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!
Thanks for the much needed hugs :)>>>
Oh, the shoe, definitely. Because she can wash her face clean but camel spit would sink into the shoe material (and you can bet she wears unwashable leather shoes) and stink for like ever.
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 had a yeast infection for 2 years, went to four doctors, spent hundreds in medicine and STILL, it did not go away. i spent a mere 100$ for an hour session with a naturopathic/midwife, and she simply put me on a candida diet for 3 months. easy and cheap. holy moly. i should have gone to a holistic doctor the first time.
http://heartspring.net/doctors/Kentucky.html
The lowdown on Heli:
My mother had endo, and ended up having a full hysterectomy. My sister had endo, and has just had her second surgery, but she has also used various holistic treatments, to some success. I might have endo. I ought to find out. I've never been to a gynaecologist. :-\
I usually have some cramps around the end-of-first-day, beginning-of-second day of my period. Sometimes it's so bad I can't do anything but curl up in a ball and moan (this lasts around half an hour to an hour). Other times it's less intense. In the last year *crossing fingers* it's been mostly bearable. Often I get the worst cramps at night... which is tiring, but at least they don't interrupt my day. ::) Sometimes it seems like that adage, "The seventh wave is the biggest" or however it goes, i.e. every now and then I get a REALLY bad period. But the flow always seems the same.
Heh, menstruation's the only thing I don't like about being a woman. :-X
I am eagerly awaiting my first DivaCup in the mail. And as I am currently menstruating, I am enjoying using up the last of my stupid pads. Including some lame scented ones some sales rep convinced me to buy (without telling me they were scented!) and some useless wingless ones I bought by mistake. Wheeee. :smirk:
Things take longer to get to Spain than other places. The first pad with wings I saw was when I visited my mother for the last time in 1991. My period started during the 9 hr flight (naturally) so she took me straight from the airport to a drugstore to get the necessary. I opened the box in the hotel and I was like, "WTF?" ;D Where were those things when I was sleeping on towels with 2 gigantic maxipads? And wearing 2 pairs of underpants to school and anchoring the "adhesive" (yeah right) pads of the 70's with safety pins? And getting yeast infections because the huge pads I needed did NOT come individually wrapped, so I would stuff one into a sandwich bag in my purse and hope for the best! Nowadays no one blinks an eye at the colorfully wrapped pads in your purse, but in those days it was like carrying a field dressing. "What's THAT???"
I haven't had my period for over two years now because I was on Depo Provera (so it seems weird to me that people here are taking progesterone to have a period... I thought it was pretty well known to stop periods). I was due for another dose in May but got an IUD instead (non-hormal, copper one), but the period still ain't here... I kind of do and don't want to have it. I'd like to know that everything's going ok down there, but at the same time apparently periods with the IUD can be heavier and more painful, at least at first (and I used to have some mighty painful periods)... I've been off depo before, and it's taken me a while to get my period back, but apparently it can take up to 18 months! And I was on it for two years, so who knows. I have supplies (from two years ago!) in case...
It's kind of annoying, because at times I think it's coming, but then it turns out to be, like, one day's worth of spotting. I run a lot more than I used to though... maybe that IS my period? That would be weird.
I'm also kind of bummed out about the imminent period because I normally donate blood (sans period), and I'm worried that the mother-of-all-periods from the IUD will put my hematocrit count too low. In fact, last time I went it was one point too low already =/ I hope it doesn't make me feel anemic or anything.
i think i've asked this before, but it was probably a while ago. do any of you use FAM? I've been using it, (forgot to take my temp for like a week at the beginning of the month, so just didnt do it this cycle) and i really like it A LOT more than birth control, and surprisingly, my boyfriend does too, even though we can't do it every day anymore.
hbc messed me up and these iuds sound painful : ( eek.
well, personally, i don't know if it's painful yet. it could be... or not. I felt cramping when they inserted it and mild cramping up to a week afterwards, but nothing since. I've even made sure it was there because I don't feel anything from it.
I haven't had my period for over two years now because I was on Depo Provera (so it seems weird to me that people here are taking progesterone to have a period... I thought it was pretty well known to stop periods).
When you menstruate, your body has two chemicals that are working together: Progesterone and Estrogen. I have a thyroid prob. that threw my hormone levels off, so I have tons of estrogen, and not enough progesterone... so the only way to get my periods back, is to even out the levels. I would guess that people who take progesterone to stop periods already have normal levels, so the excess throws the balance off again. I think taking estrogen instead would do the same thing, except excess estrogen can have really icky side effects.
i think i've asked this before, but it was probably a while ago. do any of you use FAM? I've been using it, (forgot to take my temp for like a week at the beginning of the month, so just didnt do it this cycle) and i really like it A LOT more than birth control, and surprisingly, my boyfriend does too, even though we can't do it every day anymore.
hbc messed me up and these iuds sound painful : ( eek.
I know pretty much nothing about FAM, but I thought it was for women trying to GET pregnant, not as birth control?
i think i've asked this before, but it was probably a while ago. do any of you use FAM? I've been using it, (forgot to take my temp for like a week at the beginning of the month, so just didnt do it this cycle) and i really like it A LOT more than birth control, and surprisingly, my boyfriend does too, even though we can't do it every day anymore.
hbc messed me up and these iuds sound painful : ( eek.
I know pretty much nothing about FAM, but I thought it was for women trying to GET pregnant, not as birth control?
yes, enlighten us (:
i think i've asked this before, but it was probably a while ago. do any of you use FAM? I've been using it, (forgot to take my temp for like a week at the beginning of the month, so just didnt do it this cycle) and i really like it A LOT more than birth control, and surprisingly, my boyfriend does too, even though we can't do it every day anymore.
hbc messed me up and these iuds sound painful : ( eek.
I know pretty much nothing about FAM, but I thought it was for women trying to GET pregnant, not as birth control?
From my understanding, I think it works for both because if you know when you are fertile, you avoid having sex then (whereas people trying to GET pregnant would have sex then, hence can use the method as a form of birth control.
I understand how it can work both ways, but on all the ovulation predictors I've looked at, they always say in bold letters "NOT TO BE USED AS A FORM OF BIRTH CONTROL". just wondering...
I don't know about FAM but I do know my husband was a "rhythm method" baby. Or as his mother put it, "the prize I got for playing Vatican Roulette." :-D
*makes little note: using FAM is to birth control as eating cake is to diet...*
I don't know about FAM but I do know my husband was a "rhythm method" baby. Or as his mother put it, "the prize I got for playing Vatican Roulette." :-D
first off, that is a huge funny you MIL made! Yeah, when I worked at planned parenthood, we had our little pull out joke, "what do you call people that use the pull-out/rhythm method?" PARENTS!!
Awww, you guys, FAM is definitely NOT the rhythm method!! That's an old stereotype! Rhythm is based on the typical day a woman would ovulate, which is typicaly the 15th day of the cycle. So you'd avoid sex the around the middle of the cycle to avoid getting pregnant. Obviously there is lots of room for error there. As hiimkelsi alludes, FAM is way more precise. You spend a couple minutes a day taking your waking temperature (when it rises you've ovulated) and evaluating your cervical fluid that day (is it dry-unfertile, eggwhite consistancy-fertile), and jotting these details down on a chart. This lets you know when YOU are approaching ovulation, not when the average woman would be. Furthermore, it takes into account the randomness that can happen within a given person's own cycle, so you always now exactly what is going on with your body. There is a great book on the subject that I'd highly recommend to anyone interested, it's called Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler, MPH. Even if you aren't interested in using FAM to conceive or for BC, it's a great read to really understand how your body and your cycle works. If you follow the rules of FAM, which like anything, take some getting used to (read: a little more time in the beginning, but once you've got it down, seriously only a few minutes a day), it is really just as effective as the pill. BUT, like any other form of BC, if you don't follow the rules (i.e. take the pill ever day, put the condom on from the start, etc.), it's not as effective. It's really a great alternative for those that want something more natural and want to stay away from hormones. My DH and I have been using it for going on 2 years now and we both love it. No scares yet. I consider it just as risky as when I was only using the pill without a back up method before we were married. I think we could all name many people that got pregnant using a condom that broke or the pill-point is no method is perfect.
wouldn't you have to know a few days before you ovulated, too, though, since the sperm can stay alive for a while?
Hey, guys, I was just wondering...waay back when I started on the pill iln my college days, the DR told me that I was unlikely to get pregnant "Three days before your period, during it, and three days after." That didn't sound very smart to me then, and it still doesn't.
What say you to it?
That's right hespedel...the "rules" of FAM play it a little safer than that though, and I believe account for the possibility of sperm being able to stay alive for 5 days inside you. Basically if you don't have fertile (eggwhite) quality cervical fluid there is no way they can keep living all that time, because your body would be providing a hostile environment for them. But if you do have fertile quality fluid, it means not only that you are approaching ovulation (probably in the next couple days you'll get your temperature rise to mark it), but also that sperm could survive inside of you for up to 5 days. So you would avoid sex or use another method whenever you have fertile quality fluid and for several days after your temperature rise to account for the lifespan of the sperm and the possibility of a double ovulation. That's what I mean when I say if you follow the rules it is very effective.
Yabbitgirl, that's pretty much true, but I'd be careful just blindly following that advice if you aren't charting with FAM...otherwise, you're getting back to the rhythm method and just paying attention to the average person's cycle instead of what is going on with your own. But yes, with FAM, as long as you had a temp rise the month before, and thus ovulated, you are safe a bit before the period, during, and generally several days after until the fertile quality fluid hits....
The book I recommended spells it all out, it's really very educational...I thought I was pretty well informed about these sorts of things, but I definitely learned a ton! ;)b
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