I am pretty useless for the first two days of my period. I'm always so fatigued that I could sleep 24/7, my brain is foggy and even a little bit of pain makes it hard to concentrate in that state. And then often I have worse pain and nausea, sometimes to the point that I actually throw up anything that hits my stomach.
I wish it was acceptable to have 2-3 optional days off every month. I also don't understand people who have periods who act like its no big deal and we should all pull ourselves together. Erm, sorry, literally noone else would be expected to go to work while feeling this bad. I know that painkillers and pads and the pill etc becoming more accessible helped women to become part of the workforce… but how about we allow women etc in the workforce and don't look down on them for their biology, but also don't punish them by making them act like this horrible thing does not actually make it profoundly difficult to work sometimes. It really does not affect my ability to work at any other time, so there is no reason this should exclude me from the workforce. Needing a rest a couple days of month does not make you useless and mean you shouldn't have rights, but people really do be saying this when people suggest period time off.
I just think if we stopped wanting to call people lazy at any opportunity, we could allow for me to just lie down and vegetate while I'm experiencing something that feels like a curse that ruins my whole existence once a month. Literally every month I hope that it miraculously doesn't happen to me this time and I constantly find it hard too believe that this is something that happens to me regularly and inevitably. And it's been happening for over 10 years now. Like sometimes I can't even do things I enjoy doing because its overstimulating to my brain that is dealing with pain and extreme fog, sometimes I can't eat because I'm nauseous, sometimes I'm unable to even muster the energy to cook dinner because I feel like I'm gonna fall asleep on the spot… I'm clearly not having fun and being lazy.
And doctors don't seem to be able to do much about it… because it's natural. Apparently my bloodwork is fine. Nothing wrong with me. But tbh there probably is nothing wrong with me just with society. I think I would be able to handle this natural bodily function a lot better if society allowed me.
This is one of the top things I hate about capitalism, honestly. I dream about the idea of having a job where I could really take days off for this. And its never gonna happen. Anyone relate?
(P.S. I'm genderqueer and very very masculine, so no like “GO GIRL YOU TELL THEM” stuff please lol)