout #BurnoutPrevention #BurnoutRecovery #BurnoutAwareness