Eeeuuuwww.

[baratron]

The first thing I hate about menstruation is the way the extra... fluid... messes up my "need to pee" meter. Last night I woke up approximately every hour thinking that I needed to pee. At one point I actually managed to stagger to the bathroom, pee, then fall asleep sitting on the loo! Only momentarily, because it's me and ability to sleep in strange places is basically non-existent, but still alarming. As a result of this I am absolutely shattered today. Which I don't need on a work day. Argh.

The second thing I hate about menstruation is the pain and the fact that I can't take any wretched NSAIDs, which counts out the most effective period pain meds. I have been alternating paracetamol with 15 or 30 mg of dihydrocodeine, which together at least stop me screaming continuously for 24 hours even if I do still feel nasty. Yesterday I even managed to be Very Clever and ate a salad of raw leaves plus a pizza absolutely covered in vegetables with no cheese, an apple complete with skin, a packet of dried strawberries and some innocent smoothie. As a result of all that fibre I was not completely constipated today! Which at least is a result.

The third thing I hate about menstruation is clumpy days. Today my uterus is doing that thing of no flow at all for a few hours followed by GRATUITOUS GUSHING that soaks through pads for an hour, followed by nothing again. It's annoying and unpredictable. Also, while I don't mind bleeding (yes, I freak out when I have a cut, but experience of bleeding for a week and not dying has taught me that Menstrual Blood Is Different), I don't like what else comes out as well. Clots of red blood aren't too bad, they're just blood that's dried up a bit. Clots of black blood are a bit more unpleasant, as clots of black blood coming out of another orifice down there could mean you have cancer. And the stuff that looks for all the world like lumps of raw meat DISTURBS ME IMMENSELY. I recognise that menstrual lining is internal tissue and we are basically made of meat, but still... I DON'T LIKE MEAT COMING OUT OF MY PRIVATE PARTS!

Now that I have ranted disgustingly about the most horrible part of being female, I shall shut up for another month or so. Blargh.

Comments

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

I'd rather people talked about it, otherwise I'd have no idea what life was like for most of the people in my life.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I don't think it should be a secret or that "women's problems" should only be talked about between women. It's important for people who know me to know that my mental health is very closely linked to my menstrual cycle, and that if I have killer attack gnomes in my uterus I will be really bad-tempered and irritable for reasons that are nothing to do with the people I'm talking to. Of course, I'm not the sort of person who will blow up at someone then blame it all on menstruation - I try to be as responsible as possible and warn friends that I'm in a bad mood because I hurt, so we can mutually avoid talking about things that might make me lose my temper. But if I'm totally psycho due to hormones I might not even recognise that I'm being psycho, which is always "fun".

Stupid hormones.

[clawfoot.livejournal.com]

Wow, do I ever understand! My last cycle was extremely clotty, too, which I *HATE* so, so much.

I hear you, and I grok.

[ailbhe]

So much sympathy. I never found pain meds that worked before I had Linnea (I had a 6-week-long miscarriage when I was 19 which I assumed was just a particularly bad period, to give context) so I had a fair number of incapacitatingly awful periods.

I have always been profoundly grateful that I could take the pill most of the time (sometimes it made me suicidal, which is unfortunate, and it's hard to take when trying to conceive).

And for reasons best known to some evil force of evil in the universe, having babies fixed me up good. Since Linnea was born, my periods were regular, uncomfortable, only moderately heavy, and much, much briefer than they were before.

My mother can remember hearing women planning to persuade a daughter to marry young because her periods were so bad. Presumably that's why. It's a really fucking drastic solution, I'd have thought.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I'm morbidly afraid of the Pill because of the PMDD. The mood rollercoaster I get each month unmedicated, or even improperly medicated, has been mistaken for bipolar disorder before. Oestrogen makes me hypomanic - happy, loads of energy, don't need so much sleep, really creative. Progesterone makes me paranoid with psychotic depression where my brain stops processing logic the normal way. I just don't feel I could take the risk.

[firecat]

I recently had to stop taking NSAIDs, after taking them every day for years, and now I've discovered that without them I have menstrual cramps. Mine aren't at the screaming continuously level, but continuous low level pain really sucks out my motivation.

ow ow ow.

[andygal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, cramps suck, mine aren't quite that bad, and I can take Advil(ibuprofein) for them but it's still very darn annoying, especially when it hits me when I'm away from my supply of meds, wrecks my concentration I can tell you.

Re: ow ow ow.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

"Away from my supply of meds" isn't something that occurs for me very often. I always have a mini-pharmacy in my bag! Especially because some of the meds I might need are controlled substances, so I have to keep them in their original packaging to "prove" that I have them legally on prescription!

[nessbutterfly.livejournal.com]

One day I will learn - do not read posts with strong visual imagery!

I've found I'm now dreaming about your clots and endometrial lining.

Bad idea when pregnant - makes me wake up terrified of using the toilet, which is something that really can't be put off.

I'm assuming that cyklokapron is out of the question?

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Sorry! There was a warning, though :/

Cyklokapron (I wonder why the weird spelling?) would be completely the wrong sort of drug. My periods aren't abnormally heavy, just abnormally painful. Also, they are already clotty as hell and the last thing I need is something that increases clotting! It would be useful if I did more soak through pads in an hour, but that's reasonably rare for me these days.

I just need someone to invent an NSAID that I'm not already allergic to and won't become allergic to after a few months, that'd be nice.

[nessbutterfly.livejournal.com]

Fortunately it was a one-off nightmare. Strangely, I had less clottage when I used cyklokapron, apart from the miscarriages, which is why it came to mind. However, the main times I used it were for strange, on-pill bleeding which isn't terribly clotty anyway.

Speaking of dodgy cyklokapron spelling... my first encounter with it was instructions from my IVF clinic to get it, but they didn't have a doctor available to get a script to me. We toddled off to the after hours GP clinic at the hospital (me nearly passing out from blood loss). I inform the doctor that I am bleeding like mad, doing IVF and need cyklokapron. He's never heard of it. He grabs the magic little doctor manual and can't find it because we're looking under "cyclo" gah!