Starting ivf in October worried about telling work

[keri 01]

Hey I'm really excited I'm starting ivf in October. I just don't no what to do about work. The hospital is 2 hours away. I work in retail so i need to be in work for opening times. I could schedule the appointments on my day off.
Also I want to take a week off for egg transfer which will probably be in December and we aren't allowed holidays in December. does anyone know if they are allowed to refuse my holidays?
I had my first appointment with the ivf doctor today and it was so difficult getting the day off work. We had to change 2 other colleges days off to accommodate me. As I was leaving work my boss casually ask what my appointment was for and I said oh it nothing I will tell you later. I think I should just tell her but it's difficult because I've only been in this job a few months and I think it will look bad.

 

[Ilovetomatoes]

Keri, I am not sure where you live. But hopefully this link will help you.

https://community.babycenter.com/po...blems_getting_time_off_work_for_ivf_treatment

 

[keri 01]

Hey I'm in the uk
Thank you x

 

[Ilovetomatoes]

Well, hopefully, everything will work out. You can just tell her thst you are going through female issue and would like to keep things private. In U.S., they are not allow to ask for the specifics.

 

[MrsAM]

Hi Keri

That's such a shame your hospital is so far. I had the same issues about whether to tell work or not, but as I am a contractor it is not really their business anyway so I just told my male boss I would need to come in late for a few days in the week due to the fact I needed a medical procedure and trust me he did not want to ask more I think he got the drift it was female issues lol

Are you not able to say the same and then if they have to rearrange timetables so be it or maybe just tell your boss and ask her to keep it private so she understands and is hopefully sympathetic?

Hopefully you will produce enough embryos to freeze some in case you need to go through a frozen embryo transfer and that should not be as intensive as ivf. I am hoping to have a FET too soon.

 

[heres_hoping]

Hey keri, I'm in the uk and will be starting IVF in October too! My main concern is work aswell. I work in a hospital and have lists of my own patients, so I cannot take time off at short notice. In the end I decided to tell my boss as she is sympathetic and knows we have been trying a long time. I explained that I will need appointments at short notice, but I was prepared to take it out of annual leave as a compromise. I think she appreciated my honestly.

I've been doing some googling and as far as I can gather, we have no legal right to time off for IVF. However, most clinics or your GP will give you a sick note for the time after egg collection and embryo transfer, as we need a couple of days off for each of those. If taking time off is really difficult, and you don't feel comfortable telling your boss, it may be easiest to just be "sick" for that time. However, if you haven't been there long, that won't look good on your record either.

I think honesty is best, even of you just say it's for medical appointments. Your boss cannot demand to know what the medical appointments are for. My husband's work require to see appointment letters to prove it is for a genuine reason, so he blanks out the part of the letter that says what the procedure is, just showing the hospital name and appointment date!