The official menstruation thread
This is a place to talk about our periods! Not just diva cup related, but whatever we'd like to discuss/get help with.
My period recently switched from being towards the beginning of the month, to the end. I hope it stays semi-constant (schedule-wise). When I was younger, I had some cramps, then I was on b.c pills for about 4-5 years, and didn't really have cramps, I've been off the pill for about two years now, and I have pretty bad cramps the first couple of days/nights. They were HORRIBLE this morning.
I'm REALLY wondering what I'm going to do when we run out of our bottle of Tylenol. Tylenol stops my cramps pretty quickly. By "cramps," I mean the horrible stomach/back pain, the feeling like I always have to poop, the flushed feeling, etc. Before I've taken Tylenol it doesn't really seem to matter how I'm lying/sitting/standing...anything. I know yoga helps some people...I don't know if it helps me or not..b/c I don't think I've been able to force myself to do it when in pain. But, I can't always stop and do some yoga....I don't drink tea..I'm just not wanting to buy more drugs.
Anyway, let's discuss!
I was really not comfortable with them talking about it. lol. We have an awkward dynamic in my family or something, bc I talk openly about periods + everything else with other people. weird.
i'm the exact same way with my family.
i didn't tell my parents and they didn't figure out for a while. i think my mom saw a tampon wrapper in the trash and asked me. i was like 'uhhh, yeah...' and she asked if i wanted to talk about it/had any questions and i said no, and she said something like 'well, you know where babies come from, right?' and i was like 'yes!...' (mortified) and she was like 'ok' and left me alone.
My sisters and I talk about menstruation (or men-stration, as my sister says) all the time. We have this joke about how much we hate maxi pads. One time I drew an angry face on a maxi pad and stuck it on my sister's wall. Then she drew a whole maxi pad family and stuck it on my door. She even used a tampon for a purse for one of the girl maxi pads. Very crafty. Then people came over and said, "wtf!?" And we were like, "What? We just hate maxi pads, OK?"
This was like, three weeks ago.
i'm the exact same way with my family.
i didn't tell my parents and they didn't figure out for a while. i think my mom saw a tampon wrapper in the trash and asked me. i was like 'uhhh, yeah...' and she asked if i wanted to talk about it/had any questions and i said no, and she said something like 'well, you know where babies come from, right?' and i was like 'yes!...' (mortified) and she was like 'ok' and left me alone.
LOL! ;D
I never had the "becoming a woman" talk, THANK GOD. My mom explained very scientifically how everything works, then a year later, when I still hadn't gotten my period, she gave me some pads to keep in my locker "just in case", and about a year after that I actually got it (I was 13).
I remember reading Just As Long As We're Together by Judy Blume when I was about 11, and those girls are so excited about getting their period, and I was always like, WTF? Most of my friends got theirs before I did so I knew it wasn't really anything to look forward to.
My sisters and I talk about menstruation (or men-stration, as my sister says) all the time. We have this joke about how much we hate maxi pads. One time I drew an angry face on a maxi pad and stuck it on my sister's wall. Then she drew a whole maxi pad family and stuck it on my door. She even used a tampon for a purse for one of the girl maxi pads. Very crafty. Then people came over and said, "wtf!?" And we were like, "What? We just hate maxi pads, OK?"
This was like, three weeks ago.
;D
i got mine when i was 11, in 6th grade. i was at a school dance and had to go home early and when i got home my parents were having this horrendous fight upstairs, which i had to interrupt because i was ...you know. bleeding. and they got super pissed at me for interrupting them.
it wasn't very pleasant. kind of like... oh, sorry you're having a ridiculous fight and i got my period at this inconvenient time, but i don't know where mom keeps her maxi pads, so i need some help. GEEZ.
then like 2 days later was our school pool party, so i had to learn to use a tampon IMMEDIATELY, because i'd already bought my first 2 piece and wasn't going to miss it. that was kind of traumatic... i wish i'd had a couple months to get used to bleeding before i had to learn the tampon spiel.
and i never had the 'becoming a woman' talk. my parents used to be terribly phobic of talking about.. personal things. until i got into high school and my mom asked me if i was having sex, like, every day. guh. they're so much better now than they used to be, but when i think about how my parents were when i was younger, it kind of makes me mad.
I got a becoming a woman "comment" instead of a "talk" - it wasnt' a long speech or anything. I remember when I got my period for the first time - grade 7, right around Halloween. The Halloween dance at school that year was the most uncomfortable dance I've ever been to.
I got my period in 6th grade. I remember walking home one day, and I had a leak..and the boy I had a crush on made fun of me.
For a long time I would leak when I slept, and when my mom saw the mess she'd yell a lot. To this day I don't sleep well when I'm on my period because I'm paranoid I'll have an "accident". :'(
I suppose I was lucky in terms of "the talk," because A) My sister got hers when she was 9 and I was 7, so I got to listen in on some of the stuff my mom said to her, and B) I had this old Childcraft encyclopedia set, one volume being called "Your Body" or somesuch, and I learned all about the biological and anatomical details of "becoming a woman."
I loved educating myself about the anatomy, in particular, and then being one of the only girls to NOT freak out completely when we watched those videos in 5th grade.
Also, when my sister got her period, my mom got all excited and told everybody and their dog about it...so by the time I started mine, that whole trip had lost its luster, so I was spared that humiliation.
I got my period in 6th grade. I remember walking home one day, and I had a leak..and the boy I had a crush on made fun of me.
I got my period first of anyone in my class, even before "the film." (Do they still do "the film", or do kids just pick it up from TV?) I was bleeding all over and asked to go home and my teacher refused to believe me. I had to take her to the bathroom and show her. Grrrr.
I used to get sooooo sick, I would even run a fever. And lots of foamy saliva, which if I didn't spit it out I would puke. So I learned to carry lots of tissues to spit into. I would feel frozen, like I was never going to get warm again. We won't discuss the pain!
But my dear mother was like, "Well get used to it, we all go through it." No slack cut for growing pains!! I felt like hell that first spring and summer...later discovered I also had Lyme's disease in there, but she certainly never took me to the doctor. Hell, I had scarlet fever a year later and the only medical attention I got was having the house quarantined. No health insurance and a very paranoid mother.
I love the Spanish health care system. It's a pain in the ass and the doctors think they're God, but it's there and it's free.
And here I thought I was the only one with menstruation issues! You all make me feel less freaky. :iloveyou:
I was on BC from the time I started at 16 to 20yrs old with no problems. I think Ortho-Tri...Stopped and used BC pills intermittently until about 23. All the while I was pretty regular (within 2 days) until the summer of 2005.
Enter in my 'issues'. Irregular bleeding despite being on BC (finally had health insurance). For the next 3yrs was on 6 different pills with the same results of irregular bleeding, becoming crazy psychotic & moody, constant infections, and complete loss of sex drive. Last October, I stopped all pills and finally found a GYN that didn't just want to give me another pill! ;)b The only thing my complete blood workup showed was anemia. STD free. Paps are normal. Had biopsy attempted, but since I've not had kids they couldn't get a good sample from my uterus. So now, in 2 weeks I have to go in for a B&C....Which is pretty much where they put you under for like 10mins and go in through the cervix and scrape the entire lining of your uterus with the surgical equivalent of a butter knife. :o :ouch: I'm kinda nervous!!
<-----And where are you all getting the little caricatures on your icons?? They are all so cute!!
I never cared either way whether I had mine or not as a kid...but when I did get it, I didn't tell my mom. I was either a really introverted kid, or communication in my family wasn't optimal (probably some of both) but I didn't know how to tell her and I dreaded the "oh, honey! you're becomign a woman!" reaction, so I never said anything and she figured it out on her own.
I was really not comfortable with them talking about it. lol. We have an awkward dynamic in my family or something, bc I talk openly about periods + everything else with other people. weird.
that was totally me/how my family is. But I am really introverted, and communication in my family is way below zero.
Actually it's a D and C: Dilation and Curettage. Aka "a scrape." The tool they use is called a curette.
And that is the result of translating more medical journal articles than I care to remember, considering how little I got paid.
I believe I was "Spot #4" in my group of friends in jr. high... I think I was 13. My mom died when I was 11. So when I was 12 one evening while having dinner at the neighbors' I was told, with out explanation, that I was to get up early and be at the neighbor's house at 8 am the following Saturday morning. So I did. Then the neighbor lady took me to target and attempted to tell me how wonderful becoming a woman is. (insert flowery, puppy and kitten anecdotes here). She told me how to use pads, and just skipped over the tampons (I got to figure those out myself). After the entire thing was done, she told me how glad she was able to do this, and how she felt my sister and I were her "practice" daughters so she'd know how to do things when her own got older!!!
I believe I was "Spot #4" in my group of friends in jr. high... I think I was 13. My mom died when I was 11. So when I was 12 one evening while having dinner at the neighbors' I was told, with out explanation, that I was to get up early and be at the neighbor's house at 8 am the following Saturday morning. So I did. Then the neighbor lady took my to target and attempted to tell me how wonderful becoming a woman is. (insert flowery, puppy and kitten anecdotes here). She told me how to use pads, and just skipped over the tampons (I got to figure those out myself). After the entire thing was done, she told me how glad she was able to do this, and how she felt my sister and I were her "practice" daughters so she'd know how to do things when her own got older!!!
I am sure she meant well and that is so sweet...ummm, way so sweet , it reminds me of an"'after school special"..do they still have "after school specials?" :o
And even at the edges of menopause, I can count on my period turning up when I'm about to go on vacation, attend a very formal dinner etc., have an anniversary or speak in public...whether it's really due or not. There it will be. I have to speak next Sunday and you can bet the SOB will arrive. It was late last time, just to be able to hit both speaking engagements.
Sorry Yabbit...that sounds exactly like me. I hope it somehow leaves you alone this time.
I haven't started the signs of menopause yet but my period comes every single time something is going on. >:( And mine is like Cali's...heavy to the point of passing out.
Actually it's a D and C: Dilation and Curettage. Aka "a scrape." The tool they use is called a curette.
And that is the result of translating more medical journal articles than I care to remember, considering how little I got paid.
Thanks yabbit! I knew it was one of the two. Accents over the phone and days later of explaining it always cause me problems. :blankstare: Either way...I'm not looking forward to it. :(
I think I'm at the threshold of anemia once again. I've been on pills to "jumpstart" my menses after not having any for a year, and I've been having two big ones a month all summer long. I really feel the drain this time. I need a new doctor....like...for serious. I went through the whole anemia thing....3 years ago? and it took almost 2 years to get my levels decent again. I'm not lookin forward to this crap. And if I have to hear her big yap tell me to eat liver one more time, I'm gonna camel spit in her shoe.
Sorry bout the rant. I'm cranky right now.
I think I'm at the threshold of anemia once again. I've been on pills to "jumpstart" my menses after not having any for a year, and I've been having two big ones a month all summer long. I really feel the drain this time. I need a new doctor....like...for serious. I went through the whole anemia thing....3 years ago? and it took almost 2 years to get my levels decent again. I'm not lookin forward to this crap. And if I have to hear her big yap tell me to eat liver one more time, I'm gonna camel spit in her shoe.
Sorry bout the rant. I'm cranky right now.
Her shoe?? I probably wouldn't have been as nice and said her face. My GYN is uber awesomeness personified. It only took me 5 attempts to get a good one though. It is a process....Hang in there!! :bear2:
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